“What are we doing today?”
As the long shadow of winter creeps over Rochester, parents around the region brace themselves for this question.
Gone are the days when the weekend would stretch out in front of you, lazily, tempting you with endless possibilities but holding you to none. Instead, life has now reoriented itself around the entertainment of your seemingly insatiable offspring.
Thankfully, Rochester has you covered.
“We do have more creative indoor options here than in other parts of the country,” said Debra Ross. She cofounded the web calendar kidsoutandabout.com in the early 2000s, when her own kids were small.
With local institutions like The Strong and the Rochester Museum & Science Center, the city is already a pretty family-focused area, and the storied western New York weather makes it an obvious choice for businesses that cater to indoor recreation.
“We have a hard time in the winter,” Ross said. “Kids climbing the walls is a real thing!”
So whether you are looking for somewhere to make special memories with your kid — or just take a break — here are four places where climbing the walls is practically encouraged.
LADYBUGS PLAY, FAIRPORT | LADYBUGSPLAY.COM
The indoor playground model is a simple one: Take playground equipment, put it inside four walls and give your children a free-range experience without the threat of rain, sleet, snow or hail.
“We live in an area where you really are forced indoors, right?” said Alicia Drury, co-owner of Ladybugs Play in Fairport, which she opened with her sister in 2019. Before that, they and their children were regular visitors to indoor playgrounds themselves.
“We are here to provide a service to the community that we felt was so important to us in that phase of our life,” she added. “We are moms that get it.”
The 2,500-square-foot space has toys and slides and sensory play, common to many indoor playgrounds, but Ladybugs has a distinct feel, with its bright primary colors and intimate layout.
It is a lot different than what was available when Drury was young. Back then, she remembers being shooed outside and left to play independently a lot more than today’s kids.
“I feel like it’s not for us to judge, it’s just how it is,” she said.
For Drury, and other parents, indoor playgrounds pose an easy solution to another, more insidious threat: Screens.
“It’s so easy right now to lose your children to electronics, regardless of their age.”
Ladybugs offers open play time six days a week, a summer camp and even a drop-off program. Pre-registration is required.
BOUNCE HOPPER, PITTSFORD | BOUNCEHOPPER.COM
Kid won’t stop jumping on the couch? Pouya Seifzadeh has just the place.
“Sometimes you just need kids to burn off some energy,” he said.
Seifzadeh and his wife, Isar, are the owners of Bounce Hopper in Pittsford – where kids are free to bounce their little socks off. They opened the facility in 2019 after the success of their first business, the large indoor playground Ontario Play & Cafe on Scottsville Road.
Their son was the inspiration for both ventures.
“We were constantly looking for places to take him to play,” Seifzadeh said.
While indoor playgrounds like Ladybugs and Ontario may cater to children as young as 1- and 2-years-old, Bounce Hopper is a good option for slightly older kids.
The 17,000-square-foot facility is home to a 28-foot inflatable slide and other oversized, oversaturated, air-filled structures and obstacles. But while the equipment is slightly different, Seifzadeh’s vision mirrors Drury’s as well as those of other peers in this industry.
“We want our business to operate like if we took our son to a place,” he said. “Somewhere we could sit down and relax, be able to see our son, interact with him to some extent, while we enjoy something else, like work or a cup of coffee.”
Bounce Hopper has open play time Thursday through Tuesday and is a popular destination for birthday parties. It’s also conveniently located at 3300 Monroe Ave., the site of two other indoor playgrounds: ROC Kid City and Magical Mess.
USA NINJA CHALLENGE, EAST ROCHESTER | NINJAROCHESTER.COM
If indoor playgrounds and bounce houses represent the chaos of unstructured play, Ninja Gyms are something more lawful.
At USA Ninja Challenge, kids of all ages go through a variety of obstacle courses with rings to swing on, walls to climb and mats to tumble over.
Owner Melissa McCarthy is a family nurse practitioner who was working on a reservation in South Dakota when she realized she wanted to do more work to prevent health problems, rather than treat them.
“We have just gotten away from the basics of just letting kids be kids and letting them run around,” she said.
McCarthy opened the New Hampshire-based franchise earlier this year, and she, too, pitches her business as a viable alternative to screens.
“I have two toddlers,” she said, “and I am really trying my best to not incorporate that into our daily routine as a family.”
The gym offers structured classes, although McCarthy said they are thinking about starting open gym time for members. And unlike other some other ninja gyms, rock climbing gyms and gymnastics studios, USA Ninja Challege is just for kids and teens.
GTFO ESCAPE ROOM, EAST AVE | GTFOESCAPEROOMS.COM
With so many activities for younger kids, the needs of older kids — especially teenagers — are easy to overlook.
Will Mitchell, one of eight co-owners of GTFO Escape Rooms, said their rooms can bring a family game night to the next level. While not as physically taxing as a gym or playground, this genre of entertainment requires more mental exertion.
“The twist to escape rooms is that the interaction groups have is real quality time,” he said.
Right now, GTFO has two rooms with two different themes and myriad puzzles to solve to escape. Their “Escape the ’90s” room transports you to a millennial fever dream, complete with period-specific props like a tube TV, a Furby and that little car track area rug reminiscent of a pediatrician’s office. Their ‘Prison Break’ room forces groups to separate into two jail cells, collaborating through a wall to decipher clues.
Mitchell said the interactions between families are fun to watch, especially when parents have never done an escape room before.
“It’s interesting to see that dynamic where kids are sort of leading the charge and helping guide and direct their parents,” he added.
While not specifically geared toward kids, Mitchell said they have all kinds of young people come through – families with kids as young as 6, birthday parties for preteens and groups of teenagers and young adults.
Participants are given an hour to solve each escape room, and reservations are required. Mitchell said they plan to open a new room, with a brand new theme, in the next few weeks.
Still stumped? Here are six more businesses that cater to indoor activities for families all year long:
- The Brick Lab, Spencerport | thebricklab.com
- Horizon Fun F/X, Greece | horizonfunfx.com
- Altitude Trampoline Park, Henrietta | altitudetrampolinepark.com
- Bowlero, Webster | bowlero.com
- Tim Hortons Iceplex, Brighton | timhortonsiceplex.com
- Paintbox, Pittsford | paintboxrochester.com
Coming soon:
Play Palace in Henrietta | An inclusive indoor playground operated by a former special education teacher is slated to open this winter. rocplaypalace.com
Veronica Volk is a reporter at WXXI. She can be reached at vvolk@wxxi.org.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
