Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware and offers plenty of fun activities for families. From historic attractions and museums to outdoor adventures and kid-friendly entertainment, there is something to delight family members of all ages.
The walkable Riverfront area provides easy access to many attractions, while the Brandywine Valley offers beautiful natural scenery perfect for enjoying the outdoors. This article outlines 12 top things for families to do in Wilmington to make the most out of their visit.
Visit the Delaware Children’s Museum
The Delaware Children’s Museum is one of the top places to take kids in Wilmington. This hands-on museum features tons of interactive exhibits spread across 30,000 square feet designed to engage and educate children. Visitors can explore exhibits related to science, health, math, construction, and art.
Kids can climb a simulated beanstalk, load cargo onto a model ship, build walls with oversized blocks, and much more. The museum also hosts birthday parties and camps. With colorful rooms and activities tailored for toddlers through elementary school ages, this museum is sure to be a hit with families.
Tour the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate
For families interested in history, art, and nature, the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate is a must-see attraction. This former home and estate of Henry Francis du Pont features an impressive collection of American decorative arts and antiques spanning over 250 years of history across 175 rooms.
Families can join docent-led house tours or explore the home at their own pace with an audio guide. The estate also encompasses 60 acres of naturalistic gardens and rolling meadows perfect for taking leisurely strolls. Special events and programs like story time, garden tours, and craft workshops cater to kids and families.
Spend a Day at Rockwood Park
Rockwood Park offers the outdoors, history, and family fun all in one place. Spread across 461 acres, this National Historic Site has nature trails for hiking and biking, picnic areas for lunch, and guided cave tours of former gunpowder mills built in the 1800s.
Kids love feeding ducks in Rockwood Pond or checking out the on-site petting zoo. Special events include festivals, concerts, theatre performances, and reenactments portraying historical figures who once worked in the old mills. With green space, greenery, and activities, families have plenty to see and do at Rockwood Park.
Ride on the Wilmington & Western Railroad
Families with train lovers or who enjoy scenic views will have a blast riding on the Wilmington & Western Railroad. This heritage railroad offers both steam and diesel locomotive-led trains chugging along tracks transporting passengers on leisurely 1 to 1.5 hour rides.
Route options include the Landscape Local route traveling through Red Clay Valley with views of bubbling creeks, thick forests, and wild meadows or dining services for special events like brunch, lunch, dinner, cocktail, beer, or wine trains. Kids go crazy seeing tunnels, bridges, and crossing gates whiz by their window. The railroad even has special themed events around Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and more.
Encounter Animals at Brandywine Zoo
Home to over 100 animals representing nearly three dozen species from North and South America, the Brandywine Zoo makes for a fun family outing. Families can visit red pandas, river otters, bald eagles, lemurs, condors, bobcats, foxes, oryxes, and more.
With animals native to the Americas, kids can get up close to beasts they recognize from books and movies. Interactive stations let visitors brush ponies, touch skins and horns, and meet zookeepers while daily events like feedings and keeper talks further engage kids. Shaded pathways, play spots to burn off energy, and a picnic grove make the compact zoo comfortable for families.
Tour Hagley Museum
Families can immerse themselves in over 200 years of history at Hagley Museum spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. This outdoor living history museum located on 235 acres was once the site of the gunpowder works founded by du Pont in 1802. Families can walk through the restored mills, workers’ community, and gardens.
Costumed interpreters portray past workers while engaging demonstrations showcase how gunpowder was once made. The visitor center features industrial artifacts and interactive exhibits covering the earliest mills, child labor practices, DuPont innovations, automobile history and more. Special events, kids’ activities, and seasonal attractions like hayrides, trails, and grounds abloom with daffodils keep visitors returning.
Play and Learn at Delaware Children’s Museum
The Delaware Children’s Museum offers nonstop edutainment for younger kids with dozens of hands-on educational exhibits. Kids can pretend to be produce shopkeepers, mechanics, or firefighters using role-playing stations. Exhibits focused on construction, electricity, health, and nature areas offer interactive play.
