Looking for kid-friendly activities in Butler County, Ohio? Located just outside Cincinnati, it's the perfect destination for a quick weekend getaway with plenty of things to do, sights to see, places to eat and more!
Thanks to the Butler County Visitors Bureau for sponsoring our trip.
Hi friends!
Just popping in to tell you about a fun little trip we had the opportunity to take last month. Hubby and I slacked a little bit on summer vacation plans this year, but being pregnant made me not really feel like going on any big trips anyways. I was, however, feeling a little sad that we hadn't taken the kids anywhere at all this summer.
Butler County Visitors Bureau to the rescue! A few weeks ago they offered to host us for the weekend and we thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a weekend getaway with the kids before school started. Butler County is right outside Cincinnati so it only took us about an hour and 45 minutes to get there from our house just north of Columbus.
We were only there for 48 hours but we packed a lot into our trip. I wanted to recap all the great kid-friendly activities we did in case you're looking to make a similar trip yourself!
Here are 5 Kid-friendly Activities in Butler County, Ohio:
This was our first stop after arriving in Butler County. We went before we even checked into our hotel! If you have train lovers, this is a must-visit. So many activities under one roof including:
- World's Largest Train Display: 90 large, G-scale trains run on over 2 miles of track with a panoramic journey through three distinct times in U.S. history in a 25,000 square-foot interactive display.
- Coney Island replica: A 1,000 square foot replica of historic Ohio Coney Island Amusement Park that recreates the park as it was in 1965. It has tons of interactive buttons that you can push to make the rides move, lights blink and music play.
- Imagination Junction: An interactive play area designed specifically for kids. A 5,000 square-foot railroad-themed entertainment center including a giant play structure for climbing, crawling and more. My littlest loved shoveling coal and my 3-year-old liked pushing the buttons to move the model trains.
- American Railroad Museum: A 5,000 square foot interactive museum that explores the history of the railroad.
- Great Train Expo Center & Seasonal Rides
My 3-year-old ran through the train display at warp speed but loved pushing all the buttons and my 1-year-old loved the imagination junction kids area.
As an added bonus, on the other half of the building is the A-Maze-N Funhouse! There's a mirror maze, a curtain maze, a black hole and a clown college. I'll admit I found the mirror maze a little challenging, especially with my toddler running into mirrors at every turn until he learned to walk with his hand out in front of him 
Berry Picking at Indian Springs Berry Farm
This is a cute little farm where you can go and pick USDA certified organic blackberries. The season is short, but if you're there at the right time, it's definitely worth checking out.
The owners are so nice! They gave us a quick picking tutorial and then gave us free reign. My kids had a blast! The berries were plentiful and easy to pick. You can bring your own buckets if you want to and they accept all forms of payment.
Fountains at Marcum Park & The Hamilton Flea
This is such a fun Saturday morning activity. It's held on the second Saturday of each month. Definitely bring a stroller if you have little ones and a change of clothes or swimsuits! We went berry picking first, then headed to the park. They have a bunch of food trucks set up so we grabbed coffee for the adults and the kids split a smoothie. Then we let them run around in the fountain while we drank our coffee in peace. And by in peace I mean I got about 4 sips in before my 3-year-old needed to go potty…but oh well.
Once they were tired of the water, we took a walk around the Hamilton Flea which is set up right there in the park. Tons of local vendors with all sorts of goodies from shirts to art to beer! If you're there on a non-flea weekend, the park itself is still worth checking out. There was a yoga class going on when we got there and there's a big amphitheater that might be having a concert!
Picnic and Art Cart at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park
This one ended up being even more fun than anticipated. After visiting the park and the flea, we grabbed a picnic lunch from Alexander's Market and Deli which was right around the corner. Then we made the short drive over to Pyramid Hill.
They offer art cart (golf cart) rentals which I would highly encourage. You can rent a cart and drive to the picnic spot of your choice. After we ate, we spent quite a while driving around the park enjoying the art cart and checking out all the sculptures. The kids loved riding on the cart! They also have holiday lights, a summer series for kids, gardens and more so definitely check out their website before you go.
Perhaps the most well-known attraction in Butler County, the Donut Trail is definitely worth checking out. There are 12 stops on the donut trail so unless you're amazingly ambitious, you might have to make a couple of visits to hit them all.
We've only checked one off the list so far but they make it super fun by providing a passport so you can get a stamp at each shop, a map and a t-shirt once you visit them all and mail in your passport!
A few other kid-friendly activities we threw in – swimming in the hotel pool, a trip to a local playground (we checked out Fort Liberty Playland after a quick google search) and a visit to a local brewery (Rivertown Brewery and Barrel House) with free arcade games.
Plus you're also only 20 minutes or so from downtown Cincinnati if you want to hit up things like the children's museum or the aquarium and King's Island is about 15 minutes away as well!
Hopefully, this inspires you guys to take a quick weekend trip to check out Butler County! Be sure to visit the Butler County Visitors Bureau for even more options for kids and lots of ideas for an adults-only trip as well!
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
Original Content: 5 Kid-Friendly Activities in Butler County, Ohio
No comments:
Post a Comment