Last updated: October 9, 2026 \u00b7 By Heather Shorr<\/p>\n
A Parent’s Guide for Rainy Days, Hot Days and Days When You Just Need to Get Out of the House<\/p>\n
Los Angeles is famous for having weather that lets kids play outside most of the year.<\/p>\n
Most of the year.<\/p>\n
Then July arrives in Woodland Hills.<\/p>\n
Or it rains for three straight days.<\/p>\n
Or the air quality is terrible.<\/p>\n
Or you’ve already gone to the park four times this week and the thought of pushing the same swing for another 45 minutes makes you want to hide in your car.<\/p>\n
That’s when a good list of indoor activities becomes extremely valuable.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Los Angeles has much more than indoor playgrounds. Kids can climb walls, dig into dinosaur fossils, paint pottery, build things, watch marionettes, explore a science museum, jump on trampolines, see movie props and spend an afternoon surrounded by some of the most famous cars ever made.<\/p>\n
We’ve tried to cover a wide area, including LA proper, Santa Monica and the Westside, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills and the northern San Fernando Valley.<\/p>\n
Rather than ranking everything from 1 to 20, we’ve organized the places by the kind of day you’re trying to have.<\/p>\n
Because the right place for an energetic 8-year-old is probably not the right place for a 2-year-old who skipped their nap.<\/p>\n
Quick Picks<\/p>\n
If you’re looking for one indoor place that can occupy an elementary-age child for several hours, Discovery Cube is one of the strongest options in the Valley.<\/p>\n
The Sylmar museum has more than 50 interactive science-based exhibits covering areas such as engineering, the environment, technology and healthy living. Kids aren’t expected to quietly walk past display cases. They’re supposed to touch things, climb, experiment and figure things out.<\/p>\n
That’s an important distinction with younger kids.<\/p>\n
A museum can sound like a great plan until you spend 90 minutes saying, “Don’t touch that.”<\/p>\n
Discovery Cube is designed around touching things.<\/p>\n
Current exhibits include a climbing wall, environmental challenges and an interactive broadcast booth where kids can step into the role of a news presenter. The museum also rotates temporary exhibitions, so it’s worth checking what’s there before visiting.<\/p>\n
It works particularly well for families with elementary-age children, but younger siblings can still find plenty to explore.<\/p>\n
One practical tip: check the calendar before driving there. Although the museum generally operates from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., its 2026 calendar includes selected Monday closures.<\/p>\n
If your child is going through a dinosaur phase, you don’t need to make this complicated.<\/p>\n
Take them here.<\/p>\n
The Natural History Museum’s Dinosaur Hall contains more than 300 fossils and 20 mounted dinosaur skeletons. The centerpiece is a rare growth series showing a baby, juvenile and sub-adult Tyrannosaurus rex together.<\/p>\n
For a dinosaur-obsessed 5-year-old, that alone can justify the trip.<\/p>\n
But the museum is much larger than dinosaurs, which makes it a better full-day option than parents sometimes realize. You can move through different exhibits based on your child’s attention span rather than feeling obligated to see everything.<\/p>\n
Our advice with younger children would actually be to not try to see everything.<\/p>\n
Pick two or three things they care about. Spend time there. Leave before everyone is exhausted.<\/p>\n
The Natural History Museum is the kind of place where a membership can make sense for families who live reasonably close because repeat visits remove the pressure to “get your money’s worth” in one day.<\/p>\n
One of the best family deals in Los Angeles is sitting right next door.<\/p>\n
General admission to the California Science Center is free. Special exhibitions, IMAX films and some experiences may cost extra, but families can spend a substantial amount of time exploring without buying a general admission ticket.<\/p>\n
That’s useful when you have kids because not every outing goes according to plan.<\/p>\n
If you paid $150 for four people to enter somewhere and your child announces 42 minutes later that they’re done, it hurts.<\/p>\n
Free admission takes some of the pressure off.<\/p>\n
The Science Center has interactive exhibits dealing with ecosystems, engineering, science and the human body, along with an enormous kelp forest tank containing live marine animals. Its newer GAME ON! exhibition also combines science with physical challenges involving things like throwing, kicking, movement and play.<\/p>\n
