Researched and written by BG Vance. Last updated October 19, 2026. Hours, ticket prices and seasonal schedules change, so check each attraction’s website before you go.
Michigan is one of the easiest states in the country to plan a trip around kids. You can climb a 450-foot sand dune in the morning, ride a carousel built in 1928 in the afternoon, and be back at a beach before dinner, and a lot of the best stops are free or cheap. This guide covers the best things to do in Michigan with kids by region, plus the practical stuff other guides skip: how to save money, where to find sensory-friendly hours, and what is actually worth doing this season.
My personal favorite things to do with my kids has always been cider mills in the fall such as Blakes in Armada or Yates. For Summer activities with kids, by far any Michigan beach such as sterns beach in Ludington or water parks are top pics for us.
The Best Things to Do in Michigan With Kids at a Glance
| If you want… | Go to… | Where |
|---|---|---|
| A big outdoor adventure | Sleeping Bear Dunes, Pictured Rocks, Mackinac Island | Northern Michigan and the U.P. |
| A rainy-day museum | Michigan Science Center, Air Zoo, Grand Rapids Public Museum | Detroit, Portage, Grand Rapids |
| Something for toddlers and preschoolers | Peppa Pig World of Play, Great Lakes Children’s Museum, Grand Rapids Children’s Museum | Auburn Hills, Traverse City, Grand Rapids |
| Animals | Detroit Zoo, John Ball Zoo, SEA LIFE Michigan | Metro Detroit, Grand Rapids |
| A free or low-cost day | Kalamazoo Valley Museum, state parks, Mackinac Island trails | Statewide |
| Fall fun right now | Cider mills and U-pick orchards | Metro Detroit and statewide |
| A winter getaway | Great Wolf Lodge, Avalanche Bay, Nub’s Nob | Traverse City, Boyne Falls, Harbor Springs |
How to Save Money on Michigan Family Trips
Michigan’s big attractions can add up quickly for a family of four. These programs make the biggest difference.
- Michigan Recreation Passport: The passport covers vehicle entry to all 103 Michigan state parks and recreation areas, plus state forest campgrounds, boating access sites and trailheads. In 2026 it costs $15 for Michigan-registered vehicles when you add it at license plate renewal. Non-Michigan vehicles pay $42 for an annual pass. A resident passport cannot be bought online.
- Museums for All: Families with a SNAP EBT card can get admission for $3 or less for up to four people at participating museums, with a photo ID. More than 55 Michigan museums take part, including the Michigan Science Center, Impression 5 Science Center, The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum and the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Benefits vary by museum, so check each one.
- Free museum admission: The Kalamazoo Valley Museum offers free general admission, with planetarium shows costing a few dollars. Advance registration is encouraged.
- Sleeping Bear Dunes entrance pass: This is a national park site, so a park entrance pass is required. A vehicle pass covers everyone in the car and is valid for up to seven days, and you can buy it online or in person.
- Combo tickets: At Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills, LEGOLAND Discovery Center and SEA LIFE Michigan sell combo tickets that can save money over buying each separately.
Sensory-Friendly Options for Michigan Families
Many Michigan attractions now offer quieter, lower-stimulation visits. These are the ones worth knowing about if your child is sensitive to noise, crowds or bright lights.
- Detroit Zoo: Monthly Sensory-Friendly Hours throughout 2026, with reduced volume and adjusted lighting at the zoo and select attractions. They are included with regular admission.
- Impression 5 Science Center (Lansing): Sensory Friendly Hours with select exhibits modified to reduce sound, scent and light.
- Grand Rapids Children’s Museum: Sensory-friendly play sessions outside regular hours, run with Autism Support of Kent County.
- Great Lakes Children’s Museum (Traverse City): Earmuffs, weighted vests and neurodiversity resource packs are available at the front desk.
Things to Do With Kids in Metro Detroit and Southeast Michigan
Southeast Michigan has the state’s biggest concentration of family attractions, and most are within an hour of each other. For a deeper local list, see our guide to things to do in Southeast Michigan with kids.
