Albuquerque, city of blue skies and hot air balloon festivals, is an ideal destination for family fun. Take advantage of the near-constant perfect weather to get your kids (and yourself) some sun at Albuquerque’s panoply of affordable family-friendly activities.
1. Tour the Albuquerque BioPark Zoo.
Teach the kids the alphabet from alligator to zebra at Albuquerque’s lush BioPark right in the center of town, which features an encyclopedic zoo that covers six continents. It’s stocked with everything from big cats to elephants to polar bears, an aquarium, and manicured botanical gardens. And it’s affordable — entry for adults is $20 for all three parks ($12.50 for just one) and $6 for kids over three years old (toddlers go free).
2. Spend the day at Cliff’s Amusement Park.
Let the kids make themselves pleasantly nauseous at Cliff’s, Albuquerque’s original amusement park, which has roller coasters (including the NM Rattler, an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster voted one of the top 25 wooden rollercoasters in the world), carousels, and bumper cars for the scaredy cats, and a water park for those hot New Mexico summer days. Admission is $8.95 if you want to buy tickets for rides individually when inside, or buy an all-day all-ride pass for about $30/person.
3. Experience Balloon Fiesta.
Known as the “most-photographed event in the world,” Balloon Fiesta, which takes place every September, offers Disney movie-level wonder and visual spectacle, including the “special shapes” competition featuring balloons shaped like cartoon bees, grinning suns, flying pigs, and movie characters, which your kids (and your inner children, too) will particularly enjoy. Balloon Fiesta 2016 falls on October 1-9, and general admission is $10/adult, with kids 12 years and under entering for free.
4. Go to an Albuquerque Isotopes game.
The actual baseball is not the focus at this minor-league park — it’s everything else. Isotopes games feature races where costumed green and red chiles race each other between innings, and the park makes more money on concessions than any other minor league ballpark in the country. Also, because the team was renamed after the Abq dukes team in The Simpsons, the famous cartoon family members are all over the stadium, waiting for you and your selfies.
5. Watch hundreds of chihuahuas race each other for love.
Now in its second year, the annual “Running of the Chihuahuas,” which takes place at Balloon Fiesta Park (this year on August 20, 2016) pits hundreds of amateur racing chihuahuas against each other as they dash across the lawn toward the human they love most. Adults entry costs $15 ($10 early bird price online) and kids 10 and under go free. If you have your own chihuahua, it’s $35 to enter it into the race.
6. Visit Petroglyph National Monument.
Take your kids to commune with the the ancients at Petroglyph National Monument, twenty minutes west of the city, where some of the country’s oldest Native American and early Spanish colonial petroglyphs are carved into volcanic rock. Fees are per car, which will be a cool $1/per car on weekdays and $2 on weekends.
7. Take them down to Tinkertown.
Experience the sensory overload that is Tinkertown, a one-man folk art museum featuring 22 rooms full of meticulously carved wooden figurines populating a meticulously detailed Western doll town. Admission for adults is $3.50/person, kids age 4 -16 can visit for $1, and kids under 4 go free.
8. Tour-a the Explora Centre.
Your wee ones can get a jump on their future four years at MIT by visiting the Explora Center, an immersive science-based Children’s Museum so fun they might not even realize they’re learning. All exhibits are hands-on, such as the “Engineering Gravity” exhibit where kids send marbles down ramps to learn how friction slows down falling objects, and all are built for little fingers. Adults can visit for $8, kids age 1 – 11 go for $4, and kids under 1 go free.
9. Check out the State Fair.
If you visit the state in the early fall, head over to New Mexico’s vast State Fair, which — besides rides, fried dough, and soft-serve ice cream — features cattle auctions, live music, award-winning rabbits, and the opportunity to win goldfish for your kids.
The State Fair runs September 8 – 18, 2016, and costs $10 general admission for adults, $7 for kids 6-11, and kids under 5 go free.
10. Discover the joys of Gravity Park Extreme.
If the phrase “extreme trampoline park” does not give you palpitations as a parent, consider a trip to Albuquerque’s Gravity Park Extreme, an indoor air sports/obstacle course playground that offers family-only time every morning. It’s a lot more appealing than going to the hotel gym. KidJump (for kids 6 and under) is every day from 9-10 a.m., and costs $8/child with one accompanying adult who jumps free. See you in Albuquerque!
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