Winter Family Fun - Indoors
Most winter visitors to Traverse City come for the area’s many famous outdoor recreational opportunities from skiing and snowboarding to snowshoeing, snowmobiling and ice fishing. But some of our best winter family fun can also be enjoyed indoors.
At the Great Wolf Lodge of Traverse City, for instance, kids will love the 38,000 square-foot indoor water park, with its eight waterslides, five pools, two whirlpools and a four-story/12-level interactive Tree House Water Fort. Families really enjoy the log cabin-style décor, with 281 Northwoods-themed rooms – and there’s a state-of-the-art interactive fantasy game called MagiQuest that allows hotel guests to battle and vanquish computer-generated dragons and goblins throughout the property. Wired into the resort’s various rooms and corridors, MagiQuest will feature interactive screens and MagiQuest zones spanning three floors. Great Wolf is even turning 10 family suites into “MagiQuest Suites,” so families can take the game back to their rooms.
Even the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa has gotten into the splish-splash game, converting its indoor pool complex into an “aquatics play area” that will provide waterpark-style fun and recreation for guests and club members. The 15,000-square foot indoor pool area’s 25-yard lap pool has been upgraded to include a 16 ft. high, 70 ft. long spiraling waterslide, a “waterwalk” challenge course with overhead and floatable components, and a water basketball court. There’s even a new “sprayground” with floor geysers and bubblers, spray bar jets, and sheet flow water elements providing zero-depth water entertainment designed to appeal to the Resort’s youngest guests - children up to four years old.
And if you’d rather stay dry, there’s a wide selection of indoor fun choices available at Wilderness Crossing, a smoke-free family entertainment center featuring a 16-lane bowling alley, video arcade, two-story laser tag arena, nine-hole indoor miniature golf course and a billiard room. Located in the village of Grawn, about 10 miles south of downtown Traverse City, the new $4 million entertainment center also has a full-service restaurant, the Wild Pony Saloon, with a 120-seat dining area and a spacious 100-seat sports bar with a dance floor and live entertainment on weekends and select weeknights.
