While in Greensboro, we were guests at the following attractions, but our opinions are as always, our own.
Chances are, you’ve heard your friends that have kids playing travel sports, talk about spending time in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Why do I assume this is true?
The city of Greensboro has established itself as “Tourney Town” because of the sheer volume of sporting events that take place in the city.
Situated about an hour and a half from Charlotte, North Carolina and two hours and thirty minutes from Asheville, North Carolina.
Families that travel for sports often find themselves in the middle of a cornfield with nothing to do between the next time you are to arrive for the next sporting event.
This isn’t the case in Greensboro, North Carolina. My family and I found ourselves in town for the AAU Junior Olympics. My son runs competitive track, for us, the most ideal situation for us is to get his mind off of the race ahead, which was exactly what we did in Greensboro.
A pretty standard goal for my family anytime that we travel is to find the best local restaurants and most unique activities in town.
Just a general rule of thumb, for finding the best attractions while you are in town for a sports event: Don’t do anything that happens at a certain time, at least don’t plan that activity for the same day as the event. This happened to us while we were in town, we had to be to our next stop at a predetermined time. It put a bit of a damper on the ‘real reason’ we were in town, because my son had a specular performance and we were basking in that letting him soak up the rewards of his hard work. But, because we had made plans and had to be at said plans at a specific time, it kind of dampened the moment.
We were in Greensboro from a Monday night (as in we drove in that morning and got to town that evening) so, the plan for that night was to meet up with our team and lay low.
Here’s what we found to do while we were in Greensboro:
Greensboro Science Center
The science center was hands down, absolutely fantastic.
It is part zoo, part science center and part aquarium. Truly there is something for everyone.
We started our visit with a howler monkey encounter. Which was really neat, we got to hear from the monkey’s zoo keeper and even feed them their favorite treats, grapes! The howler monkeys might be my spirit animal because they have a continual RBF, sort of the Grumpy Cat of monkeys if you will.
The animal encounters are an add on to admission to the science center. .
Although, as my son put it, “It seems like more of an aquarium than a science center but I am ok with that.” There definitely was a large emphasis on the marine life at the science center but it was done exceptionally well.
As a parent, the science center wasn’t so large that it was overwhelming. In fact, I often as a mom with young kids, would avoid going to places with just the kids and no other adult. But I felt like I could absolutely manage small children here, with minimal panic attacks.
SKYWILD
Skywild is an aerial adventure park in the heavily wooded area of the zoo portion of the science center.
There are a range of courses, starting at beginner, which all participants need to do before moving on. My husband and 10 year old did the beginner and one intermediate course.
The courses are cleverly themed with zoo animals, and deceptively challenging obstacles.
Ticket Prices are $46, but it includes 2 hours of time on the course and admission to the science center.
Wet n’ Wild Emerald Point
When it is humid outside and hotter than the hinges on hells gates, a water park is often #1 on people’s lists. This is for good reason!
After a day at the track running, a trip to Wet ‘n Wild was perfect for cooling off. Here is what I feel like sets apart Wet ‘n Wild from a typical water park. As soon as you walk through the gates, you can feel the difference in cleanliness.
While we were there, there was a rogue storm that popped up. We found out that as long as all of the members of the party are still present at the water park, rain check tickets will be issued and you can return for a full day. If it is still early in the day and the storm blows over, you might just have to take a break for 30 mins or so. Frankly, the rain check policy is extremely generous and you end up getting way more than your money’s worth.
Greensboro Children’s Museum
Now, I don’t know about you but often if I hear museum and think about the possibility of my children in said museum, I get the stress sweats.
Luckily for mommas for like me with adventurous littles, just about everything at the Greensboro Children’s Museum is touch friendly.
Recently they added a fantastic outdoor feature that allows for all the climbing your kiddo could ever want. With an extremely springy rubber covering on the ground, so, if your little one manages to fall, it won’t be a hard landing.
If your child is fascinated by emergency vehicles there is a whole section of vehicles ready to be explored. There is an ambulance, a fire truck, police car and a mail truck.
Should you find yourself in Greensboro, for a game or a family getaway, there are a lot of things you can do and see while you are in town.
