How to Find Parks for Children in Austin

Kids don't play the way they used to, running loose and unsupervised through the neighborhood and countryside. Today's parents like to schedule their children's play in a safe place where they can watch them. Even if you're not like that, you probably enjoy taking your kids to the park, to a place designed so your kid can have a good time. Here are some of the better parks for Austin kids.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. If you need a one-stop shopping kind of place, you can't go wrong with the venerable Zilker Park. It's huge. It has Barton Springs Pool, athletic fields, a miniature train, picnic areas and acres and acres of lush green grass. It's also home to an annual kite festival.
2. Kids and dogs are always a great combination--provided the kids know how to play with dogs without tormenting them. Pease Park is home to a wonderful dog park, where well-groomed pure breeds strut around like Chanel models and mutts roll around in mud. Pease also has a playground, picnic facilities, wading pool, disc golf, basketball courts and volleyball pitches.
3. If you're looking for a place to take your kids to both play and eat, try Central Park. Grab some food at the Central Market Cafe, eat out on the deck and let the kids hit the playground a few feet away. Later you can take them for a walk around the man-made lake or buy them a book at Bookstop. And no kid can leave Central Park without having a go at the chimes and bells outside Clarksville Pottery.
4. If you'd prefer to avoid the hurly-burly, noisy, hectic parks, check out Eastwoods just north of campus. It's the secret sort of place you stumble across by accident and it doesn't attract the same amount of patrons as the larger parks. Popular with bird watchers, it includes basketball and tennis courts, a softball field, picnic facilities, a wading pool, swings, a bridge over Waller Creek, a short hike and bike trail, a playground for toddlers and a statue of Eeyore the Donkey, from the "Winnie-the-Pooh" books.
5. For a good, old-fashioned neighborhood park bordered by quiet streets, go to the Rosedale neighborhood in North Central Austin and check out Ramsey Park. Here you can play baseball, tennis or basketball, swim or have a cook-out. There's one playground for toddlers and another for older kids. And you're not likely to lose track of your kid because the park consists of only five acres.