Best Place to Take a Hike
Sure, everyone knows Tanner Park is the place to been seen with your pooch, but if you and
Winston want to take a leisurely stroll without meeting every other dog in the valley, we suggest you take your pup (and a leash) to select trailheads on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. There you’ll find good hikes for both man and beast, with much less, well, dog.
Best Charming Theater
328 Main St., Park City, 435-649-9371
Sure, there’s the glamour and the glitz of the Eccles Theater’s Broadway musicals and plenty of local theaters doing plenty of good, sometimes experimental, plays, but for small-town charm, look no further than Park City’ s Egyptian for family-friendly stage productions. Familiar productions of Annie, Little Shop of Horrors and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown all played the stage in the last year.
Best Hayride
6351 S. 900 East, Murray, 385-468-1755
See cows, horses, pigs, goats and sheep. Milk a cow. Take a hayride. Wheeler Farm is a county-owned fully operating farm open for visitors seven days a week. It has all the comforts of a real farm, with one notable exception—the shopping centers that surround it.
Best Staycation
15 W. 200 South, SLC, 801-595-0000
It’s not just the hippest hotel in town—it also has the most generous pet policy in Salt Lake. Bring your pup, cat, bird or lizard to the hotel for no extra charge. Plus: a pet concierge, water bowls in your room and available pet beds.
Best Mission Control
88 W. 3300 North, Pleasant Grove, 385-265-2605
Ground control to Major Tom—all of your astronaut fantasies come to life at Discovery Space Camp. There you’ll be given a briefing and mission objectives. What follows is basically a choose-your-own-adventure in space. Camps are available for kids, or families can reserve a “ship” for a two-and-a-half hour mission.
Best Instruction
1025 E. 2100 South, SLC, 801-467-5444
Hidden above the Dick Blick store in Sugarhouse is Petersen Art Center, which provides oil painting, water color, drawing and colored pencil and pottery classes for kids. Once students reach their freshman year of high school, they can enroll in adult classes. Sounds like a parent-child bonding opportunity!
Best Pooch Patio
800 E. 2100 South, SLC, 801-467-3325
To paraphrase the film Sweet Home Alabama, “Look at you, you have a dog! In a bar!” Yes, there’s a lot a dog-friendly patios in Salt Lake, but one of the first on the scene remains the best. Campfire Lounge has a leash and current vaccination policy, water bowls, a dog-friendly crowd and signage is even translated to dog.
Best art Roll
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 S. West Temple, SLC, 801-328-4201
If you want to appreciate modern art but without people who will, at best, ignore your screaming toddler, UMOCA’s stroller tours are just what you need. On preselected dates, moms and dads can engage in high-brow discussions of the state of art and kiddos are invited to channel their inner Rothko in an organized activity after the tour. Sorry kids, you still can’t touch the art.
Best Place to Nerd Out
1588 S. State St., SLC, 801-477-7671
As a coffee shop with drinks named Tattooine Sunrise, Donkey Kong and Snozzberry, Watchtower Cafe is definitely not a pretentious joint. Add in comic books and a video game station and plenty of nooks and crannies at which to play the cafe’s many board games and you’ve found a great place to spend the afternoon with kids of any age.
Best Sundance-alternative
Film festivals aren’t just for Hollywood insiders. Utah Film Center’s Tumbleweeds Festival is for the ultimate film fans, the ones who can watch the same movie over and over…and over. Kids. Complete with workshops and premieres, your little ones will feel like VIPs. March 2-4, 2018.
Best Dog Resort
5241 Commerce Dr., Murray, 385-309-3647
Some family vacations just can’t include the four-legged members of your tribe. While you’re gone, your pup will feel like he’s on his own vacation at Unleashed. It’s kennel-free boarding, with an onsite veterinarian, grass, an agility course and—get this—a dog bone-shaped pool. They even have webcams so you can check in on your pet 24/7.
Best Fantasy Sport
Quidditch
There are wizards among us—or, at least, athletic collegiate nerds. Pulled from the Harry Potter Universe, Quidditch is an actual sport now—complete with broomsticks and someone dressed in all yellow/gold as a self-proclaimed Snitch. The rules are unfathomably complicated and the chaos is often conducive to friendly violence, so maybe let the kids just watch this sport. But if they’re still obsessed with The Boy Who Lived, there’s nothing quite like it. For up-to-date information on leagues, teams and other happenings search for the “All of Utah Quidditch” group on Facebook.
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