Rain, June Gloom, or 95° inland
Indoor & rainy-day activities
Curated by Simir Shah
Just looking for soft-play, bounce houses and toddler play centers? See SoCal indoor playgrounds →
Prices shown are per person unless the listing says otherwise.
Just for parents
203 family spots across Southern California — add your zipto sort by what's closest
Pump It Up / Indoor Bounce
Lake Forest · Indoor Play
Wall-to-wall inflatable bounce houses, slides, and obstacle courses fill this indoor jump park, with public open-jump sessions running year-round…
Open-jump ~$12–$15
Color Me Mine Pottery Painting
Mission Viejo · Arts & Culture
Paint-your-own pottery studio — calm, creative, air-conditioned, and you leave with a keepsake. Great for a rainy afternoon. Pick from hundreds of…
Studio fee + piece ($15–$40)
Great Park Ice Public Skate
Irvine · Indoor Play
The Anaheim Ducks' official practice facility, this 280,000-square-foot complex — the largest ice facility in California, with four rinks including…
~$15 admission + skate rental
Hangar 244 Heritage & Aviation Exhibition
Irvine · Museums & Learning
A 10,000-square-foot former El Toro hangar showing historical photographs and a nine-minute archive film about the Marine air station that became…
Admission not published
Great Park Gallery
Irvine · Arts & Culture
A free city gallery inside a restored El Toro air base building at Great Park, with rotating exhibitions and working artist studios alongside.
Free
Pretend City Children's Museum
Irvine · Indoor Play
A miniature city of 17 interactive learning spaces — designed by architect David Rockwell — where kids run a grocery store, hop in a fire truck, tend…
~$18.50/person
FreeIrvine Fine Arts Center
Irvine · Arts & Culture
An 18,000-square-foot city art centre in Heritage Park with rotating local-artist exhibitions and ceramics, painting and printmaking studios. Free to…
Free to visit; classes charged separately
FreeHeritage Park Library
Irvine · Museums & Learning
Irvine's largest library branch, next door to the Fine Arts Center in Heritage Park, with a big children's collection and a used bookstore. Moved…
Free
Ocean Institute
Dana Point · Museums & Learning
Touch tanks, a research vessel outfitted with underwater cameras and video microscopes, and maritime history programs right on the Dana Point harbor.…
~$12.50/person weekends
FreeUniversity Park Library
Irvine · Museums & Learning
A neighbourhood library on Sandburg Way, two minutes' walk from Adventure Playground — which makes it the obvious swap when the weather turns…
Free
Katie Wheeler Library
Irvine · Museums & Learning
A library rebuilt as a faithful replica of the 1876 Irvine family ranch house, with a children's room, a wraparound porch and an orange-grove…
Free
Irvine Historical Museum
Irvine · Museums & Learning
Irvine's oldest surviving building, an 1868 ranch cookhouse, now a small volunteer-run history museum. Volunteer-staffed, so their own site asks you…
$2 donation suggested
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