You MUST take your Kids to These 5 Places in Austin, TX!

Get your kids’ faces out of those screens. Find the best things for kids to do in Austin. I’m sharing my top five picks with a little bonus, which your kids can only do here in Austin.

You can search for my blog for the top five reasons to raise a family here, but today, we’re talking about the top five activities that are just pure entertainment, just for fun. There’s a bonus number six that you can only do right here in Austin.

Zilker Hillside Theater

The first one is Zilker Hillside Theater. Zilker Theater Productions is a nonprofit organization that has provided one of the country’s longest-running award-winning free outdoor musicals since 1959. They have audiences of over 45,000 people annually.

Zilker Hillside Theater is dedicated to celebrating and preserving the Broadway musical, and they do it by mounting award-winning large-scale musical productions at the Zilker Hillside Theater in Zilker Park.

Bring your blanket and a cooler, and you and the family hang out. It’s very family-friendly, and it’s great for kids. They do a lot of kids-focused shows like Shrek and The Wizard of Oz, fun stuff like that.

Austin Scottish Rite Theater

The second one is the Austin Scottish Rite Theater. It is located on 18th Street downtown. The Scottish Rite Community and Children’s Theater is Austin’s oldest theater. It was built in 1871, the same year Austin became a Texas capital.

They provide quality shows of all ages with special programming for kids. They’ve done stuff like The Jungle Book, Robinhood, Frog and Toad, and all kinds of things like that.

The tickets start around $30, and there are summer camps for kids interested in the performing arts. Austin is a very theater-friendly city for adults and kids.

Alamo Drafthouse

Third is Alamo Drafthouse. It is my favorite movie house for adults. They have strict policies, such as no talking and texting, that provide moviegoers with a premium experience.

For kids and families with special needs, they have special showings that start before 2:00 PM on Tuesdays. They have different rules on Tuesdays that are more family-friendly. The lights are turned up, and the sound is down.

All ages are welcome, including infants. Talking is allowed, and guests can move around, which is prohibited during regular Alamo showings. If you’re late, you can still get into the movies. You can enjoy a movie with your little ones without worrying about making noise or distracting anyone.

Another cool thing Alamo does is movies in the park. They have free movies in neighborhood parks during the summer. It bounces around from area to area.

Family-Friendly Breweries

The next cool thing to do with kids is family-friendly breweries. Breweries have exploded in Austin, and it’s incredible how many are friendly to kids and have stuff for them to do so everyone can go and have a good time.

Here are a few of the family-friendly breweries in Austin. Meanwhile, Brewing is in southeast Austin. Austin Beerworks is on the north side. Wrench Brewing is in Georgetown, and Live Oak is by the airport.

Live Oak is awesome. It’s got ultimate Frisbee fields, under the live oak trees, and just a beautiful outdoor setting in general. It’s one of my favorite breweries.

They are also known for traditional German-style beers. The Live Oak hefeweizen is Austin’s hefeweizen. It’s amazing. Also, their pilsners are delicious, so crisp, amazing, and perfect for a summer day.

Bring the family, have a fantastic beer, play Ultimate Frisbee or Frisbee golf, and enjoy being outside.

My other favorite one is Jester King Brewery. This brewery is out in the Hill Country. It’s a unique, beautiful setting. It’s also a working farm, so they have a few spots to get beer on the property. They have a massive playground for kids.

I mentioned it’s a working farm, so they also have a herd of goats you can check out when they’re in their pen. They do a walk around the property a few times a day. They also have just fun stuff with the animals and everything like that.

It’s a fantastic place to go and chill for the afternoon, bring the family and see animals, and just get out of the city and do something you wouldn’t normally do.

It’s an excellent escape from the city, and everyone can have a good time. Jester King has got excellent beers. They’ve got delicious wines. They’ve got delicious food and pizza, and everyone gets to have a good time.

Austin Steam Train

So another fun thing for kids to do is the Austin Steam Train. It gives riders a sense of going back in time. They have these fabulous, restored coaches. Some of them are dating back to the 1920s.

They zip through this picture-perfect Texas Hill country. It’s cool. So they have two main routes. One is the Bertram Flyer. It goes from Cedar Park to Bertram. It’s a three-hour round trip, popular with families with small children or people with shorter attention spans. It’s perfect for someone just looking to get a quick getaway without worrying about anything.

The second trip they’ve got is Hill Country Flyer, from Cedar Park to Burnet. This trip is the most popular. It’s six hours long, and it has a two-hour stop in Burnet where the kids get to get out and see an old west gunfight and stuff like that. It is cool for older kids. You can bring your food and drinks, but they are available on the train.

They have one more fun one around Christmas time. It is the North Pole Flyer, where kids can join Santa and do story time and cookies and stuff like that.

Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center

Here’s a bonus one that you can only do in Austin. It is the Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center. Located in Round Rock, Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center is something you’ve got to see to believe. It was voted the world’s most fabulous indoor waterpark.

It’s America’s largest indoor waterpark, with 1.5 million square feet of water, slides, rooms, suites, etc. It is a little pricey, so this would be a special treat for the kids, like Christmas, birthday, things like that.

There’s so much cool, fun stuff for kids to do that doesn’t have to be tied to education, science, math, biology, or anything like that. It is just fun stuff for kids to do, and you can all go out and have some family time together and enjoy being around each other.

If you’re interested in moving to Austin, please get in touch with me.