Free Things To Do In Atlanta With Toddlers
Educational, exciting, and easy on the wallet, Atlanta is great city to explore with young children in tow. Numerous parks, museums and even a center for puppetry are all at your fingertips, and best of all, they are available to check out for absolutely no cost. But to optimize your visit, make sure you know when the fun stuff is happening and plan your visit accordingly around the special events and free days. Here are a few of our favorite free things to do with toddlers in Atlanta.
While Centennial Park offers fun and excitement on any given day of the week, families with toddlers will definitely want to pay the park a visit on the fourth Saturday of each month. Billed as Family Fun Day, the fourth Saturday between April-September offers an afternoon of family-oriented activities, including educational programming, specialty workshops, performances, contests, prizes and more. Stop by and experience it for yourself! Centennial Olympic Park is located at 265 Luckie Street NW. For more information, call 404-223-4412.
Fans of puppets, especially those of Jim Henson, must take their toddlers to the Center for Puppetry Arts! The museum features world-class puppet shows and kid-friendly exhibits suitable for all ages. A recently acquired Henson display, titled "Wonders From His Workshop," includes Big Bird and Bert from Sesame Street, Kermit the Frog and the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show and a variety of recognizable characters from commercials, shows and films by Jim Henson. Admission is free for all Fulton County residents every first Saturday of the month. This is a great day trip idea for locals looking for cheap (in this case, free) things to do with their families. For more information, call 404-873-3391.
Visit Piedmont Park with your tots. A great place to get some exercise and explore the great outdoors, Piedmont Park features great free guided walking tours of the grounds, as well as an exciting playground for kids, built by world-renowned sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Every Saturday, the park comes alive with the Green Market, featuring locally-grown produce, flowers, baked goods and more! Great for people watching and catching live demonstrations and performances, your toddlers will love to be in the middle of all the action on a Saturday afternoon. The park is located at 1320 Monroe Drive NE.
Bring your inquisitive youngsters down to the Children's Museum of Atlanta, where admission is free every second Tuesday of the month from 1-7 p.m. While the entire space is dedicated to learning and helping children embrace their creative and cognitive abilities, the museum's Morph Gallery is specifically designed for toddlers and children to explore their surrounds. Just like the name implies, Morph Gallery is an ever-changing playground of exhibits and performances from circus acts to food displays, there's something to please everyone's palate. Your littlest ones will love the gallery's Crawl Space, a year-round exhibit featuring bridges to crawl across, balls to bounce and instruments to play. For more information, call 404-223-5437.
Splash around one of Atlanta's family-friendly public pools. The Georgia heat in the summer time can be quite exhausting if you're not careful, but kids will feel alive and rejuvenated the moment they dip their feet into the cool water. Both Chastain Park and Piedmont Park offer free weekday morning swims (though the afternoon does charge a small fee for adults and kids).