Top 5 Kids Activities in Los Angeles

What to do with younger kids while you are visiting Los Angeles

At LA Insider Tours we love families, in fact most of our Hollywood Tours are with families seeing Los Angeles for the first time. We of course believe that the best way you can spend a day is on one of our Los Angeles tours, but people often ask what activities to do with their kids when they are not taking a tour. This is an even tougher question when you have younger kids in your family.

Here are our top 5 kids activities in Los Angeles. Any of these can also be done on one of our tours, if you’d like to add it to yours, just ask!

1. California Science Center

700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles
Open daily: 10am – 5 pm
californiasciencecenter.org

Think Smithsonian right here in Los Angeles! The California Science Center is a FREE museum ($10 for parking) that includes science exhibits of all types including ecosystems, biology….oh the heck with it, we go for the Space Shuttle! Yes, you can see the Space Shuttle Endeavour, various fighter jets, and the actual Gemini 11 capsule, among others. There is also an IMAX theater. If you want to see the Shuttle, check ahead as in summer and weekends you do need a reservation.

2. Travel Town

5200 Zoo Drive in Griffith Park, Los Angeles
Open daily: Saturday & Sunday – 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Monday through Friday – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
www.traveltown.org

The train depot at Travel Town

Travel Town is a free museum with several old-fashioned train locomotives, a train ride, and gift shop. It also has picnic tables and is a great place to grab a lunch and eat while the kids play on the trains. It also houses a barn that used to be on Walt Disney’s Holmby Hills estate. The barn was his personal workshop and part of an elaborate mini railroad that ran through his estate grounds. It was moved to Travel Town after his death.

3. Griffith Observatory

2800 E Observatory Ave Los Angeles
Open: Tue-Fri 12:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Sat-Sun 10:00 am-10:0 pm
Closed Mondays
www.griffithobs.org

Our clients in front of Griffith Observatory

Built in the 1935, the Observatory was built from funds donated to Los Angeles by Griffith J. Griffith, who had shot his wife and sought to improve his image with the gift. Nowadays it’s a beautiful example of Art Deco architecture perched on the side of a hill with wondrous view of Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, and the Hollywood Sign. Inside it’s full of astronomy exhibits that will interest those of all ages. See a real working sundial, the Solar System built to scale, or sit for one of the impressive Planetarium shows. If you’re there at night, you can actually peer through one of the telescopes, often focused on Saturn or Jupiter.

4. Venice Beach Skate Park

Venice Beach

Photo by Ryan Vaarsi

This is one of the best you’ll find anywhere, with twists and turns, ramps, and crazy drops. Even better it’s right by the beach with great views of the Pacific Ocean and the Venice Boardwalk. Even if they forgot their board they will be mesmerized by the rad skating on display. Plus you can get a bite to eat, candy, ice cream — it’s a winner.

5. Page Museum, La Brea Tar Pits

5801 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
Open daily: 9:30 am-5 pm
www.tarpits.org

Columbian Mammoth skeleton at La Brea Tar Pits

The La Brea Tar Pits was the most significant paleontological discovery in the 20th Century. That means they found a lot of bones there. Thousands, in fact. The area is pockmarked with pits of oozing tar that thousands of years ago trapped animals and later perfectly preserved their bones for their discovery today. There are entire skeletons on display, but kids looking for T Rex need to be forewarned that the bones found here are from the Ice Age — so instead of dinosaurs there are mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and sloths. Still pretty cool.