We had such an amazing time in Salt Lake City! Being in the snow and surrounded my snow covered mountains is a magical feeling! It makes the scenery so picturesque it almost looks too perfect to be true!
Even though wrangling the luggage, the kids and my husband lol through the airport can be a little crazy on travel days, seeing the world through Camila’s and Landon’s eyes make it so worth all the craziness. We absolutely love traveling with the kids!
There is SO much to do in Salt Lake City with kids so if you are wondering what is worth visiting, I am sharing some things we did that you don’t want to miss!
9 Things To Do With Kids In Salt Lake City
- This Is The Place– On our first full day in Salt Lake City we spent the morning at This Is The Place Heritage Park. The perfect spot to learn about when the pioneers first arrived in Utah all while keeping the kids entertained! I’m not a huge “let’s go learn about history” person but Brandon is and I can even say even I really enjoyed this!! We started with a little train ride around the “town”. The park is designed to make you feel like you traveled back in time to the 19th century. In addition to all of the pioneer buildings, staff is dressed in historical dress and there are a ton of activities for the kids to get involved in. During the summer the kids can pan for gold, watch a show in the giant teepee in the Native American Village, watch the men carve wood at the wood carving shop, play with pioneer era toys and so much more! And if the kids aren’t tired out yet, there’s a really nice playground area on property for more running around!
- Snow Tubing – As you can imagine during this time of year, you have your pick on places to go snow tubing. Woodward Park City was actually closer to downtown Salt Lake City where we were staying and was highly recommended but the minimum age requirement there was 4 so we drove the 45 minutes to Soldier Hollow so that both the kids could go snow tubing and it did not disappoint! The minimum age there is 3. When we arrived we realized they were the longest tubing lanes in all of Utah! They had an amazing sound system and there was music playing all day. They kids were dancing between slides. It was my most favorite day of the trip for sure!
- Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum – The Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum is 3 floors and over 60,000 square feet of interactive fun. They even have a separate “quiet” room for painting. We could have probably spent an entire day here. Landon said after snow tubing (and my amazing snowman skills lol), this was his second favorite thing about the trip. The STEAM Lab, honey climber and “car shop” where Landon got to pretend to be a mechanic were his favorite things to do there.
- Clark Planetarium– The was right across the street from Gateway Children’s Museum so you could do both in one day with a lunch in the Gateway area. The Clark Planetarium is such a fun, hands on museum where kids can learn about space and it’s FREE! Yes, you heard me right. So if you want to give your wallet a break during vacation, visit Clark Planetarium. It’s 3 floors of interactive exhibits.
- Visit Thanksgiving Point – There is so much to do at Thanksgiving Point. It’s about a 25 minute drive from downtown Salt Lake City but while you are there you can spend the entire day here. Whether you want to surround yourself with beautiful butterflies at the Butterfly Biosphere, milk a cow at Farm Country or galavant through themed gardens and man made waterfalls at Ashton Gardens, Thanksgiving Point has something to do for all! Just FYI though, I pictured it as everything in walkable distance (not sure why) but if you want to visit multiple museums you will have to drive a short distance to each. They are all in the same vicinity so you could definitely see multiple museums in one day!
- The Museum of Natural Curiosity– I highly recommend this museum for the curious kids in your life! The Museum of Natural Curiousity is one of the amazing museums located in Thanksgiving Point. I know I mentioned the area above but this was Camila’s favorite museum so I felt the need to tell you it’s a must for kids! It has a ginormous indoor treehouse, “kid city” with a pretend music studio, theater, bank, etc. There’s a section with an indoor water play area and a room that teaches kids all about hurricanes and earthquakes. We also spent a lot of time chasing eachother along the pond and sliding through the rock caves.
- Utah State Capitol- Take a self guided tour through the Utah State Capitol and print these worksheets out for the kids to make it fun with a scavenger hunt! It’s stunning architecture just to even look at from the street but here is a page from the Utah State Capitol that includes activities for the kids and also other visitor resources.
- Ogden Dinosaur Park – With 65 life like dinosaurs around paths and hidden in the woods, what is there for a kid not to love here?! Ogden’s Dinosaur Park is about 40 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City. There’s also an area where kids can practice digging for fossils, two park play areas and there is a connected indoor museum with large dinosaur and gem displays. This museum is not that big so I would say 2 hours is plenty of time!
- Trolley Square– We didn’t have this on our to do list originally but stumbled upon it as we were searching for a Brazilian Steakhouse one afternoon. The steakhouse we ended up at was only a 4/10 TBH but the Trolley Shopping Square was so cute! It’s designed around old trolleys that used to transport passengers in the 1800s. The Trolley Square has shops, restaurants and gym studios like Barre and Orange Theory if you want to get your sweat on.
There are so many fun things to do in Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas with kids! We had such a great time. We were even able to cheer on the Houston Rockets at a Jazz vs. Rockets basketball while we were there. Unfortunately, the game did not end in our favor but still fun lol and such a nice stadium!
If you have been on the fence about taking a family trip to Salt Lake City, here is your sign to BOOK.THE.TRIP!!!
xo, Roselyn
