Let’s Go Play in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh. The Iron City. The City of Bridges. The city of the Pirates, and the Penguins, and Mother Goose. Pittsburgh and its neighbors here in southwest PA have a lot to offer, whether you’re interested in history, breweries, sports, or fun for the smallest members of your family. From a zoo to an aquarium to theme parks made just for kids, Pittsburgh has plenty to offer for everyone in your crew. Read on to find all the family-friendly spots to hit for your next staycation.

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and MuseumLab

Any Steel City family vacation has to start at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. Among their various perks are at-home, downloadable activities the whole family can enjoy. These treats were featured in USA Today and include art projects, physical activities, and mindfulness prompts from which everyone can benefit. On-site, there is a garage to explore all kinds of engines, a garden, a make shop with lots of tools, puppetry, water and outdoor activities, and interactive art. There’s even a “kindness gallery” where you can learn from Pittsburgh’s favorite kind son, Fred – that is, Mister Rogers.

Right next door to the Children’s Museum is MuseumLab. Built in a former Carnegie library, MuseumLab is an educational and hands-on fun space made especially for bigger kids. The Make Lab includes tools for making all kinds of projects, from woodworking to fiber arts, and even a greenscreen production studio, while over at Tech Lab, you can create digital projects. The Children’s Museum and MuseumLab also offer a variety of workshops to bring art, logic, and compassion to all age groups.

The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium

If you’re looking for a focus on the natural, your family trip can’t skip the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. Only five other sites in the United States combine so many land and sea creatures in just one visit. Created in the late 1800s, with significant improvements thanks to the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium currently have eight focus areas between them over 77 acres.

The aquarium itself represents several habitats in its two stories and 45,000 square feet, from a tropical rainforest to a coral reef to an exhibit on regional marine life. While the zoo has a variety of animals on display, from giraffes to polar bears, they also have a strong focus on conservation, whether it’s actively saving endangered species like cross-eyed seals or researching others like African elephants to help them grow in number. One special rescue effort involved ten stranded manatees stuck in the, to them, cold waters of Charleston, NC. Over three days, the rescue effort moved the manatees to more comfortable Floridian waters.

Sandcastle Waterpark

On the banks of one of Pittsburgh’s three rivers, the Monongahela, you’ll find the Sandcastle Waterpark. Still very much within city limits and built on a former railroad yard, Sandcastle offers a sylvan, peaceful setting -filled with the happy shouts and shrieks of park goers. Sandcastle opened in 1989 and has built up its offerings since to include 15 waterslides. Dark tunnels transport you through the Dragon’s Den, Cliffhangers features three sky ponds to float through and pause on your slide down, Boardwalk Blasters has a seven-foot freefall into its landing pool, and on the Lightning Express, you can hit speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.

Besides the thrill of the waterslides, there’s also the 20,000 square foot, 300,000-gallon Mon-Tsunami wave pool, the Mushroom Pool for a traditional swimming pool experience, and the quarter-mile circuit of The River for lounging in slow motion. At Sandcastle Waterpark, you’ll also find two spots specifically designed for the smallest visitors, Wet Willie’s Water Works, where little ones can control the fountains and geysers themselves, and the Tad Pool with mini-slides.

Henry Henninger, who arguably knows more about what Pittsburgh families want than anyone else, once said the only thing that could make Pittsburgh better was a waterpark. And he was right. Why did Henninger know so much about family entertainment? Well, for many years, he was the general manager of our next attraction – and a fourth-generation one, at that.