Michigan Science Center (Detroit)
The Michigan Science Center is a Smithsonian-affiliated, hands-on science museum in Midtown Detroit with interactive exhibits, live stage shows, a planetarium and a 4D theater. Kids can walk across a miniature Mackinac Bridge inside. It participates in Museums for All.
Detroit Zoo (Royal Oak and Huntington Woods)
The Detroit Zoo covers 125 acres and was the first zoo in the country to use barless exhibits extensively. Standouts for kids are the Arctic Ring of Life, where you walk through a tunnel to watch polar bears swim past, and the Polk Penguin Conservation Center, one of the largest penguin habitats in the world.
The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village (Dearborn)
The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, Greenfield Village and the Ford Rouge Factory Tour all sit in Dearborn. Greenfield Village is an outdoor living-history village with more than 80 historic buildings, including the Wright brothers’ home and a replica of Thomas Edison’s laboratory. It is open April through December.
Great Lakes Crossing (Auburn Hills)
Three kid attractions share one indoor mall, which makes this a strong cold-weather or rainy-day plan.
- LEGOLAND Discovery Center Michigan: Built for ages 3 to 10, with Detroit-area landmarks made from LEGO bricks, two rides, a 4D cinema and several build-and-play zones. Adults must be accompanied by a child.
- SEA LIFE Michigan: Michigan’s largest aquarium, with a touch pool where kids can feel starfish and sea urchins.
- Peppa Pig World of Play: About a dozen free-roaming play areas for young children. Kids need socks and close-toed shoes, and the attraction is designed for children from 6 months to 8 years old.
Belle Isle Nature Center (Detroit)
Run by the Detroit Zoo, the Belle Isle Nature Center has hands-on exhibits about local plants, animals and waterways, plus an observation beehive. It is a good low-key stop on a day at Belle Isle Park.
Cider Mills and Orchards (Fall)
Fall is peak season, and Metro Detroit has some of the oldest cider mills in the state. Franklin Cider Mill in Bloomfield Hills opened in 1837 as a gristmill, and Yates Cider Mill in Rochester Hills has run on water power since 1863. Blake’s Orchard & Cider Mill in Armada opened in 1946 and was the first pick-your-own orchard in Michigan. Dexter Cider Mill, near Ann Arbor, is the oldest continuously operating cider mill in the state. See our full guide to the best cider mills and orchards in Michigan.
Michigan Renaissance Festival (Holly)
The festival runs on weekends from late August into early October on a 312-acre village site in Holly, with jousting, shows and artisans. The 2026 season ran August 22 through October 4, so it has wrapped up for this year. Expect it to return in late summer 2027. Children 4 and under got in free this season.
Things to Do With Kids in Mid-Michigan
Impression 5 Science Center (Lansing)
Impression 5 is a hands-on science center in downtown Lansing, popular with families for its physics and engineering exhibits and its water play area. It offers Sensory Friendly Hours and takes part in Museums for All.
Things to Do With Kids in West Michigan
Grand Rapids is one of the best bases for a family weekend, with several attractions within a short drive of each other. Our Grand Rapids destination guide covers where to stay and eat.
John Ball Zoo
The zoo sits on a hillside on Grand Rapids’ West Side with more than 2,000 animals. Kids can ride a funicular to the top of the property, take a camel ride or try the Sky Trail ropes course. The hills are real, so strollers and wagons need some muscle.
Grand Rapids Public Museum
Founded in 1854, the Public Museum has three floors of exhibits, a planetarium and a 1928 Spillman Carousel in a glass pavilion over the Grand River. Kids can walk a recreated 1890s Grand Rapids street.
Grand Rapids Children’s Museum
This downtown museum has nine exhibits across two floors, including “Little Grand Rapids,” where kids pretend to shop at a grocery store and handle money at a bank. It is a good fit for preschoolers and early grade-schoolers.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
The Lena Meijer Children’s Garden is one of the largest children’s gardens in the country, with a treehouse village, a boardwalk through wetlands and a Great Lakes water table. The five-story tropical conservatory is a warm stop in winter.
