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Yes, you love your local playground. But it’s time to mix up your fall activities agenda. Ahead, hands-on experiences to scope out this fall with anyone from toddlers through teens.
Looking for a great, practical game to get everyone out and about? Escapely’s Escape the City experience ($60) is an outdoor escape room using a web-based app to guide the experience. (You don’t need to download anything.)
With Brooklyn (Prospect Heights) and Central Park versions on offer, each is suitable for two to six players and designed for all ages — at least all who can walk about 1.5 miles.
Participants will spend two to three hours searching for clues, solving puzzles and discovering the neighborhood as they visit landmarks, public art installations and other attractions. Spy glasses, magic 8 balls and more tools are included. Part scavenger hunt, part escape room, you’ll experience NYC like never before.
Check out the Sky Deck at the Edge — the highest such perch in the Western Hemisphere — where guests marvel at 360-degree views of Manhattan. The new city-inspired immersive installations include responsive lighting features and custom soundscapes.
The best of the bunch, in our opinion, are Crystal Cave, complete with a 23-foot canopy of oversized crystals, and Infinity City, which shows 18 illuminated columns modeled after NYC skyscrapers shifting colors and making sounds based on movement.
Families with kiddos 6 to 10 can check out the complimentary Explorer Challenge for quite the scavenger hunt. Lighting themes mimic each season. Tickets start at $34 per person.
Swing by Hudson Yards on Halloween from 11 a.m. through 2 p.m. for a free event for all ages. Show up in costume (yes, just do it, parents) and expect pumpkin-themed activations, interactive surprises and live performances by Mozart for Munchkins.
The celebration culminates with a Kidz Bop DJ with a “monster bash” dance party power hour.
Broadway Magic Hour | Broadway Comedy Club, 318 W. 53rd St.
Mosey on over to Midtown West on select weekends at 2 p.m. for an unforgettable magic show geared for ages 5 and older (tickets from $25). Starring Jim Vines and Carl Mercurio, kids are called onstage throughout the show to pull off incredible illusions. There’s also a good amount of clean comedy and mind-reading feats.
This free and ongoing attraction, part of Yale University, is suitable for all ages and gives kids a chance to get up close and personal with natural history.
Thoughtfully designed with touch-and-learn exhibits, plus butterflies, freshwater fish, turtles, colorful poison dart frogs and unexpected objects, little sleuths will leave with their curiosity riding high.
One favorite display? An interactive exhibit that asks guests to investigate how many shades of blue exist in nature.
How about a live-action whodunit with an 18th-century twist? Inspired by “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” this 45-minute interactive experience involves meetings with characters, including Katrina Van Tassel, Brom Bones, Hulda the Witch and Hans Van Ripper, gathering clues and reaching a verdict regarding what really happened to Ichabod Crane.
The playful mystery, best for ages 8 and up, even includes a Headless Horseman cameo. Get your timed admission tickets (from $25/child and $35/adult) for Fridays through Sundays October 2 through 31.
Open seven days a week, youngsters can get their wiggles out at this indoor play space while caregivers relax over coffee and café bites. There, children under six can engross themselves in the playhouses, tackle the climbing wall, zoom down slides, play at the train table or set up shop in the STEM area. There’s also an enclosed “tot spot” for babies. Children under 1 go in for free when accompanied by a sibling with paid admission, which costs $26 per child for a two-hour session or $22 for sibling admission (adults enter for free).
Part of a chain, which now includes five other New Jersey locations, the Riverdale outpost can get particularly crowded (or sell out) on rainy or cold days, so reservations are strongly encouraged.
This LI museum does not disappoint with the interactive events this fall. First up, there’s Big Truck Day on Sept. 26 from 10 a.m. to noon, an annual event where kids ages 2 through 10 can climb aboard vehicles and go wild for wheels ($30 per nonmember child; $19 per nonmember adult).
Then, on Oct. 23, a $25 nonmember ticket grants you access to an afternoon of spooky crafts, games, prizes and dancing at the Halloween Bash from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ($25 per nonmember child or adult.)
This event is designed for kids 2 to 8, but for those with little ones 2 months through 16 months, Baby’s First Halloween from 10 a.m. to noon on Oct. 27 ($30 per nonmember) with singing, dancing and craft-making is the place to be.
Can’t swing these events? Weekly programming at CMEE includes Little Chefs, Sensory Play, the stART studio and music with Ms. Leah.
