If you check the forecast, you might be surprised to see that its suppose to be rainy and wet for the next 10 days or so! After having so much really nice, hot weather, it might be hard to think of some indoor activities and places to visit. I made this list to fill our calendar in the next week. Hopefully you’ll find it useful for some rainy day ideas too!
Indoor Entertainment & Game Room Fun
Sometimes its good to have a little fun. I’m sharing this idea first, but you might want to end your week with it, almost as a celebration that your family made it through this rainy week this summer! Here are some indoor fun place ideas in Lancaster County and surrounding areas:
- The Works Arcade & Game Room (Wyomissing, about 30 minutes from Lancaster) They are running a special right now, if you buy 2 deals you get 1 deal free. What’s a deal? For just $10 you can purchase $20 worth of game tickets. When I took my 4 and 8 year old a few weeks ago, this was enough to play games for over an hour. Be sure to use the promo code WORKS2018B2GO.
- Laserdome (Lancaster). Get an Ultimate Pass for just $14.99 (or if that one is sold out, check here to see if more are available). This is good for 5 hours of unlimited activities like Laser Tag, Pinball Alley, Xbox Zone, Racing Zone and the roller coaster simulator.
- Indoor Trampoline Park. Local options include SkyZone (Lancaster & Harrisburg), or XtremeAir (Wyomissing). XtremeAir is currently running a special to buy 2 deals and get 1 for FREE, which means you’ll get a total of 6 one-hour jump passes for the price of two deals. That’s six hours of jump time (can be used for six different kids or adults) for just $27.90. Be sure to use the code XTREMEAIR2018B2GO.
- Slick Willy’s Karts (Wyomissing). Slick Willy’s offers high-octane fun in electric karts! Racers must be 48″ or taller and must have a guardian sign for them. You can buy 2 deals and get 1 for free with the code SLICKWILLYS2018B2GO, and that will get you 6 kart races for just $36.
- Go N Bananas (Lancaster). Includes a toddler zone, arcade, ropes course, mini bowling, laser tag, laser mazes, a spin zone and more. Visit their website to learn more.
- FREE Indoor Play Areas. If you have toddlers or preschoolers, you’ll enjoy this list of free indoor play areas in Lancaster county. Do you know where all of them are? At the bottom of the post you’ll also find an extensive list of indoor play areas with a fee.
Field Trips
One of our favorite things to do on a rainy day is visit That Fish Place That Pet Place (Rohrestown). If it’s not on your list of places to go, I show you why it should be in this detailed post! It is almost like visiting a free indoor zoo or aquarium! There are tons of animals and fish for kids to see and looking at on rainy days, winter days or even hot summer days since its all air-conditioned. And the best part is—it’s FREE!
Other field trip options could include:
- Crayola Experience (Easton) Pay just $20.99 for two admission tickets!
- Indian Echo Caverns (Hummelstown)
- Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery Tour (Lititz)
- Turkey Hill Experience (Columbia). Did you hear that you can get a free ticket to here by purchasing Turkey Hill items at Weis? Learn the details from my friend Coupon Cutting Mom.
- LegoLand Discovery Center (Philadelphia). Save $7 on your admission ticket.
- Tiny Town (Lancaster). Read our family’s completely honest review of TinyTown.
- Hands on House (Lancaster)
- Choo Choo Barn (Strasburg). You’ll see a setup very similar to what we saw at Christmastime.
- Hershey Chocolate World. We surprised our kids with a visit here a few years ago!
Museums
One of our favorite Lancaster County Experience Christmas Gifts that we enjoy is a membership to the Lancaster Science Factory. We love to visit there on rainy days, and use the membership to visit other somewhat-nearby kids museums with the ASTC passport.
Here are some local museums we recommend:
- Science Factory (Lancaster)
- Davinci Science Center (Allentown)
- Heritage Press Museum (Lancaster City)
- National Watch & Clock Museum (Marietta)
- Railroad Museum of PA (Strasburg)
- National Toy Train Museum
- LancasterHistory.org Museum (Lancaster)
- Franklin Institute (Philadelphia)
- Adventure Aquarium (New Jersey)
- The State Museum of PA (Harrisburg) On Fridays this summer, they are offering “pay as you wish” admission. If you have dinosaur lovers, you might want to check out the one floor at this museum!
