Rainy day activities for kids in the Bay Area

California Academy of Sciences

San Francisco

If you only get one rainy day in San Francisco, spend it here. One ticket covers a four-storey rainforest dome, the Steinhart Aquarium with its albino alligator in the swamp, a coral reef and a touch tide pool, the penguins and the planetarium, and there is enough of it that a full day does not feel like padding.

The dome is warm and humid, so peel off the rain layers before the spiral ramp or someone will be melting in a wet fleece halfway up. Planetarium shows are reserved on the day, once you are inside; the Academy admits no one under 4 and says the shows may lose under-7s. It is the most expensive ticket on this page, and on a wet Saturday every family in the city has had the same thought.

The quietest restrooms are on Level Two, worth knowing for a meltdown. San Francisco residents get a free weekend by zip code twice a year.

Free entry

No

Reservations

Yes

Restroom

Yes

Changing table

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

All ages

Exploratorium

San Francisco

Hundreds of exhibits on Pier 15 and almost none of them behind glass. It is loud, everything is meant to be handled, and nobody minds a five-year-old who has been indoors since breakfast and needs to pull levers; for that particular job there is nothing better in the city.

The sweet spot is about 4 to 12, though teenagers still get lost in the Tinkering Studio and the perception exhibits. The Tactile Dome is a separate timed add-on, crawled and climbed and slid through in total darkness, and it is for older children who are fine with the dark. Under-4s get in free, and a few loaner strollers wait at the Information Desk if you leave an ID.

The walk along the Embarcadero from BART is long in the rain. The F streetcar stops right outside.

Free entry

No

Reservations

Yes

Restroom

Yes

Changing table

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

All ages

Children's Creativity Museum

San Francisco

Small, and built around one very good room. In the Animation Studio children model clay characters and shoot their own stop-motion film, which works best from about 5; younger ones potter around the rest of the museum, which is meant for 2 to 12.

Everyone from age 1 pays, adults included, so it is not cheap for its size, and a two-year-old can be finished in an hour. What saves it is that the ticket lets you out and back in on the same day. Eat in Yerba Buena Gardens, ride the 1906 carousel outside the door, and go back in for a second film.

Free entry

No

Ages

All ages

Aquarium of the Bay

San Francisco

About 300 feet of clear tunnels on Pier 39, with leopard sharks, bat rays and sevengill sharks sliding past overhead. The moving walkway through the tunnel is what a toddler will talk about afterwards. The touch pools come near the start, while everyone is still fresh.

Allow an hour with small children. There is no outside food and no re-entry, so eat on the pier first, and accept that Pier 39 on a wet weekend brings its own crowds and its own parking. The sea lions at K-Dock are outside and worth getting damp for.

Free entry

No

Wheelchair access

Yes

Randall Museum

San Francisco

The one proper museum in San Francisco that costs nothing, with a free car park, on the hill below Corona Heights. The live animals are rescued California natives arranged by habitat: raccoons, snakes, raptors. There is an earthquake exhibit, a model train with a caboose, and the Toddler Tree House, a climbing and books room for the very young.

On Saturdays the Golden Gate Model Railroad Club opens its big layout for public viewing, so that is the day with a train child; it is also the day the car park fills. An hour and a half covers the lot. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays, which is exactly when you will think of it.

Free entry

Yes

Restroom

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

All ages

Yerba Buena Ice Skating Center

San Francisco

The city's only year-round indoor rink, full NHL size, up on the roof above Yerba Buena Gardens, with twelve bowling lanes in the same building. That makes it the energy-burning half of a downtown wet day: skate or bowl, then cross the gardens to the Children's Creativity Museum and the carousel.

For the smallest skaters there are Skater Tots sessions and a toddler area on the ice in the daytime. Sessions can be reserved online.

Free entry

No

Reservations

Yes

House of Air

San Francisco

Trampolines in an old hangar at Crissy Field: the Matrix, 42 of them linked together, plus a basketball court and a dodgeball arena. This is where you take children who have been indoors for two days and have started climbing the furniture.

Mini Mondays, at lunchtime, give almost the whole floor to 2- to 6-year-olds with no big kids, and parents jump free alongside. There is a separate Air Junior bounce house for 3 to 6; open jump and dodgeball are 7 and up. On a wet weekend it sells out two or three days ahead, so book, and sign every jumper's waiver online before you leave the house.

There is a café with food, and beer and wine for the adults on the bench.

Free entry

No

Reservations

Yes

Ages

Ages 5 and up

Cable Car Museum

San Francisco

Free, and less a museum than the working powerhouse. The huge wheels that pull every cable in the city turn in front of you, loud and greasy in the best way, and downstairs you can watch the cables running in under the street. A child who has ridden a cable car understands it at once.