One important current note: if you’re primarily going because you remember seeing Space Shuttle Endeavour there, check the Science Center’s current status before promising your kid a shuttle visit. The surrounding Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center project has changed how the shuttle is being presented during construction.<\/p>\n
Pairing the Science Center and Natural History Museum sounds efficient because they’re next to each other.<\/p>\n
With little kids, we probably wouldn’t.<\/p>\n
One good museum is enough for most children in one day.<\/p>\n
Cayton is much closer to what most parents picture when they hear “children’s museum.”<\/p>\n
The museum has 21,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits designed primarily for children 8 and under. There’s a real-life helicopter, a miniature marketplace, art areas, theater space and plenty of opportunities for imaginative play.<\/p>\n
For toddlers and preschoolers, this can be much more successful than taking them to a traditional museum and hoping they’ll appreciate the exhibits.<\/p>\n
They don’t need to appreciate anything.<\/p>\n
They can play.<\/p>\n
Cayton is inside Santa Monica Place, which is also useful from a parent logistics perspective. You’re indoors, parking is nearby and food is easy to find before or after the museum.<\/p>\n
Current admission is cheaper when purchased online than at the door, and the museum recommends advance reservations because walk-ins can encounter waits when capacity is reached.<\/p>\n
If your kid is 10 or 11, we’d probably choose somewhere else. This is one of those places where matching the venue to the child’s age makes a big difference.<\/p>\n
There are kids who like cars.<\/p>\n
Then there are kids who can identify a Lamborghini from half a block away.<\/p>\n
Take the second kid to the Petersen.<\/p>\n
The museum is packed with historic, exotic, racing and movie vehicles. Current exhibits include cars connected to the Fast & Furious films and other automotive history, while the museum regularly rotates vehicles and exhibitions.<\/p>\n
The Petersen also has education programming for children, including recurring family events and hands-on programs.<\/p>\n
A useful parent distinction here is between general admission and The Vault. The Vault gives access to a much larger collection of rare vehicles, but it substantially increases the cost of the visit. A child who simply wants to see cool cars may be perfectly happy with the standard galleries.<\/p>\n
Current regular general admission is considerably cheaper than admission packages that include Vault access.<\/p>\n
This is also a good grandparent outing. The adults may be every bit as interested as the kids.<\/p>\n
The Academy Museum isn’t primarily a children’s museum, which is actually part of why we like including it.<\/p>\n
Older children who love movies, costumes, filmmaking, animation or special effects may get much more out of this than another indoor playground.<\/p>\n
The museum runs regular family programming, including drop-in workshops during the first three Saturdays of each month. Recent 2026 workshops have covered miniature production sets, filmmaking equipment, animation, puppetry and movie prop making.<\/p>\n
That’s the key to making the Academy Museum work with kids.<\/p>\n
Don’t just show up and expect a 6-year-old to wander galleries for three hours.<\/p>\n
Check the family calendar first.<\/p>\n
If there’s a workshop or family screening connected to something your child likes, the museum becomes a completely different experience.<\/p>\n
And because the Petersen is almost directly across the street, families with older children could realistically combine the two if everyone still has energy.<\/p>\n
Yes, part of the reason people go to Griffith Observatory is the view.<\/p>\n
But the building itself is one of LA’s best free indoor attractions for a kid who likes space.<\/p>\n
Inside are astronomy exhibits, telescopes, scientific demonstrations and live presentations. General admission to the Observatory building is free, while planetarium shows require tickets.<\/p>\n
This is particularly good for kids who have moved beyond “indoor playground” age but still need something more engaging than walking around a traditional museum.<\/p>\n
We would not call Griffith Observatory a perfect rainy-day destination because getting there and moving around the site still involves being outside.<\/p>\n
But for a hot afternoon, cool evening or day when you want a mostly indoor activity without spending much money, it absolutely belongs on the list.<\/p>\n
