San Jose Municipal Rose Garden
Kid essentials
About this place
A free, flat, five-acre rose garden with thousands of bushes, best April through June. Flat paved paths make it stroller-easy; kids treat it like a maze.
How kid-friendly is it?
Nearby places
The largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on display in western North America - mummies, a tomb replica, the works. $15 adults, $10 kids 7-17, under 7 free; open Friday through Sunday only.
A San Jose icon since 1966: order at the window, eat at picnic tables under a giant San Jose mural. The banana shakes get even falafel skeptics through the meal.
The soup-dumpling spectacle: kids watch dumplings being folded through the kitchen window, then demolish them. Kidsbayarea's Westfield Valley Fair family pick.
Three floors of Italian everything: fresh pasta counters, gelato, pizza, and kids' cooking classes - a food-hall format where everyone picks their own dinner and nobody compromises.