10 Unique Free and Cheap Things to Do with Kids in the Twin Cities
Floating bogs that bounce underfoot. A soda taproom pouring flights of cream soda and ginger ale. A wooded ravine where immigrant families once lived off the grid. The Twin Cities have many of these places, and most of them don’t make the standard list. This one is for families ready to get past the brochure: free or cheap, genuinely worth the trip, and new to most locals. Here are 10 unique things to do with kids in the Twin Cities.
Looking for even more things to do? Check out the https://twincitiesfamily.com/calendar/Twin Cities Family Events Calendar!
Northern Soda Company Craft Soda Taproom
601 Campus Drive, Suite 10B, New Brighton, MN 55112
Northern Soda runs a legit taproom in New Brighton, except everything on tap is soda, made in small batches with real cane sugar in 1950s-style flavors. You can order a flight, build a six-pack, grab a root beer float, and play retro board games while you’re at it. Ten rotating flavors mean there’s always a reason to go back. Kids love it, adults are into it, and the drive to New Brighton is shorter than you think.
Webber Natural Swimming Pool
4330 Webber Pkwy, Minneapolis, MN 55412
Webber is the only public natural swimming pool in North America…and it’s FREE, which still feels like information that should be more widely known. No chlorine! The water filters through 7,000 aquatic plants rooted in limestone and granite in a regeneration basin next to the pool. It feels different from a regular pool in a way that’s hard to explain…like a really well-behaved lake. Bring a towel and plan to stay. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 1 to 7 pm.
Hidden Falls Regional Park
1313 Hidden Falls Drive, Saint Paul, MN 55116
A spring-fed waterfall below Mississippi River Boulevard, reached by a short wooded hike down a limestone staircase the WPA built in the 1930s. Sandy riverbank at the bottom, good skipping stones, almost no crowd. It’s a solid two or three hours and worth pairing with a picnic.
Enter at the north entrance at Mississippi River Boulevard and Magoffin Ave. From the first parking lot at the bottom of the bluffs, follow the trail past the picnic shelters toward the Mississippi River, then head northwest along the river. The trail winds through the forest and along Hidden Falls Creek until you reach the falls. You can also see the falls from above via a viewing plaza, reached by stairs along Mississippi River Boulevard or by an accessible paved path from Uŋčí Makhá Park that follows Hidden Falls Creek and passes under Mississippi River Boulevard to the plaza.
Note that the falls can run dry in a drought year, so check before you go if it’s been a hot, dry stretch.
The Quaking Bog at Theodore Wirth Park
Theodore Wirth Pkwy, Minneapolis, MN 55411
The boardwalk bounces because it’s floating on peat moss, not solid ground, and that alone is enough to make kids want to stay on it forever. The bog sits inside Theodore Wirth Park, five acres of tamarack trees and pinkish-green moss that genuinely looks like it belongs somewhere else. Short loop, easy walk, and muddy shoes are basically guaranteed. Wear something you’re fine ruining.
To get there: cross Glenwood Avenue and proceed onto Theodore Wirth Parkway/Grand Rounds Trail. There will be a little pay lot on your right. This is where to access the trail to the Quaking Bog.
ArtScraps
1459 St. Clair Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55105
ArtScraps is a nonprofit reuse store stocked with donated art supplies: fabric, yarn, paper, beads, ribbon, stamps, and things that resist easy categorization. The inventory turns over constantly, so no two visits look the same. Creative kids can fill a bag for a few dollars and have enough material to stay busy for weeks. An artist is on-site to talk through project ideas, which is genuinely useful if you leave with something and then have no idea what to do with it. Your dollars will go far here!
Worldwide Sidewalk Joy Trinket Box Hunt
Locations throughout the Twin Cities
Trinket boxes hidden on fences, lampposts, and park benches across the metro, each one holding small treasures to swap. Take something, leave something, sign the log. No app, no timer, completely honor-system. Kids treat it like a genuine treasure hunt, which it basically is. The website maps box locations so you can plan a route or just stumble onto one mid-walk.
Swede Hollow Park
665 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul, MN 55106
Swede Hollow spent over a century as an off-grid settlement where waves of immigrants built homes in a ravine the city mostly ignored: Swedish families first, then Irish, Polish, Italian, and eventually a Mexican American community that was there when the city burned it all down in 1956. It became a park in 1976. Today there’s a creek at the bottom, bluffs on both sides, and interpretive signs that tell the full story. Worth reading them with your kids. This is important St Paul history. The park is quiet and hidden but directly off one of the busiest intersections in the Twin Cities.
Midtown Global Market and Mercado Central
920 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, MN 55407 | 1515 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, MN 55407
Two markets, same stretch of Lake Street, both worth your time. Midtown Global Market fills a 1928 art deco Sears building with vendors from across the globe. Mercado Central, a few blocks east, is a Latin marketplace the community built from scratch in 1999. The bakery there will make your decision for you. Go hungry to both and let the kids pick what looks good. This is a genuinely great way to spend a Saturday morning.
Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
1 Theodore Wirth Pkwy, Minneapolis, MN 55405
Founded in 1907, Eloise Butler is the oldest public wildflower garden in the country, and most people drive past it regularly without knowing it exists. Sixteen acres of woodland, wetland, and prairie hold more than 500 native plant species and 130 bird species, all behind a wrought iron gate inside Theodore Wirth Park. Free, no pets, closed Mondays. Spring is spectacular, but honestly any visit between April and October earns it. Every trail in the gated garden is 1.25 miles total, making this a very doable outing. There are oftentimes signs posted about which birds have recently been spotted, and a volunteer at the visitor center is eager to provide lots of information.
Mississippi River Lock and Dam No. 1
5000 W. River Pkwy., Minneapolis, MN 55417
Free, open April through November, and it’s never very busy! Bring your water and boat-loving kids; they will love it. A bridge over the two locks puts you right next to a working dam as boats make a 36-foot lift through the Mississippi, the first lock and dam on the river. The visitor center is well-kept, there’s a peregrine falcon nest on the nearby cliff, and kids who are into big machinery will be fully absorbed. Drive down the hill below the Ford Parkway Bridge to find the entrance. Easy to miss, worth finding. We found this video really informational!