One practical issue is parking. The Observatory is hugely popular. Sometimes the hardest part of the outing has nothing to do with astronomy.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles has plenty of things you can do in almost any major city.<\/p>\n
Bob Baker Marionette Theater is not one of them.<\/p>\n
The theater has been entertaining LA families since 1963, and its productions are wonderfully strange, old-fashioned and completely different from sitting through another children’s movie.<\/p>\n
Current productions are roughly an hour long and designed for families. The 2026 Hallowe’en Spooktacular, for example, features more than 100 puppets and runs about an hour. Tickets are currently $25, with children 2 and under admitted free.<\/p>\n
This is a great example of why we don’t think every indoor activity needs to involve running around.<\/p>\n
Sometimes sitting in a theater and watching your kid become completely absorbed by dancing marionettes is enough.<\/p>\n
Check the production before booking because the shows change seasonally.<\/p>\n
For a kid who needs physical activity but you’re trying to stay indoors, climbing is one of the better alternatives to a trampoline park.<\/p>\n
Sender One has locations in Westwood and Playa Vista, and its youth programming is designed for children who may have never climbed before. Current beginner programs serve kids roughly ages 6 to 13, while older teens have additional options. Equipment is included in structured introductory programs.<\/p>\n
The Westwood gym is inside a converted movie theater and includes about 10,000 square feet of climbing space.<\/p>\n
Climbing is especially good for the child who claims they “don’t like sports.”<\/p>\n
It doesn’t feel like soccer or basketball. There is no team depending on you. You’re mostly trying to solve a physical puzzle one hold at a time.<\/p>\n
Some kids who have no interest in traditional sports absolutely light up on a climbing wall.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you don’t need science.<\/p>\n
You need your kid to jump for an hour.<\/p>\n
Sky Zone Van Nuys is built for exactly that situation.<\/p>\n
The park has trampolines plus additional attractions that currently include a Ninja Warrior course, dodgeball, climbing, a warped wall, zip line, toddler areas and other active play.<\/p>\n
This is one of our picks for those Valley summer afternoons when the thermometer has made the neighborhood playground completely unrealistic.<\/p>\n
It’s also one of those places where age matters.<\/p>\n
An energetic 9-year-old may think it’s heaven. A cautious toddler on a crowded Saturday afternoon may have a very different experience. Check available toddler or younger-kid sessions if you’re bringing little ones.<\/p>\n
If you live in the West Valley and have younger kids, this is the type of place that quickly ends up in your emergency parenting rotation.<\/p>\n
Kids Empire Woodland Hills is a large climate-controlled indoor playground serving children roughly ages 1 to 12. The facility is padded and built around active play, climbing and exploration. Current posted hours run daily, with later hours on weekends.<\/p>\n
The appeal here is not that you’re going to discover some groundbreaking educational experience.<\/p>\n
Your kid is going to run around indoors.<\/p>\n
Sometimes that’s exactly what you need.<\/p>\n
It’s especially useful for families in Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, Tarzana and the West Valley because you don’t need to drive over the hill for indoor entertainment.<\/p>\n
For toddlers and preschool-age children, Adam’s Garden at the Sherman Oaks Galleria is a much more manageable environment than some of the giant indoor play centers.<\/p>\n
The playground is aimed primarily at younger children. Open play is currently offered on weekdays, while weekends are largely reserved for private parties.<\/p>\n
That weekday detail matters.<\/p>\n
Do not tell your 4-year-old you’re going to Adam’s Garden on Saturday and then discover there’s a private birthday<\/a> party happening.<\/p>\n The Sherman Oaks Galleria location is convenient for another reason: when the play session is over, you’re already somewhere with parking, food and bathrooms.<\/p>\n These become important amenities when your child is three.<\/p>\n Candeeland sits inside Burbank Town Center and gives families another large indoor-play option, particularly for preschool and younger elementary children.<\/p>\n Current passes are available in one-hour and two-hour increments, which we actually like. Not every indoor playground needs to become a half-day commitment.