City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (513) 671-5501

Address: 11775 Commons Drive

Description: More than 200 interactive and carnival games, a ski simulator, and more make this complex a popular destination. The size of a football field, Dave & Buster’s also features bowling, simulation golf, and an on-site restaurant. In case you’re contemplating the old dump-and-run, forget it—the management strictly enforces the rule that all children and teens must be accompanied by an adult over age 25. Only two kids per guardian are allowed. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to midnight weekdays, 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday (but no one younger than 21 is allowed in after 10:00 p.m.). There is no admission charge; you pay per game.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (800) 913-9653

Address: 2501 Great Wolf Drive

Description: Here’s something to howl about. Great Wolf Lodge, a $100-million indoor water park that spans 79,000 square feet, is a splashy facility that joins its nearby counterparts, the Beach Waterpark and Boomerang Bay at Kings Island theme park, making Mason seemingly the water-park capital of the world. However, this water park is enclosed and features six warm pools with 11 waterslides, including a water roller coaster. The park also boasts a four-story tree-house water fort. The park is open daily, year-round. Room rates are $169 to $699 (the water park is open to room guests only).

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (513) 771-8733

Address: 10405 Springfield Pike

Description: Highfield Discovery Garden is a new facility designed especially for small kids. The two-acre playground is themed to children’s literature—Frog and Toad pond, Harry Potter garden, and more. A fabricated 25-foot tree is full of crawling and climbing tubes. It’s open Tuesday through Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (call first if the mercury dips below freezing; the gardens may close for safety reasons).

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (606) 564-5865

Address: 215 Sutton Street, Maysville

Description: The Kentucky Gateway Museum is actually a number of museums rolled up into one facility. The Kathleen Browning Miniatures Collection is housed in one 3,300-square-foot gallery, featuring doll houses with historic value including a re-creation of Spencer House, the ancestral home of Princess Di. The Regional History Museum includes furniture, quilts, weapons, and more. And the Genealogical & Historic Research Library contains documents dating from Colonial times. Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $7.00 for museum and library, $4.00 for museum only, $3.50 for library only, $1.00 students.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (513) 386-9907

Address: 11700 Princeton Pike

Description: One of Cincinnati’s newest indoor theme parks, Krazy City features 50,000 square feet packed with amusement-park rides such as the spinning Tornado, bumper cars and kiddie swings, arcade games, minigolf, bowling, and a Speedway go-kart track. Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. weekdays, 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $19.99.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (513) 459-8885

Address: 2501 Great Wolf Drive

Description: If your kids need a break from the average recreational activities, take ‘em to MagiQuest, a live-action adventure game. Mixing fairies, dragons, magic, and treasure, it’s described as a high-tech interactive scavenger hunt. Players accumulate higher powers as they charge through this Renaissance-themed fantasy, solving riddles and hunting out clues as their magic wand signals for special effects and records their accomplishments. The magic wand is $14.99. Cost of each game day is $9.99.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Address: 1763 Hamilton–Cleves Road

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (606) 756-2603

Address: 106 East Riverside Drive, Augusta

Description: The Rosemary Clooney House Museum, the home of the late singer and entertainer, is a fun family diversion. The home features the largest display of costumes and memorabilia from the film White Christmas. Rosemary isn’t the most famous Clooney to once live in this tiny river town, by the way: Her relatives include American Movie Channel host Nick Clooney and Hollywood actor George Clooney. Hours of the museum are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Sunday, with weekday tours by arrangement.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Address: 4521 Spring Grove Avenue

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (513) 671-0100

Description: One of Cincinnati’s newest theme parks, WonderPark stars a two-story indoor roller coaster. The family entertainment center features a rain-forest theme and 100 video arcade games, amusement rides, and more, geared to children ages 2 to 12. It’s open noon to 6:00 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $1 to $2 per ride.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Description: Dozens of tiny parks—Annwood, the Wulsin Triangle, Buttercup Valley, Geier Esplanade—pepper the Cincinnati metro area. But Fleisch-mann Gardens, located on the former estate of the founder of the Fleischmann Yeast Co., is our favorite tiny park for families. The slab-stone trail is an easy hike for even the youngest ones—call it, um, the path of yeast resistance.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (513) 474-0003

Address: 8249 Clough Pike

Description: The playground here is fully loaded, with numerous climbing, sliding, digging, and swinging options. The Anderson Park District puts on free movies under the stars on some summer evenings here, which make for a great family outing. Call for details.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Description: This incredibly elaborate park rivals any Discovery Zone for its tubes and slides, and best yet, it’s free. The huge wooden castle was built by a Thousand Hands committee of community volunteers, and their loving touch shows in the craftsmanship. Your tykes won’t ever want to leave.

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Description: The state of Ohio’s first “Universally Accessible Treehouse” is a clubhouse built high in Mt. Airy Forest, and it’s devised in such a way that children in wheelchairs can get into it (via a ramp system).

City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (513) 474-0580

Description: A “sprayground” at Woodland Mound features a 16-foot tree with two slides, whimsical and spraying blue herons, frogs, and turtles. The sprayground incorporates no standing water, making parents of toddlers happy, and includes adjacent picnic tables and concession sales. In addition to several small swing and slide areas, Woodland Mound has a large, fully equipped play area with tunnel slides, jungle gyms, and plenty of sand. It also has a nice kid-size nature trail adjacent to Seasongood Nature Center.