Forty minutes is plenty, so make it part of the ride. The Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde lines stop at the door, at Washington and Mason, and Chinatown is downhill for lunch.

The accessible restrooms, with big stalls, are upstairs by the gift shop.

Free entry

Yes

Restroom

Yes

Changing table

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Musée Mécanique

San Francisco

A warehouse on Pier 45 full of antique coin-operated machines that still work: hand-cranked dioramas, fortune tellers, strength testers. Walking in costs nothing. The machines are paid for one at a time, so agree a budget at the door.

Laffing Sal, the cackling figure from the old Playland at the Beach, is either the best or the most frightening thing a four-year-old has ever seen, and you will not know which until you are standing in front of her. A cheap hour that sits easily beside the Aquarium of the Bay or lunch on the Wharf.

Free entry

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Lawrence Hall of Science

Alameda County

Two rooms are the reason to come. Design Quest has children build something, test it and rebuild it when it falls over; the Animal Discovery Zone has animal ambassadors and keeps shorter hours than the rest of the building, so do it first. Add a planetarium with full-dome shows and a 3D theatre and it fills a wet day for anyone from preschool up.

Outside, the terrace has one of the best views of the bay from the East Bay, a DNA sculpture to climb and a life-size whale. In a break between showers, send them out there. Bring snacks: the café was closed when we checked, and the Discovery Store sells them.

The road up is winding, and in the rain the cloud can sit right on top of it.

Free entry

No

Restroom

Yes

Changing table

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

Ages 5 and up

Chabot Space & Science Center

Alameda County

Planetarium shows under a 241-seat dome, in Redwood Regional Park at the top of Skyline Boulevard. The free telescope nights are the famous part and they need clear skies, so on a rainy day tell the children in the car that the telescopes are not happening. It saves a scene later.

What makes it good in the wet is duller. Parking is free in a covered three-level garage, which matters more than it sounds with a baby and a car seat, and there are changing tables in all the restrooms. You can bring a picnic, and there is a café. Weekday mornings belong to school groups.

Free entry

No

Restroom

Yes

Changing table

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

Ages 5 and up

MOCHA, Museum of Children's Art

Alameda County

A walk-in Open Studio with real materials, clay and comics and fashion among them, and staff who help a hesitant child get going. It is a messy art morning that does not happen in your kitchen, which is most of the appeal. Dress everyone for paint.

Open Studio is for 0 to 10 and runs in the mornings, Tuesday to Friday and on the first and third Saturdays of the month; on the other weekend days it is not on. It is in the lower level of City Center, steps from 12th Street BART, so coming by train you barely get wet.

Free entry

No

Reservations

No

Ages

All ages

Pacific Pinball Museum

Alameda County

One admission, then unlimited play on more than a hundred machines with no coins, laid out so you walk from 1940s wood-rail games to modern ones. The parents enjoy it at least as much, and nobody pretends otherwise.

Best from about 5. Younger children cannot see over the glass or reach the flippers, and it is loud and dim. On selected Saturdays, Little Flippers gives 5- to 12-year-olds a short lesson in flipper technique, included in the ticket. It stays open into the evening and closes on Mondays, so it rescues a wet evening as well as an afternoon.

Free entry

No

Ages

Ages 5 and up

Berkeley Public Library, Central Branch

Alameda County

The Central Children's Room takes the whole fourth floor at Kittredge and Shattuck, one block from Downtown Berkeley BART. Free and dry, which on some days is the whole brief.

Two storytimes run in that room: Baby and Toddler Story Time for 6 to 36 months, which is songs, bounces and short books, and Family Story Time for 3 to 7. The library is closed on Sundays, when a lot of families would want it. Street parking is scarce, so come by BART or bus.

Ages

All ages

Lindsay Wildlife Experience

Contra Costa County

Live native animals that cannot be released, a porcupine, owls, raptors and snakes, with a working wildlife hospital alongside. Everything is set at child height and the whole place takes 90 minutes to two hours, which is the right size for a toddler or preschooler. Over about 9 it starts to feel small.

The Petting Circle runs three times a day and lets children hold a rabbit or a guinea pig, with keeper talks in between. Two things to know going in: the gift shop is right at the entrance, and some of the taxidermy can spook a sensitive child. Parking at Larkey Park is free.

Free entry

No

Ages

All ages

Walnut Creek Library

Contra Costa County

Part of the Contra Costa County Library, opened in 2010 with a large children's wing that has its own patio and activity boards. There is a café in the building, and Civic Park is next door for the moment the rain stops.

It is a good hour rather than a day. Walk from Walnut Creek BART, or pair it with Lindsay Wildlife, about five minutes' drive away, for a Walnut Creek wet day where only half of it costs anything.

