Indoor playgrounds are perfect places to beat the February blues and enjoy some time with the kids! Luckily HRM has many, so it’s easy to keep active in the great indoors!
Get Air Trampoline Park
This bouncy indoor park is on 612 Windmill Road in Dartmouth. All kids under 12 must be supervised, but good news, if you’re going as a supervisor there is no admission charge! Sit in their comfy massage chairs while your littles show off their moves. If you DO want to jump around, this is our #1 place for adults to join in the fun. Kids under 46” have a fun corner of the park “Small Air” to safely bounce around. It’s pricy, but there’s nothing that gets you flying like Get Air. Standard admission is $17 for one hour, $25 for two; Small Air is $10 for one, $16 for two. And there’s a one-time fee of $3 for reusable jump socks for safety. Every person entering the park must complete and sign a waiver. Save time and fill one out online to save yourself from a line up when you Get (Air) there.
The Vineyard Preschool Indoor Playground
An exclusive play party for preschoolers only! Halifax Metro Vineyard Church on 1129 Sackville Drive has a giant basement with tons of activity accoutrements for none other than unstructured play. Play times are 9-11 Wednesday and Thursday, it only costs $2, drop ins are welcome and don’t have to sign up to anything further. There’s even ice cream and other food available onsite, but they don’t mind if you bring your own, children must bring and wear indoor shoes, caregivers must remain on site, and capacity is limited, it’s first come, first served. The Vineyard is uber affordable and the kids have a blast!
Hop! Skip! Jump!
The gold standard for indoor playgrounds, this park has it all inside including giant slides, a café, toddler area, ball pit, and a great place for parents or guardians to watch—and keep an eye (supervision is required). Open Sunday-Thursday 9:30-6, Friday-Saturday till 7 and located in Bayers Lake, Hop! Skip! Jump! is a fun pit-stop for an afternoon of shopping. It’s very clean and the floor to ceiling windows make a great atmosphere. Rates are hedging towards the high side (but the kids flipping love this place) $12.99 for children aged 5-12; $9.99 for under 4 years or 42”.
The Play Box
Skillfully engineered to keep you and your kids happy, The Play Box at 530 Portland Street has everything a kid 0-12 should need to burn energy on a rainy/snowy/freezing day. Attractions include a speed slide, tube crawl, ball jam, maze, and more. WiFi and café on premise to accommodate kid-watchers. Hours are 9:30-5:30 Monday-Saturday and 1-4 Sunday. Rates are pretty darn good: $7.70 for children aged 4-12; $6.35 for 1-3.
The Kids Fun Factory
It’s the biggest indoor playground around; The Kids Fun Factory can supervise your kids 0-13 in Dartmouth Crossing. Kids age 6+ can stay there…while you go shopping, business, hair, whatever for a couple hours! They say they are the perfect solution to your after school dilemma, and that sounds legit. Rates are $11 for 1-4, $13 for 5-13 and throw an extra $3 onto that for the supervision feature. This 3,000 square feet of factory fun with too many activities to list is open 9-9.
Happy Kids Indoor Playground
A newer play place in HRM with some novel things for the kids like spinning tea cups, Happy Kids is a well-designed but smaller establishment and can get quite busy, so try it on a weekday if you can! Rates for Monday-Thursday are $6.99 for kids 1-5, 9.99 for 6-13-year-olds, from Friday-Sunday, its 8.99 and 11.99, respectively. Hours are 9:30-6 weekdays, and till 7 on weekends and its off Larry Uteck in Bedford.
Amazing Land
Amazing Land off of Portland St. towards Cole Harbour is the newest indoor playground in HRM, so you can be sure that equipment is shining! Rates for Monday-Thursday are $7.99 for kids 1-5, 10.99 for 6-13-year-olds, from Friday-Sunday, its 9.99 and 12.99, respectively. Hours are 9:30-6 weekdays, and till 7 on weekends. From their testimonials, it sounds like they have great customer service—this is the next place we are going to check out!
Cotton Tale Café + Play
Even though this one is far from HRM, Cotton Tale in New Minas must be given a mention. This centre is fantastic place for kids under 9 to play and an excellent spot for caregivers to chill and connect. If you happen to be in the area accompanied by short sidekicks, be sure to stop in from 9-5 Monday-Friday, Saturday till 3. It’s a really inspiring and friendly space, almost makes you want to move to the Valley. Equipped with beautiful wooden play structures, a café with fantastic service and wholesome eats, additional toys for the kids to play with, and locally crafted goods for sale, Cotton Tale Café + Play offers parents and kids a good dose of what they need. Kids play for $5 all day long.
*Note that prices are more than likely subject to HST
If we’ve missed a spot, please tell everyone about it in the comments below!