<\/p>\n There is also a separate area for smaller children under 36 inches, although little kids can still use the larger structure with siblings. Grip socks are required, and parents normally remain responsible for supervising their own children.<\/p>\n One interesting option for parents of children ages 4 to 10 is Candeeland’s supervised DISH program. It offers scheduled two-hour supervised play sessions with eligibility requirements, including independent bathroom use.<\/p>\n We’d think of that as a separate program rather than ordinary open play, but it’s worth knowing it exists.<\/p>\n Fun Play World gives Westside parents indoor playground options without having to drive into the Valley.<\/p>\n There are current locations on Pico Boulevard in West LA and in Santa Monica. The play areas are designed primarily around younger children, with climbing and imaginative play structures.<\/p>\n Current open-play pricing is based on timed sessions rather than unlimited all-day entry, so check the latest rates before going.<\/p>\n This is the kind of place we’d primarily recommend for preschool and early elementary ages.<\/p>\n Once your child hits 9 or 10, we’d probably start looking at climbing, trampolines, museums or another activity with more challenge.<\/p>\n Sometimes the thing your kid needs after school is not more running.<\/p>\n Color Me Mine lets families choose a ceramic piece, paint it and leave it at the studio to be glazed and fired.<\/p>\n The Studio City location sits right on Ventura Boulevard, while the Larchmont Village location gives families a central LA option.<\/p>\n At Larchmont, painters currently pay a studio fee covering paints, glazing and firing, then choose and purchase the pottery piece separately. Walk-ins are welcome, although the Studio City location currently recommends booking ahead.<\/p>\n This works especially well for siblings with different energy levels because nobody has to be particularly athletic or competitive.<\/p>\n And unlike most activities on this list, the child eventually gets something tangible to take home.<\/p>\n One thing that’s easy to lose sight of in Los Angeles is that entertaining children does not require buying admission to something every weekend.<\/p>\n Libraries are still one of the best indoor family resources in the city.<\/p>\n A library visit can mean books, children’s areas, homework help, story times, crafts, special programs or simply an hour somewhere air-conditioned where nobody is asking you to purchase another $9 juice.<\/p>\n And unlike a ticketed attraction, you can leave after 25 minutes without feeling like you’ve made a terrible financial decision.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Public Library and LA County Library systems both operate branches throughout the city and regularly offer children’s programming.<\/p>\n If your child is young, look up the calendar at the branch nearest your house rather than automatically driving to a major attraction.<\/p>\n A Tuesday morning story time five minutes from home may solve the same parenting problem much more efficiently.<\/p>\n Indoor activities get much easier to choose when you stop trying to find something that’s universally “family friendly.”<\/p>\n For babies and toddlers, we’d prioritize smaller indoor playgrounds, Cayton Children’s Museum, library story times and places where they can freely explore without constantly being told what not to touch.<\/p>\n For preschoolers, Discovery Cube, Cayton, Bob Baker, indoor playgrounds, pottery painting and the Natural History Museum can all work well. The child’s interests matter more at this age than the prestige of the destination.<\/p>\n For ages 6 to 9, the options really open up. Science museums, dinosaurs, climbing, Sky Zone, pottery, the Petersen and Discovery Cube can all occupy a substantial part of the day.<\/p>\n For ages 10 to 13, we’d move away from traditional children’s museums unless there’s a specific exhibit they care about. Climbing, the Academy Museum, Petersen, Griffith Observatory and more challenging creative activities generally become stronger options.<\/p>\n For teens, ask them.<\/p>\n Seriously.<\/p>\n A teenager dragged to an attraction they think is for little kids can make a 90-minute outing feel much longer than it actually is.<\/p>\n This deserves its own section because Los Angeles weather advice often pretends Santa Monica and Woodland Hills are experiencing the same summer.<\/p>\n They are not.<\/p>\n If you’re in Woodland Hills, Tarzana, West Hills or parts of the western Valley, there will be afternoons when outdoor play simply isn’t appealing.<\/p>\n That’s when proximity matters more than finding “the best” attraction in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n A family in Woodland Hills may be much happier spending two hours at Kids Empire than spending an hour driving to a museum and another hour driving home.