Hiller Aviation Museum

San Mateo County

A hangar of real aircraft at San Carlos airport. Children climb into the cockpit of a Boeing 747 and into helicopters, and small planes land outside while they do it. You see the aircraft from the floor and again from a mezzanine, reached by lift.

It opens every day, which makes it one of the few rainy-Monday answers on the Peninsula, and parking is free. The Flight Sim Zone is fully wheelchair accessible; extras such as the Starlab planetarium shows cost more. A plane-mad child will stay for hours. Everyone else is done in about ninety minutes.

Free entry

No

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

Ages 5 and up

CuriOdyssey

San Mateo County

A science and wildlife museum at Coyote Point. Indoors are hands-on physics exhibits: magnet walls, air experiments, light and mirrors. The animal side is rescued native wildlife, a river otter, bobcats, a fox, eagles and owls.

That animal side is mostly outdoors, and it is the catch in real rain. Bring the rain jackets, plan on the indoor science floor, and time one dash out for the otter feeding at midday, which is the thing worth getting wet for. Coyote Point charges for parking by the car, on top of admission.

Free entry

No

Restroom

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

All ages

Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose

Santa Clara County

The big purple building on Woz Way, and the best rainy-day museum in the South Bay for anyone under about 9. WaterWays has water troughs at toddler height, the Mammoth Discovery dig pit comes with goggles and chisels, and there is a life-size fire truck and a play grocery, the Rainbow Market. Under-4s get their own area.

Regulars put toddlers in rain gear for the water room, which is about as good as rainy-day jokes get; bring a full change of clothes anyway. Weekend visits run as three-hour sessions with few walk-in places, so book the slot. Strollers are only allowed for children who cannot walk, and there is no food inside. Bill's Backyard is lovely, and outdoors.

Free entry

No

Reservations

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

All ages

The Tech Interactive

Santa Clara County

More than a hundred hands-on experiences in downtown San Jose: robotics, bio labs, a VR area and an IMAX dome, with one film included in the ticket. It is at its best from about 5. For anyone younger, the Children's Discovery Museum across downtown is the better morning.

Grab the VR slots as soon as you arrive and aim for an early IMAX showing, because on some days it closes mid-afternoon. For a whole family it is expensive. The Tech Café does breakfast and lunch with seats indoors, so nobody has to go back out into the rain to eat.

Free entry

No

Reservations

Yes

Restroom

Yes

Changing table

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

Ages 5 and up

LEGOLAND Discovery Center Bay Area

Santa Clara County

Inside the Great Mall at Entrance 4, with the mall's free parking: a small ride, build-and-test zones, a 4D cinema and the Bay Area skyline in bricks in Miniland. It is aimed squarely at 3 to 10, and adults cannot come in without a child.

Two to three hours is the realistic visit. Buy online, where tickets are much cheaper than at the door. It is small for the price and a ten-year-old will find it babyish, but the mall is right there for lunch, and on a grim day that counts for more than it should.

Free entry

No

Reservations

Yes

Changing table

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

All ages

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

Santa Clara County

The largest collection of Egyptian artefacts on display in western North America: human and animal mummies, sarcophagi, and a walk-through replica tomb that is the part children talk about on the way home. Seven to twelve is the sweet spot, for a child already deep in ancient Egypt.

It opens Friday to Sunday only. There is a ramp entrance and a platform lift between gallery levels, but state rules keep strollers off the lift, so bring a carrier for a baby. Parking is free in two lots at the back, and the gardens are pleasant in a dry spell.

Free entry

No

Reservations

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

Ages 5 and up

Bay Area Discovery Museum

Marin County

Made for 0 to 8, under the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. The indoor rooms are Tot Spot, for the smallest, and Bay Hall, both with nursing nooks, and there are changing tables in every bathroom. Parking is free and right by the museum, and the front desk lends sound-blocking headphones and weighted vests.

The caveat is that much of the best of it, Lookout Cove and the fishing boat, is outdoors. On a properly rainy day you will live in the indoor rooms, and so will everyone else in Marin. Outside food is allowed and there is a café. During the school year it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Free entry

No

Restroom

Yes

Changing table

Yes

Wheelchair access

Yes

Ages

All ages

Charles M. Schulz Museum & Snoopy's Home Ice

Sonoma County

The Sonoma County wet-day plan, in two halves across one street. In the morning, the museum: original Peanuts strips, and an Education Room where children draw their own comics. After lunch, Snoopy's Home Ice, the rink Schulz built, which runs toddler sessions as well as public skating.

In between is the Warm Puppy Café at the rink, where Schulz ate lunch most days, and it still does hot dogs, fries and soup. Neither half can be booked: museum tickets are sold only at the door, and rink sessions only in person, shortly before each one starts. Parking is free at both. The museum is closed on Tuesdays.

Restroom

Yes

Ages

Ages 5 and up