Kennywood

Follow the Monongahela River east a few miles from the Sandcastle Waterpark, and you’ll soon hit Kennywood. Founded in 1898, just like the Pittsburgh Zoo and sold in 1906 to a team including Henry Henniger’s ancestor, Kennywood was originally a getaway from busy and industrial downtown Pittsburgh. Known as America’s finest traditional amusement park, Kennywood still has two eating areas in attractions from those earliest days, the Parkside Café and a Johnny Rockets in the old carousel pavilion. The Old Mill is the world’s oldest continually operating dark water ride, dating back to 1901 – with a few changes here and there – and there are three coasters dating back to the 1920s, including the Jack Rabbit with its 70-foot, double-dip drop, and the Thunderbolt – named the King of Coasters by the New York Times in 1975 but originally known as Pippin when it was introduced in 1924.

Don’t worry; Kennywood is not stuck in the past. You can also find contemporary death defiers like Sky Rocket and Phantom’s Revenge – built on one of the park’s first steel coasters and running frighteningly close to the Thunderbolt. In addition, Kennywood has fun for the whole family, particularly at Thomas Town, the second-largest Thomas & Friends attraction in the country, with five rides and a life-sized Thomas. Kiddieland is another perennial fave for the young ones with 14 rides specifically built for them, like miniatures versions of the Ferris wheel, the Mangles Whip, and the Wave Swinger.

One specialty Kennywood has over every other theme park in the land: Steelers Country. And it’s not just that no other amusement park has a Steelers attraction; it’s that the Steelers were the first professional sports team to have its own feature in an amusement park. One of the major attractions in Steelers Country is the Steel Curtain, a coaster that has netted multiple awards: a state record for tallest roller coaster (220 feet), a continental record for most inversions (nine), and a world record for the tallest inversion (197 feet). Steelers Country also has the Steelers Experience with interactive exhibits to make you feel like you’re trying out for the team and a Tailgate Patio capturing all the food and comradery of tailgating at a game. Kennywood is one of only two amusement parks in the entire country to be named a National Historic Landmark, and, to think, it’s so close.

Idlewild & SoakZone

To combine all the fun of Sandcastle Waterpark and Kennywood in one convenient location, buckle the family up and head southeast of the city for just a bit to Idlewild & SoakZone. Idlewild is the longest-operating theme park near Pittsburgh and in the entire state. It’s even the third oldest in the whole country. Pre-dating Kennywood by a decade, Idlewild was created when the property’s owner opened up his land for picnicking.

In the 1930s, the park grew greatly, including adding the three-row carousel still in use today. 1956 saw the addition of Story Book Forest. While most amusement parks are based on motion, thrilling coasters, and soaring swings, Story Book Forest is based on emotion. You and your little ones can literally walk through a storybook’s pages and put yourselves into its stories, visiting with familiar names including Little Miss Muffet, the Three Little Pigs, and, yes, Mother Goose.

Not much changed in Idlewild until the mid-1980s when some rearrangements took place, and a waterpark was first introduced. The later part of the decade brought Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood of Make-Believe and its Neighborhood Trolley. Fred Rogers visited Idlewild as a child, and this area is now centered around his creation Daniel Tiger. Splashes and slides have been the focus of growth in recent years, including doubling the number of liquid activities and renaming that part of the park SoakZone. There are four head-first racing slides, the twisting and turning Serpentine, and the tubular Pipeline Plunge, which drops 50 feet. In this area, you’ll also find the gentle Float Away Bay and the Wowabunga wave pool, along with designated splash zones for the wee ones.

By Divine Providence

We are lucky to have so many things to do here in the Pittsburgh area, whether you’re looking to travel a few blocks or a few miles. While adult fun abounds, thanks to our burgeoning beverage and food scene, this is a city built on families with plenty still to do that everyone in the family will enjoy. The downtown children’s museum, zoo, and aquarium offer hands-on learning for a whole host of topics, hiding education in building and creating. When you’re looking to take a break from the heat or get your heart rate up, parks of the water and theme variety are easily on hand. While these parks may be known for chills and spills, there are lots of things for even the smallest family members to enjoy. By divine providence, as the city motto says, we live near one of the greatest little cities in the world, surrounded by all sorts of fun and games. Let’s go play in Pittsburgh, PA.