Arkansas' capital, Little Rock, got its name when in 1722, a French explorer sailing up the Arkansas River called it "La Petite Roche." Today, families will find a myriad of activities to enjoy in Little Rock. Nicknamed, "The Natural State," you'll find interesting and exciting indoor and outdoor activities throughout the year here that allow you to spend quality time with your family.
Families have enjoyed watching productions by the Arkansas Arts Center's (arkarts.com) Children's Theatre since 1979. Take the entire family to watch a fully-staged theater production. Some of the productions have included "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "The Giant and the Beanstalk," "Junie B.," and "The Jungle Book." You can save by purchasing season tickets and you can choose from flexible ticket packages. These packages allow you to choose from three-, four- and six-play packs and other types of family-savings packages.
The Arkansas River Trail (rivertrail.org) has about 24 miles of trail in central Arkansas and is a place where families can enjoy the outdoors. Plan a day with your family to spend the day participating in activities together such as going for a walk, jogging, biking or roller blading. Another activity that families can enjoy along the trail is watching wildlife. You might see great blue herons, ground hogs, scissortail flycatchers, quail and mullard ducks. The river trail is a safe and clean scenic trail that is handicapped accessible.
Arkansas Skatium (arkansasskatium.com) has an ice rink and a roller rink where people of all ages can have a good time. The ice and roller rinks are open on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with special skating times on Christmas eve, Christmas day, New Year's eve and New Year's day. As of 2011, you can take your family to roller skate to disco, 80's and rock music during "DJ Retro Friday Night Skate." During "Family Fun Skate," up to six family members can ice or roller skate for a special rate. Admission this event includes free skate rental, a large pizza and a pitcher of soda.
Plan a visit with the entire family to the over 33-acre Little Rock Zoo (littlerockzoo.com). Everyone will be amazed at the more than 725 animals that are housed in the stroller-friendly and ADA accessible zoo. Aside from zoo animals, you can ride the antique carousel and the train, purchase fish food and feed the fish in the fish feeding stations, feed the lorikeet birds and attend special events at the zoo throughout the year. Little Rock Zoo is open daily except for Thanksgiving, Christmas day and New Year’s day.
During the warmer months, spend the day in Willow Springs Water Park (willowsprings.net), where families have been cooling off since 1928. Activities include swimming in the sandy-bottom spring or kiddy Pool, sliding down the 400-foot waterslide, playing in the playground, jumping on the water trampolines, challenging friends and family to the log roll and playing water basketball, volleyball, and tetherball, horseshoes, basketball and soccer. Group rates for 15 to 50 people and season passes are available.