Indoor Recreation
- Bowling. Have you signed up for the summer kids bowl free program at 222 Dutch Lanes, Rocky Springs and Berks Lanes? Every Wednesday, Leisure Lanes offers $1 Family Fun Day too! If you want to go as a family in the evening, you can also enjoy some savings with these deals:
- $10 for $20 at Leisure Lanes
- $10 for $20 at Clearview Lanes
- Family Sunday Night Glow Bowling at Berks Lanes (pay just $25 for 5 people to enjoy unlimited bowling and shoe rentals for up to 2 hours)
- $15 for $30 at 222 Dutch Lanes
- $15 for $30 at Clearview Lanes
- $15 for $30 at Leisure Lanes
- Roller Skating. You used to be able to sign up for free roller skating passes every week, but now you need to pay a $4 per child administrative setup fee. This is still a fantastic deal if you love roller skating! Check it out here.
- Ice Skating. It might seem strange, but why not go ice skating in the middle of summer? Regency Ice Rink (Lancaster) is offering $20 for 4 admissions (including 4 rentals)!
- Gymnastics. Fusion Gymnastics in Lititz offers an open gym every Friday for just $5 per kid (ages walking to 6 years old). You could also consider their Saturday Night Date Night (with this coupon its just $10/kid for 3 hours from 6-9pm).
- Archery Lessons. Lancaster Archery offers $25 for an archery lesson for two including equipment and range time.
- Scuba Lessons. Ok this might seem weird, and honestly I don’t know the age requirement, but it would be a pretty neat activity to sign up your older kids for a scuba lesson on a rainy day wouldn’t it?!
Movies & Theaters
Several local theaters offer free or discounted movies during the summer. Here is a complete list of local Lancaster County movie theaters and a pricing guide.
- Penn Cinema (Lititz) offers $3 movies on Wednesdays. Check here to see what’s playing this week.
- RC Theaters (Reading) offers completely FREE movies Tuesday thru Thursday in their IMAX theater.
- Sight & Sound. Don’t miss our tips for taking kids to Sight & Sound Theater! Did you know that Lancaster County residents can call the morning of a show to see if there are any unsold tickets? If so, you’ll receive a heavy discount on your ticket purchase.
- Plain & Fancy Theater. Pay just $19.95 for two tickets.
Local Libraries
Your local library is the perfect place to spend a rainy day. You’ll often find special classes or activities throughout the day and evenings for kids and adults and sometimes for the entire family. Be sure to check your local library’s calendar for events, and also for their hours. Please note that the Ephrata library is closed on Fridays.
- Eastern Lancaster County Library
- Elizabethtown Public Library
- Ephrata Public Library
- Lancaster Public Library
- Leola Library
- Lititz Public Library
- Manheim Community Library
- Manheim Township Library
- Pequea Valley Library (Intercourse)
- Strasburg Public Library
If you want to check out a really unique library in the Lancaster County Library System, that focuses on books and videos that are science, animal and plants related, check out the Shuts Environmental Library at the Lancaster County Central Park.
Indoor Pools and Water Parks
Your local Rec Center or YMCA probably has open swim times. As long as there are no thunderstorms, this could be a great activity to get your kids energy out.
Also, here’s a list of 10 Indoor Water Parks near Lancaster County. These are not free, and some of them are more like a day trip away (or even a weekend trip), but if you really don’t like the rain and want to get your kids in the water, they might be worth checking out.
DEAL ALERT >> Just this week Great Wolf Lodge (indoor water park) started offering their popular deal again, starting at just $99/night. Check to see if any open dates work for you!
Food
If you are out and about you might want to stop for some food. Or maybe you want to enjoy a date night while your kids are at the Fusion Gymnastics Kids Night Out. Or maybe you’d just like to enjoy some unique foods touring the county for the day. Here are a few ideas:
- Ideas to do with kids:
- Kids Eat FREE Restaurants in Lancaster County
- Ice Cream Shops. Considering touring a few ice cream shops in the county.
- Wayback Burgers in Millersville. Use this coupon to save on your visit!
- Golden Corral Buffet
- Go out for breakfast for something different:
- Terre Hill Family Restaurant
- IHOP. Kids love to make their own pancake face!
- Date Night Ideas:
- If your days get really full and you need to order take-out or delivery:
- Wild Wings
- Dominos Pizza Use code DOMINOSBOGO to get 2 deals for the price of 1 (that’s $40 worth of pizza for just $10!)
Well there you go, it took me entirely too long to write this post, but I sure had fun compiling it! I certainly hope you find it useful and filled with some creative inspiration for enjoying your summer to its fullest with your family. Let me know if you have any other good ideas to include on this list—I’d love to hear from you!