Things to Do With Kids in Southwest Michigan
Air Zoo (Portage)
The Air Zoo is in Portage, near Kalamazoo. It mixes a big aircraft collection, including an SR-71 Blackbird, with amusement rides and flight simulators. Plan on two to four hours, and expect families with young kids to spend more time at the rides.
Kalamazoo Valley Museum
This downtown Kalamazoo museum offers free general admission, with hands-on exhibits on history, science and technology and a planetarium that has been open since 1959. It is one of the best free rainy-day options in the state.
Things to Do With Kids in Northern Michigan
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Sleeping Bear protects 35 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, and the Dune Climb is the signature kid stop. Kids can scramble up the sand and run back down, and the climb offers a view of Glen Lake from the top. Here is the part many guides get wrong: the Dune Climb itself is only the first hill. The Dunes Trail from the top to Lake Michigan is a strenuous 3.5-mile round trip over several more dunes and typically takes three to four hours, so most families with younger children should stop at the top.
- Easier alternatives: Empire Bluff Trail is a 1.5-mile round trip with a big payoff view of Lake Michigan, and the Lake Michigan Overlook on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive gives you the view with no hiking.
- Junior Ranger: The park runs a Junior Ranger program for kids.
- Rules: Pets are prohibited on the Dune Climb and Dunes Trail. A park entrance pass is required. Bring water and sun protection, because the sand gets hot.
Traverse City
Traverse City is the easiest Northern Michigan base for families. The Great Lakes Children’s Museum now operates as The Curiosity Place inside the Grand Traverse Mall, and its exhibits are aimed at ages 1 to 8. A shipwreck-themed exhibit, “Shipwreck at Curiosity Bay,” opened in 2026. Great Wolf Lodge opened in Traverse City in 2003 and has a 38,000-square-foot indoor water park kept at 84 degrees year-round. For the full list, see our guide to things to do in Traverse City.
National Cherry Festival (Traverse City, July)
The 2027 National Cherry Festival runs July 3 through 10, with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels scheduled for July 3 and 4. It features more than 150 activities, including the nation’s largest all-children parade, and almost all events are free.
Ski Resorts and Indoor Water Parks
Winter is easy in northern Michigan. Nub’s Nob in Harbor Springs has 53 runs on 248 acres, and Boyne Mountain has about 415 skiable acres. Boyne is also home to Avalanche Bay, Michigan’s largest indoor water park at 88,000 square feet, which in 2005 was the first indoor water park at a ski resort in the country. See our guides to the best Michigan ski resorts, the best indoor water parks in Michigan and affordable indoor water parks.
Mackinac Island With Kids
Mackinac Island is the most memorable family trip in the state. It is car-free and reached by ferry, and kids under 5 ride the ferries free. Highlights for families:
- Bike the M-185 loop: The 8.2-mile shoreline road is the only state highway in the country that bans motor vehicles. It is paved and mostly flat, and most families finish in two to three hours with stops. You can rent bikes on the island, including kids’ bikes and trailers, or bring your own on the ferry.
- Fort Mackinac: Costumed interpreters fire cannons and rifles several times a day, and the fort has a hands-on Kids’ Quarters area.
- Free trails: Mackinac Island State Park covers about 80 percent of the island and has more than 70 miles of trails that are free to explore, including the climb to Arch Rock.
- Fudge: The island’s fudge shops are famous, and free samples are standard.
Plan at least two days if you can, and book ferries and lodging early in summer.
Things to Do With Kids in the Upper Peninsula
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Pictured Rocks stretches 42 miles along Lake Superior near Munising, with sandstone cliffs that rise up to 200 feet. Miners Castle is the only cliff area you can reach by car, which makes it an easy first stop for families. Munising Falls, a 50-foot waterfall, is a short, easy walk from the visitor center. Lake Superior is very cold, so plan on viewing the cliffs rather than swimming.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park
Tahquamenon’s Upper Falls is about 200 feet wide with a drop of roughly 50 feet, and the water is the color of root beer from tannins in the swamps upstream. The Lower Falls is a short, easy walk of about one mile round trip, which makes it a good fit for younger kids. A Recreation Passport is required.
