Top 20 Places to Take Kids in and around San Francisco - 2022
Best Places for Kids in the San Francisco Bay Area!
Every May and June, thousands of local parents, grandparents, and caregivers weigh in on their favorite local places to take kids. Typically, we showcase the Top 20 winners... but this year, in honor of KidsOutAndAbout.com's 21st birthday (we originally launched in June of 2001), we bring you the Bay Area's
TOP 21 Places to Take Kids!
Of course, there are literally hundreds of wonderful places to take your kids in our area, not just this year's winners! After you check out the list, make sure to find great things to do on our packed daily calendar, sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter, and visit our Everything That's Free page for lots more ideas.
1. San Francisco Zoo & Gardens
This 100-acre zoological park features over 2,000 animals from around the world, plus beautiful gardens, and the largest playground around. Ride the historic Little Puffer steam train and Dentzel Carousel. The Zoo’s mission is to connect all people with wildlife, inspire caring for nature, and advance conservation action.
2. California Academy of Sciences
An aquarium, planetarium, rainforest, and natural history museum—all under one Living Roof.
3. The Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is a museum, a professional development home for teachers, and a global exhibit-design trailblazer with a mission to transform learning worldwide.
4. My Local Library
Of course, the libraries in the San Francisco area are not really ONE place, but MANY places... but it's important to emphasize how valuable libraries are for family learning and fun. The libraries in our area are wonderful about posting their events to the KidsOutAndAbout calendar so you always can get ideas for free things to do with your kids that celebrate education and imagination. KidsOutAndAbout.com takes this opportunity to salute the wonderful children's librarians who serve our community with such dedication. They're proud that locals voted them #4 in best places to take kids this year!
5. Oakland Zoo
Oakland Zoo, home to more than 850 native and exotic animals, is managed by the Conservation Society of California (CSC); a non-profit organization leading an informed and inspired community to take action for wildlife locally and globally. With over 25 conservation partners and projects worldwide, the CSC is committed to conservation-based education and saving species and their habitats in the wild. Oakland Zoo is dedicated to the humane treatment of animals and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the national organization that sets the highest standards for animal welfare for zoos and aquariums.
7. Children's Creativity Museum
The Children's Creativity Museum is a hands-on arts and technology experience for families with children ages 2 -12. We believe that creative expression, innovation, and critical thinking are core to fostering the next generation. Visitors are invited to make a stop-motion animation video, create your own track in the music studio, and explore the power of feelings at our XOXO exhibit.
9. Children’s Fairyland
Children’s Fairyland is America’s first storybook theme park. Ever since we opened in 1950, we’ve been a magical place for young children to create, imagine, play, and learn.
10. CuriOdyssey
As a non-profit science museum and zoo, CuriOdyssey lets kids loose to observe wild animals, experiment with scientific phenomena and let the natural world answer their questions. We treat kids like the geniuses they are.
11. Aquarium of the Bay
Aquarium of the Bay is a non-profit organization with a mission to enable conversations on climate resilience and ocean conservation globally, while inspiring actionable change locally by protection and preservation of the San Francisco Bay and its ecosystems, from Sierra to the Sea™.
16. Lindsay Wildlife Experience
The mission of Lindsay Wildlife Experience is to connect people with wildlife to inspire responsibility and respect for the world we share. The wildlife hospital is open every day of the year to accept injured and orphaned native California animals.
17. LEGOLAND Discovery Center
LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Bay Area is the ultimate indoor LEGO® playground in The Great Mall in Milpitas. The indoor LEGO attraction is a 3-hour play experience featuring 10+ interactive play zones! Celebrate with a LEGO® Birthday party at LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Bay Area and have a fun-filled adventure to remember! For a birthday party to remember we offer Awesome, Awesomer, and Awesomest birthday party packages in our private birthday party rooms. See why we are the most unique venue for kid's birthday parties in the Bay Area!
18. Asian Art Museum
With Asia as our lens and art as our cornerstone, we spark connections across cultures and through time, igniting curiosity, conversation, and creativity.
Asia is not one place. The ideas and ideals that we call Asian are countless and diverse. Some of the works we display pre-date written history. Others were recently created. Many have connections to works from other continents and other millennia. We explore these links, provoking discovery, debate, and inspiration.
At the Asian Art Museum, artistic and educational programs empower visitors to discover the relevance of great artworks in profoundly personal ways. Immersed in our galleries, visitors ponder the universal values found in human expression. Through the bustle of daily programs, students of the world steep in cultures through art, music, dance, and tradition. In the clamor of our classrooms, children build bridges to old and new worlds.
Winners in Special Categories
In the second part of our survey, we asked readers to select their favorites in three categories. Here were their choices.Top Arts Educator: A.C.T. Young Conservatory
A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory teaches more than just acting. By training at the YC, students gain the creative and communication skills to succeed in just about anything. Students learn to incorporate the craft of theater into their everyday lives, developing concentration, imagination, professionalism, character, and self-confidence along the way. Many students go on to study theater and performance in college, and our alumni are often seen gracing stages and screens in the Bay Area and across the country. Some YC alumni include Darren Criss (Emmy and Golden Globe Award–winner), Erika Henningsen (Mean Girls on Broadway), Adam Jacobs (Aladdin on Broadway), Winona Ryder (Stranger Things), and Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us).
Top Sports Educator: YMCA
Top STEM Educator: San Francisco Zoo & Gardens
This 100-acre zoological park features over 2,000 animals from around the world, plus beautiful gardens, and the largest playground around. Ride the historic Little Puffer steam train and Dentzel Carousel. The Zoo’s mission is to connect people with wildlife, inspire caring for nature and advance conservation action.