<\/p>\n Sherman Oaks families have Adam’s Garden for younger kids and relatively easy access to Van Nuys options such as Sky Zone. Studio City has Color Me Mine. Burbank has Candeeland and easy access to Bob Baker farther south.<\/p>\n If it’s extremely hot, our advice is simple:<\/p>\n Don’t turn an indoor activity into a cross-city expedition unless the destination itself is the point.<\/p>\n The goal is to get the kids out of the house, not spend half the afternoon on the 101.<\/p>\n Rain creates a different problem.<\/p>\n Everybody has the same idea.<\/p>\n Indoor playgrounds become crowded. Museums fill up. Parking becomes annoying. Half the city suddenly remembers that children’s museums exist.<\/p>\n If the forecast is obvious several days ahead, make reservations anywhere that allows them.<\/p>\n Cayton strongly recommends advance admission reservations. Sender One’s structured programs require booking. Color Me Mine Studio City recommends reservations. Even if a venue usually accepts walk-ins, rainy Saturdays are not normal Saturdays.<\/p>\n This is also when libraries, movie theaters, bowling, pottery studios and smaller local activities can outperform the giant attractions.<\/p>\n Sometimes the best rainy-day decision is deliberately choosing the second-most-obvious thing.<\/p>\n A list titled “Best Indoor Activities” can accidentally make parents feel as though they should work their way through all of them.<\/p>\n You shouldn’t.<\/p>\n The dinosaur kid belongs at Natural History Museum.<\/p>\n The kid who climbs your furniture belongs at Sender One or Sky Zone.<\/p>\n The preschooler who needs to run belongs at an indoor playground.<\/p>\n The kid who could paint for three hours belongs at Color Me Mine.<\/p>\n The child who asks 300 questions about how things work belongs at Discovery Cube or the Science Center.<\/p>\n The movie kid belongs at the Academy Museum.<\/p>\n The car kid belongs at Petersen.<\/p>\n The kid who loves weird, imaginative things absolutely needs to see Bob Baker at least once.<\/p>\n The goal isn’t to take children to the places adults have decided are educational or enriching.<\/p>\n The goal is to notice what they’re interested in and give them more opportunities to explore it.<\/p>\n Keep three places in your back pocket.<\/p>\n One should be close to home.<\/p>\n One should be cheap or free.<\/p>\n And one should be special enough that your kid gets excited when you announce it.<\/p>\n For a Woodland Hills family, that might be Kids Empire, the library and the Natural History Museum.<\/p>\n For a Santa Monica family, it could be Fun Play World, the library and Cayton.<\/p>\n For a Sherman Oaks family with older kids, maybe it’s Color Me Mine, Griffith Observatory and Sender One.<\/p>\n You don’t need 40 choices every Saturday morning.<\/p>\n You need a few reliable answers to:<\/p>\n “What are we going to do today?”<\/p>\n One of the frustrating things about raising kids in Los Angeles is that there are so many activities and they’re scattered everywhere.<\/p>\n Some have great websites.<\/p>\n Some haven’t updated their website since 2017.<\/p>\n Some announce open play on Instagram.<\/p>\n Some are hidden inside recreation department pages.<\/p>\n Some are five minutes from your house and you’ve somehow never heard of them.<\/p>\n That’s exactly the problem we’re building AfterschoolSearch.com to solve.<\/p>\n Our goal is to help parents discover activities based on what their child likes, how old they are and where the family actually lives.<\/p>\n Because on a rainy Saturday, a 100-degree Valley afternoon or one of those days when everybody has simply spent enough time inside the house, you shouldn’t have to spend an hour figuring out what exists.<\/p>\n You should be able to find something and go.<\/p>\n Explore kids’ activities near you at AfterschoolSearch.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
Candeeland – Burbank<\/h2>\n
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Fun Play World – West LA and Santa Monica<\/h2>\n
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Color Me Mine – Studio City and Larchmont<\/h2>\n
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An Indoor Activity Doesn’t Have to Cost $100<\/h2>\n
What We’d Pick by Age<\/h2>\n
What to Do When It’s 100 Degrees in the Valley<\/h2>\n
What to Do When It Actually Rains in LA<\/h2>\n
Don’t Forget Your Child’s Actual Personality<\/h2>\n
Our Favorite Indoor Strategy for LA Parents<\/h2>\n
Find More Things to Do With Kids Near You<\/h2>\n