Looking for the best things to do with kids in Redmond? This Eastside city is a family-friendly haven, with a huge regional park, a farm park with animals, and top attractions nearby in Bellevue and Seattle. This local family guide covers Redmond’s top kid-friendly attractions, museums, outdoor fun, and rainy-day options — plus how to find what local parents actually recommend.

Top things to do with kids in Redmond

Marymoor Park is the family centerpiece — an enormous park with a big playground, a climbing rock, trails, and open space at the north end of Lake Sammamish. Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park lets kids meet farm animals, and the Sammamish River Trail is perfect for family biking.

Kid-friendly museums & attractions in Redmond

Redmond’s family fun is largely outdoors, but nearby Bellevue’s KidsQuest Children’s Museum and Seattle’s Pacific Science Center and aquarium — all a short drive away — provide top museum experiences.

Parks & outdoor fun for families

Marymoor Park’s playground, climbing rock, and trails, Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park’s animals, and Idylwood Beach Park on Lake Sammamish give families excellent outdoor options, with the bike-friendly trails a local highlight. For more, see our guide to the best parks and outdoor spots in Redmond.

Rainy-day & indoor options in Redmond

On rainy Pacific Northwest days, families head to nearby Bellevue’s KidsQuest Children’s Museum or Seattle’s Pacific Science Center and aquarium, plus local indoor play centers.

What local parents in Redmond recommend

Kids’ favorites, new attractions, and which spots are worth it at each age change all the time — and local parents know the details that listings miss. On Neighborhood Nurturers’ Redmond community, real Redmond parents share what their kids genuinely love. For more ideas, see our guide to the best things to do in Redmond. Join your Redmond neighbors free and get real family recommendations →

Fitting it into a day in Redmond

Family spots here range from playgrounds to hands-on museums, and locals know which hold up on a rainy day. What sets Redmond apart is how close everything sits together. Start near Marymoor Park, work in one of the spots from this guide, and you are minutes from the Redmond Central Connector trail if you want to keep going. Locals often round out a day out with the kids with a detour to the Sammamish River Trail or a quieter stop at Idylwood Beach. Because the distances are short, you can improvise as you go rather than lock the whole day down in advance.

More Redmond guides

Redmond rewards people who dig a little deeper. These related guides map the same neighborhoods from different starting points: Free things to do in Redmond, Parks in Redmond, Things to do in Redmond — enough to plan a whole day or two.

Get a local’s take

Guides are a starting point; the current, on-the-ground details come from people who live in Redmond. Hours shift, favorites change, and residents always know what is genuinely worth it now. Ask Redmond neighbors directly or join your town community free to hear from real locals.

Marymoor Park does most of the work

If you have children and one day in Redmond, this is the answer, and it is not close.

Marymoor Park at 6046 West Lake Sammamish Parkway NE is 640 acres — a King County regional park, which is why a city of about 80,000 has facilities on this scale.

For families specifically: a playground, a 30-foot climbing wall, open fields on a scale children can genuinely run out of energy in, the Sammamish River Trail for bikes and scooters, and the 40-acre off-leash dog park if the dog is part of the family.

And the velodrome — a 400-metre banked track, the only one in Washington. Watching bicycle racing on a banked track is free and is exactly the kind of thing children remember, precisely because it is strange. The park runs programmes for riders at all levels, so an older child who is serious about cycling has somewhere real to go.

In summer, Marymoor Live concerts and outdoor movie nights add evening options. Check the calendar before a visit either way — an event day changes the parking and the atmosphere completely. Full detail in the Marymoor Park guide.

Idylwood Beach Park, for swimming

The other genuinely family-specific place in Redmond is Idylwood Beach Park, in the Idylwood neighborhood on the slope above Lake Sammamish.

It is a lakefront beach with swimming, and it is what families in this part of the city do with a hot afternoon. Being a lake beach rather than a pool, it is a summer proposition and conditions depend on the weather.

