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From space shuttles to vintage trains, climbing walls to climbing coasters, not to mention zoos, parks, playgrounds, kid-centric shows, and more—the city that never sleeps has plenty of ways to tire out your kids.
Museums
There’s a museum for every age, interest, and attention span in New York City. Some are aimed squarely at the younger set, but you shouldn’t limit yourself or your kids to “children’s” museums; most—especially the big players like MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Met, and the Whitney—offer programs to engage younger visitors (just ask at the admission desk). That said, sometimes toddlers want play places designed specifically for them, like the play center and interactive exhibits created for the under-five set at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and the arts-and-crafts rooms and ball pit at the Children’s Museum of the Arts. The American Museum of Natural History is a top choice for kids of all ages and interests, visitors and locals alike: the giant dinosaurs and the huge blue whale alone are worth the trip, as is the live Butterfly Conservatory (October through May). You’ll also find an IMAX theater, ancient-culture displays, and fabulous wildlife dioramas. The space shows at the Hayden Planetarium (tickets sold separately) are a big bang with kids. Nearby, the often overlooked DiMenna Children’s History Museum —in the New-York Historical Society—invites kids (ages eight and up) to connect to the lives of real New York children from the past through hands-on activities that include video games, cross-stitching, and interactive maps. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum also offers a glimpse into the lives of early New Yorkers, in this case immigrant families. Guided tours (for ages six and up) visit restored tenement apartments where costumed “residents” bring history to life. You can also explore the history of public transit in NYC—from horsepower to the subway—at the New York Transit Museum. Housed in an old subway station in downtown Brooklyn, this museum has an old bus to pretend-drive, vintage subway cars, and retro ads and maps. Also in Brooklyn is the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, which, although a trek from the subway, has great hands-on exhibits (best suited for under-eights) like an interactive greenhouse. The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, an aircraft carrier turned museum, houses the world’s fastest jets, a Cold War–era submarine, the first space shuttle, the interactive Exploreum Hall, flight simulators, and more. When museums try to make learning fun, they often fall flat, but the new kid museum on the block, the Museum of Mathematics, makes learning kaleidoscopic—and yes, fun—through interactive puzzles, games, displays, and hands-on tools like square-wheel tricycles.
Parks and Playgrounds
If you’re looking for space to let off steam in Manhattan, the 843-acre Central Park is a good start. You can row boats on the lake, ride a carousel, explore the zoo, rent bikes, picnic, or just wander and enjoy the park’s musicians, performers, and 21 playgrounds.
Head to DUMBO (short for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) for family-friendly Brooklyn Bridge Park, a picnic-perfect waterfront park with several inventive playgrounds, Jane’s Carousel, the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, a public swimming pool, and a variety of kid-centric music, arts, and kite-flying festivals.
If it’s too hot, too cold, or the kids just want sporting time in one easy location, head to Chelsea Piers, between 18th and 23rd Streets along Manhattan’s Hudson River. With a climbing wall, batting cages, ice-skating rinks, basketball and volleyball courts, indoor soccer fields, bowling, sailing, golf, gymnastics, and an Explorer Center with a ball pit and slides, it’s a five-block energy outlet for local and visiting kids of all ages.
Attractions
With all the screeching and honking, wild colors, and crazy behavior, New York City can feel like one big zoo, but if the kids want the real deal, there’s a zoo in every borough of NYC. The Bronx Zoo is the city’s—and country’s—largest metropolitan wildlife park, and home to more than 4,000 animals, including endangered and threatened species. Plan to spend a whole day here so your kids don’t have to choose between Congo Gorilla Forest and the Siberian cats at Tiger Mountain. Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo is small but popular, and known to little kids as the setting for the animated Madagascar films. You’ll find red pandas, snow leopards, a penguin house, performing sea lions, grizzly bears, and a petting zoo. You can get face-to-face with even more interesting creatures in Coney Island, where the whole family can enjoy a walk along Coney Island’s famous boardwalk to take in the beach, Luna Park’s amusement rides, the landmarked Cyclone wooden roller coaster (54-inch height requirement), minor-league baseball games at the Cyclones’ stadium (MCU Park), Nathan’s hot dogs, and the New York Aquarium, where the new Ocean Wonders: Sharks! exhibit is slated to open in 2016. If adorable creatures of the robotic variety are called for, hit the Sony Wonder Technology Lab. The line to get into this futuristic fantasy world might be long (entry is free) but a talking robot keeps everyone entertained while you wait. Inside, kids can program their own robots; record their own digital music, movies, and games; and perform open-heart surgery using haptic technology.
Shows
Once upon a time, it seemed like the only truly kid-friendly show on Broadway was The Lion King. These days, adults could gripe that Broadway is selling itself to the youngest bidder—but who’s complaining when the shows are so adult-friendly, too. The Lion King is still a firm favorite with kids, but it has solid competition with the likes of Aladdin, Matilda, Wicked, and Off-Broadway shows like Stomp, the Gazillion Bubble Show, and Blue Man Group. Kids shows are popular, so it’s rare to find tickets at TKTS booths; book ahead if possible. Preteens and teens who are too cool for the Disney musical experience might appreciate Sam Eaton’s mind-boggling display of magic and mentalism in The Quantum Eye, Off-Broadway at Theatre 80 in St. Mark’s Place. The New Victory Theater is New York City’s only theater dedicated to presenting family-friendly works; tickets are affordable, and shows are entertaining, never condescending, and, yes, cool. Kids ages three–nine can partake of music, dance, comedy, storytelling, and dancing at Just Kidding at Symphony Space, a performing arts center on Broadway and West 95th Street that inspires and entertains with established and emerging family-friendly artists. Interacting is encouraged.