Jen of Jen's List Picks Her Top 10 Kid Friendly Places in Los Angeles

If anyone knows the top places to take the kids in LA, it’s Jen Levinson. Her daily email – Jen’s List — reaches over 10,000+ moms and includes every must-have, must-see, must-go-to info that you could possibly imagine. As part of Breezy Mama’s Daytripping series, she narrowed down her favorite family friendly destinations in one of the world’s most famous cities.

From Jen:

10. Santa Monica Pier- The pier contains Pacific Park, a family amusement park with a large Ferris wheel. It also has a carousel from the 1920s, an aquarium, shops, entertainers, an arcade, a trapeze school, a pub, and restaurants.

9. Los Angeles Zoo - Open from 10am – 5pm every day of the year except December 25. The zoo, located in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, is home to 1,100 animals from around the world.

8. Hollywood/Highland - An entertainment, retail and hotel complex at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district in Los Angeles. The 387,000-square-foot center also includes the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre, home to the Academy Awards. The historic site was once the home of the famed Hollywood Hotel. Located in the heart of Hollywood, along the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

7. Kidspace Museum - Kidspace features exhibits, programs and activities that encourage a child’s growth and development through explorations of the environment, investigations in science, and artistic forms of expression that captivate the inquisitive and growing minds of children ages 2 to 10.

6. Tierra Rejada - Visitors can pick their own vegetables throughout the year at picturesque, 40-acre Underwood Family Farms. The location features different crops, from pumpkins to blueberries to Christmas trees, so it’s best to call ahead and find out where the most action is at any given time of year.

5. The Grove - Features first class open air shopping, a handful of restaurants, a gorgeous movie theater complex, and a replica of the old Los Angeles Red Car trolley – which shuttles visitors along the pedestrian path between the Original Farmers Market and The Grove. Kids love the “town square” area with its musical dancing fountain display and little foot bridge over a fish pond.

4. Natural History Museum - Has a wide ranging collection from the natural world that’s sure to entertain kids and adults alike. The oldest and largest natural history museum in the western United States, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles has more than 33 million items ranging from actual, full-size dinosaur skeletons and meteorites from planet Mars to the live insect zoo and the largest collection of gold in the United States.

3. Long Beach Aquarium – Take a journey through the world’s largest ocean at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Explore exhibits, and discover sunny Southern California and Baja, the frigid waters of the North Pacific, and the colorful reefs of the Tropical Pacific. Come face-to-face with, and even touch, the ocean’s ultimate predators in Shark Lagoon. And hand feed lorikeet birds. With affordable prices it’s an entertaining and educational experience for the whole family.

2. Universal City Walk - Entertainment and retail district located adjacent to Universal Studios. Street performers (mimes, magicians, musicians) are a common sight. At Christmas time, there is a parade, carolers, and an outdoor ice skating rink near the theaters. More than 20 great restaurants to satisfy any craving and 30 unique shops that you won’t get anywhere else!

1. NBC Studios Tour – It is the only studio that offers the public a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of its television operation. Their guided studio tour gives you a chance to go where TV history was made; it takes you deep inside the NBC studio. The tour shows you the vast warehouse areas where props are stored, and construction areas where craftsmen are hard at work building realistic sets; it shows you examples of special-effects hardware, and gives you a peek at the NBC wardrobe department. The tour leads you through the studio’s labyrinth of hallways, past the makeup department, through the Peacock Store, and out into the parking lot where celebrities park their cars.

About Jen
Jen was born and raised in Encino, CA. She attended Birmingham High School and graduated college from San Diego State University where she was an active member of Gamma Phi Beta. She has 4 brothers, 2 of which are married with children and live in the Los Angeles area. Jen met her husband, Mike in 2000 & got married in 2002. Their first son was born 9 months later. In July, 2005, they had identical twin boys and another set of identical twin boys were born in May, 2008.

In addition to organizing and writing the Jens List newsletter, Jen is a stay at home mom for her 5 boys. They are very family oriented and love being together on the weekends.

They have a chocolate lab named Daisy and a kitty named Ralphy, along with 2 fish! Jen wouldn’t change a thing about her life. She considers herself very lucky and loves every (well most every) minute of it!

To read Breezy Mama’s interview with Jen back in April, click here.

To subscribe to her list, click here!

DAYTRIPPING GUIDE — For kid friendly adventures in:
Boulder, Colorado, click here!
Seattle, click here!

For tips on traveling with babies and kids, click here.

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