Take the train — children love it and it solves parking

Downtown Redmond station opened to passenger service on 10 May 2025, with the full 2 Line opening on 28 March 2026, on the north side of Redmond Town Center.

Two practical wins for families. The train is itself an activity for younger children, at no extra cost. And it removes the Marymoor parking problem on busy summer weekends, which is the single most predictable way a family day here goes wrong.

Redmond Town Center with children

Redmond Town Center is open-air — better with children than an enclosed mall on a dry day, and worse on a wet one. There is a cinema, and the dining includes plenty that works for families.

Redmond’s food strength is its Indian, Chinese, Japanese and wider Asian restaurants, which are generally welcoming to children and quick to serve — often a better bet with a hungry six-year-old than a formal dining room.

The Saturday market, with the usual correction

The Redmond Saturday Market is at 9900 Willows Road NE — not Redmond Town Center — 9am to 2pm, from the second Saturday of May through the last Saturday of October. Signals about its current status conflict, so confirm before travelling with children in tow. See the farmers markets guide.

Bikes, because this city is built for them

Redmond calls itself the “Bicycle Capital of the Northwest”, and for families that is more than a slogan: flat terrain, the paved and continuous Sammamish River Trail, the Redmond Bike Park, and an annual bike race and parade to watch.

This is a genuinely good place to teach a child to ride, and one of the cheapest family activities in the city.

A family day, planned

Morning: 2 Line to Downtown Redmond station. Breakfast at the town centre.

Midday: Marymoor — playground, climbing wall, fields, and the velodrome if racing is on.

Hot afternoon: Idylwood Beach Park for a swim in Lake Sammamish.

Evening: dinner at the town centre and a film, or an outdoor movie at Marymoor in season.

Wet day: the cinema, the library, and lunch — and accept that Redmond’s strengths are outdoors.

Ages, honestly

Under five: the Marymoor playground, the open fields, and the train ride itself. Keep it short and near the car or the station.

Five to ten: the climbing wall, learning to ride on the flat Sammamish River Trail, Idylwood Beach in summer, and watching track racing at the velodrome.

Eleven and up: real distance on the trail, velodrome programmes if cycling has caught, the cinema, and enough independence at the town centre to be trusted with a meeting point and a time.

Mixed ages: Marymoor absorbs it better than anywhere else in the city, because the playground, the trails and the fields are all in the same 640 acres.

What to bring

Layers and a waterproof, from October through May and often outside it. Marymoor is open ground and the weather crosses it.

Bikes or scooters, if you can carry them. The flat paved trail is the point.

Swimming things in summer, for Idylwood Beach.

Your own food. 640 acres has more picnic space than it has places to buy lunch.

The rain plan

Half the Redmond year is wet, and a family day that assumes otherwise falls apart quickly. The honest advice is to go outside anyway with the right coats — Marymoor in drizzle is quiet, uncrowded and perfectly good — and keep the cinema at Redmond Town Center in reserve for genuine downpours.

What does not work is planning a wet-season Saturday around the market, which is closed from November through April, or around Idylwood Beach, which is a summer place. Both disappoint families who arrive without checking.

One thing families consistently get wrong

Assuming Marymoor is quiet. On a summer weekend, or any day with a concert or a tournament on the fields, 640 acres still fills and the parking goes first. Check the events calendar, and if something is on, either arrive early or take the train and walk in.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best things to do with kids in Redmond, WA?

Marymoor Park’s playground and climbing rock, Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park’s animals, the Sammamish River Trail, and nearby Bellevue’s KidsQuest Children’s Museum.

What can you do with kids in Redmond on a rainy day?

Head to nearby Bellevue’s KidsQuest Children’s Museum or Seattle’s Pacific Science Center and aquarium, or a local indoor play center.

What do local parents recommend in Redmond?

Redmond parents share their kids’ genuine favorites and current tips in our community.