A dance studio features rotating themes while the museum’s art studio provides supplies for creating masterpieces. Daily programming includes story times, music sessions, arts and crafts while special member mornings allow kids under age 5 to explore without bigger kids. Designed expressly for children, this museum delights and engages imaginations.
Have a Ball at Eden Park
For active families who like staying on the move outdoors, Eden Park offers recreation amenities perfect for play. The focal point is the large outdoor community pool complex with lap lanes, waterslides, diving boards, and kiddie areas. Sports lovers can play volleyball, tennis or basketball while walkers and joggers exercise on the fitness loop encircling the grounds.
Multiple playground structures, climbing walls, and swinging benches keep kids busy for hours. Picnic tables and grills stationed throughout the park allow families to enjoy meals together outside. Bathrooms, vending machines, free Wi-Fi, and adjacent parking add convenience for guests.
Climb and Explore at Rockford Park
Geared for family fun, Rockford Park contains unique attractions sure to delight kids of all ages. Inside the Potter Educational Center building, little ones can try their hand at scaling a three-story climbing wall with varying routes and difficulty levels to challenge climbing skills.
Kids can also navigate their way through an interactive mirror maze or get lost amid a towering bamboo maze standing two stories tall while trying to find their way out. When ready to head back outdoors, a short trail leads to the park’s showstopper – a 110-ft suspension bridge that sways as visitors walk across it suspended high above Rockford Park’s scenic grounds below. It’s just plain fun!
See A Show at The Grand Opera House
For nearly 150 years, the historic Grand Opera House in downtown Wilmington has been providing top-notch performing arts entertainment suitable for all ages. Musicals, plays, ballets, concerts, movies, and events take place year-round on the main stage and in the smaller, more intimate baby grand theater.
FAMILY Series shows aimed at younger audiences feature stories brought to life through puppetry, music, dance, and physical comedy. Annual FAMILY Series presentations have included Charlottes Web, James and the Giant Peach, Little Red Riding Hood and many more popular tales. With superb talent and productions, families can enjoy quality onstage entertainment together.
Play Mini Golf at Cornerstone Miniature Golf
Cornerstone Miniature Golf offers families affordable fun with its elaborate 18-hole mini golf course. Set along the hokey Warehouse Alley theme, each hole presents crazy obstacles, ramps, curves, bumps and drops challenging players navigation skills.
Fun family-friendly elements include small roller coasters, mining cart rides down slopes, rotating wheels transporting balls uphill and charming model buildings. Designed for players of all ages and abilities, mini golf here makes for a fun group outing. The site also has an arcade, cafe, ice cream shop and facilities for hosting birthday parties perfect for celebrations. Open daily into the night with lights, its mini golf fun for the whole family any time.
Splash the Day Away at Wilmington Water Park
On hot summer days or even crisp fall afternoons, the Wilmington Water Park offers families a place to splash away for hours enjoying pools, slides and spray grounds. Attractions include activity pools with basketball hoops, climbing walls and log walks, speed slides sending riders sloshing down steep drops and lazy rivers for casually floating along in tubes.
For little ones, the volcano-themed kiddie spray ground features mini slides, squirting geysers and bubbling spill buckets dumping from above. Shady seating, concessions, locker rentals and free parking add convenience for families spending the entire day. With lifeguards keeping watch, parents can relax knowing their kids can safely swim to their hearts content.
Conclusion
With history, art, nature, and family entertainment, Wilmington offers many interesting attractions for visitors of all ages to enjoy quality time together. From hands-on children’s museums and historic estates to outdoor adventures and performing arts, families have their pick of activities catering to a variety of interests.
The family-friendly options highlighted in this article provide a well-rounded itinerary covering top things to do with kids of all ages in Wilmington sure to create special memories families will treasure for years to come.