Kitch-iti-kipi (Palms Book State Park)
Michigan’s largest natural freshwater spring is about 200 feet across and 40 feet deep. The water is so clear that kids can see fish and sand boils pushing up from the bottom. It is a quick, kid-friendly side trip from Manistique.
Michigan With Kids by Season
- Fall (now): Cider mills, pumpkin patches and fall color. Most cider mills open in late summer and stay open well into fall, and many are open year-round.
- Winter: Indoor water parks, skiing and snow tubing, plus indoor museums and the Detroit Zoo’s sensory-friendly days.
- Spring: Greenfield Village opens in April, and the Dune Climb and state parks are quieter before summer crowds arrive.
- Summer: The big outdoor season. Plan Sleeping Bear, Mackinac Island and Pictured Rocks, and the National Cherry Festival (July 3 to 10, 2027). The Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival is another summer family event, running about 10 days around the end of July and early August.
Looking for rides and thrills? See our guide to the best amusement parks in Michigan. Planning a bigger trip? Try our roundup of the best Michigan vacations for families.
Sample Michigan Family Itineraries
A rainy-day weekend in Metro Detroit
Spend Saturday at the Michigan Science Center in Midtown Detroit, then take Sunday at Great Lakes Crossing for LEGOLAND, SEA LIFE and Peppa Pig on a combo ticket.
A long weekend in West Michigan
Day one at John Ball Zoo and the Grand Rapids Public Museum carousel, day two at the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum and Meijer Gardens, and a beach stop at a Lake Michigan state park if the weather cooperates.
A northern Michigan family week
Base in Traverse City for the Great Lakes Children’s Museum and Great Wolf Lodge, spend a day at Sleeping Bear, then drive north to Mackinaw City for a two-day Mackinac Island trip.
An Upper Peninsula road trip
Cross the Mackinac Bridge, head to Tahquamenon Falls, then continue west to Pictured Rocks and Munising Falls. Add Kitch-iti-kipi on the way back through Manistique.
Frequently Asked Questions About Michigan With Kids
What are the best things to do in Michigan with kids?
The most popular picks are Sleeping Bear Dunes, Pictured Rocks, Mackinac Island, the Detroit Zoo, the Michigan Science Center, The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village, John Ball Zoo and the Air Zoo. For toddlers, try Peppa Pig World of Play, the Great Lakes Children’s Museum or the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum.
What are the best free or cheap things to do with kids in Michigan?
The Kalamazoo Valley Museum has free general admission, Mackinac Island State Park’s trails are free to explore, and Michigan state parks are covered by the $15 resident Recreation Passport. Families on SNAP can visit many museums for $3 or less through Museums for All.
What is there to do in Michigan with kids on a rainy day?
Try the Michigan Science Center, the Air Zoo, the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Impression 5 Science Center, the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, or the LEGOLAND and SEA LIFE attractions at Great Lakes Crossing.
Is Mackinac Island good for kids?
Yes. It is car-free, the 8.2-mile shoreline loop is flat and paved, Fort Mackinac has cannon firings and a kids’ area, and the state park trails are free. Kids under 5 ride the ferries free.
Can small kids climb the Sleeping Bear Dunes?
Yes, most kids can handle the Dune Climb itself, which is just the first big hill. The hike from the top to Lake Michigan is a strenuous 3.5-mile round trip, so it is best for older kids and adults who are ready for a three- to four-hour trek.
What are good things to do with kids in Michigan in winter?
Indoor water parks at Great Wolf Lodge and Boyne Mountain’s Avalanche Bay, skiing and tubing at resorts like Nub’s Nob and Boyne Mountain, and indoor museums and zoos.
Are there sensory-friendly options in Michigan?
Yes. The Detroit Zoo offers monthly Sensory-Friendly Hours in 2026, Impression 5 and the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum run sensory-friendly sessions, and the Great Lakes Children’s Museum lends earmuffs and weighted vests.
Plan the Rest of Your Trip
Explore our regional guides for where to stay and eat near each of these attractions, starting with Southeast Michigan, West Michigan, Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.