Looking for the best things to do with kids in Santa Monica? This beachside city is a classic family destination, home to a pier amusement park, a hands-on aquarium, and a wide, gentle beach. This local family guide covers Santa Monica’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 Santa Monica

The Santa Monica Pier is family central — home to Pacific Park’s amusement rides (including the solar-powered Ferris wheel) and, right underneath, the Heal the Bay Aquarium with its touch tanks. The historic pier carousel and the wide, gentle beach make for an easy, fun family day.

Kid-friendly museums & attractions in Santa Monica

The Heal the Bay Aquarium under the pier is the marquee kid spot, and nearby LA adds the free California Science Center and the Natural History Museum a short drive away.

Parks & outdoor fun for families

The beach and the Marvin Braude bike path, Tongva Park’s playgrounds and fountains, and the Annenberg Community Beach House (with a pool and play areas) give families lots of sunny outdoor fun. For more, see our guide to the best parks and outdoor spots in Santa Monica.

Rainy-day & indoor options in Santa Monica

On the rare rainy day, families visit the Heal the Bay Aquarium or take the short drive to LA’s free California Science Center and Natural History Museum.

What local parents in Santa Monica 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’ Santa Monica community, real Santa Monica parents share what their kids genuinely love. For more ideas, see our guide to the best things to do in Santa Monica. Join your Santa Monica neighbors free and get real family recommendations →

Fitting it into a day in Santa Monica

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

More Santa Monica guides

Santa Monica rewards people who dig a little deeper. These related guides map the same neighborhoods from different starting points: Free things to do in Santa Monica, Parks in Santa Monica, Things to do in Santa Monica — 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 Santa Monica. Hours shift, favorites change, and residents always know what is genuinely worth it now. Ask Santa Monica neighbors directly or join your town community free to hear from real locals.

What a Family Day in Santa Monica Actually Costs

The single most useful thing to understand before bringing a family here is where the money goes, because it is not where most people expect. Walking onto the Santa Monica Pier is free. There is no gate, no admission charge and no ticket. What costs money are the rides, the aquarium, the food and — the item that catches everyone out — the parking.

At Pacific Park, the amusement park occupying the pier, individual rides have run roughly $6 to $20 each, with the children’s rides at the lower end around $8 and the Pacific Wheel and West Coaster at the top around $14 to $20. A ride on the Ferris wheel alone has been priced around $17 per person. An unlimited-ride wristband has started around $40 online for ages 8 and over, and around $20 for ages 7 and under.

Do the arithmetic before you arrive. For a child who will ride three or more times, the wristband is the cheaper option; for one nervous four-year-old who wants the carousel and nothing else, individual tickets are. Pacific Park opened in 1996 and marked its 30th anniversary in 2026 with periodic promotional pricing, so it is worth checking for current offers before buying. All of these prices move — treat them as the shape of the cost, not a quote.

Heal the Bay Aquarium, Underneath the Pier

The best-value family attraction in Santa Monica is directly under the thing everyone photographs. The Heal the Bay Aquarium sits at 1600 Ocean Front Walk, literally beneath the pier deck — you reach it by following the ramp or the stairs down from the pier itself, which is why thousands of people walk over it every day without knowing it exists.

Admission has been $12 for adults and teens 13 and over, $5 for children aged 4 to 12, and free for children 3 and under with an adult ticket. That makes it one of the least expensive ticketed attractions in the city, and it is built around hands-on touch tanks where children can touch sharks, stingrays and sea stars rather than only look at them.

It is small. That is the honest caveat and also the reason it works for young children: a family with a five-year-old will see everything without anyone melting down, which is not true of the large aquariums down the coast. Budget an hour, not an afternoon, and pair it with the beach immediately outside.

Cayton Children’s Museum

For children roughly 8 and under, the Cayton Children’s Museum at 395 Santa Monica Place is the strongest indoor option in the city. It occupies 21,000 square feet above the shopping centre downtown and holds more than 20 discovery-based exhibits built around hands-on play rather than displays behind glass.

Two practical notes. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, opening Wednesday through Sunday, 10am to 5pm — a genuinely common trip-ruiner for families visiting on a long weekend. And the age band is real: it is designed for ages 0 to 8, and a nine-year-old will be bored. Confirm current hours before going, since museum schedules change seasonally.

Its location downtown is an advantage, because it puts you within a short walk of the Promenade, the Metro terminus and the downtown parking structures, so it slots into a day without a second drive.

The Free Family Options, Which Are Better Than They Sound

Families who live here lean heavily on the free layer, and it is genuinely strong.

Tongva Park downtown has a splash pad, a play area and shaded picnic space on its Discovery Hill section, plus an amphitheatre that hosts free concerts. It is six acres, thoughtfully designed, and it is the answer for an afternoon that costs nothing when the pier has exhausted everyone’s patience and budget.

Annenberg Community Beach House at 415 Pacific Coast Highway is free to enter — no membership required, and the only part of the property that charges admission is the swimming pool. For a family, that means beach access, grounds and historic buildings at no cost, with the pool as an optional paid add-on on a hot day.

Original Muscle Beach, just south of the pier, has rings, bars and climbing equipment free to use, and older children in particular find watching the regulars more compelling than any paid attraction nearby.

And the Marvin Braude Bike Trail, the 22-mile paved beach path, is the best family bike ride in Los Angeles County. You do not need to do the full length; the flat stretch south from the pier toward Venice is enough, and it is entirely separated from traffic, which is what makes it work with children.

Planning the Day So It Does Not Fall Apart

A workable order for a family day, tested by everyone who lives here: park once and do not move the car. Parking is the hidden cost of a Santa Monica family day, and moving between structures across a single day can double it. Choose one structure, walk everything else, and read the parking guide linked from this page first.

Go in the morning. The pier and the aquarium are dramatically calmer before about eleven, and the parking situation is a different problem entirely at nine in the morning versus one in the afternoon.

Bring layers regardless of the forecast. This catches out visitors constantly. In May and June the marine layer — the overcast pattern locals call May Gray and June Gloom — keeps the beach grey and genuinely cold well into the afternoon, even when inland Los Angeles is hot. September and October are the warmest and clearest months and are the best time of year for a beach day with children.

Eat inland. Food directly on and around the pier is priced for people passing through once. Walking a few blocks east or down to Main Street cuts the cost of feeding a family substantially and improves the food at the same time.

Hours, prices and closures at every one of these places change without much notice. Confirm before you commit a whole day to a plan.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best things to do with kids in Santa Monica?

The Santa Monica Pier’s Pacific Park rides and Ferris wheel, the Heal the Bay Aquarium under the pier, the pier carousel, and the wide, gentle beach.

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

Visit the Heal the Bay Aquarium under the pier, or drive to LA’s free California Science Center and Natural History Museum.

What do local parents recommend in Santa Monica?

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