Water Feature: Best Water Playgrounds around NYC

When we were growing up, playgrounds had sprinklers. Now, playgrounds have "water features." (This is where I would define what a water feature is, but I really have no idea how I would do that without just saying that it's a feature that has to do with water.) I guess, the point is that playground designers have gotten creative and gone outside the sprinkler to create all different kinds of play elements that involve water.

Rather than just traditional sprinklers, newer playgrounds have fountains, geysers, rivers, pumps, and beautiful bronze spraying animals....And the kids love them. Whether the kids love them more than traditional sprinklers only history will tell, but the important thing is that parents prefer to go to new fancy playgrounds cause they are pretty and cool and make us feel like our exorbitant housing costs are totally worth it to live in a city with such great playgrounds.

So, here's a bunch of playgrounds that you will enjoy spending a day at, and your kids will love too.

Rockefeller Park
Rockefeller Park is often called out for being a great playground and everybody pretty much knows about it so I won't go on about it too much except to say that I really appreciate the way that the water features are separated into different age groups. Let's face it, toddlers often don't like sprinklers and it's disappointing because we want them to enjoy playing in the water and get cool.

Rockefeller Park Playground has the perfect water feature for toddlers. It's a Tom Otterness bronze sculpture of a dodo bird that just gently drips water and forms a puddle around its feet. Toddlers can splash in the pooled water as well as play at the water and sand table.

The big kids have a ball over by the fabulous sprinkler area too leaving the toddler safe from their rowdy play and perfectly content at this perfect water playground for toddlers.

East River Park
We stumbled upon this playground last summer while biking along the East River Park and were totally taken with it. The park has slate pavers and tall grasses wave in the breeze, giving the park a very pretty and naturalistic atmosphere. The bronze harbor seals are really cute and fun to climb on. As for the water, it shoots up randomly from different geysers. It's like a giant whack-a-mole game as kids run from spot to spot trying to guess where the water will come up next, which adds a level of fun and mystery to the whole experience. To get there cross over the FDR at the end of Delancy St. (Just South of the Williamsburg Bridge) and then go south. Or, bike along the park from wherever you live.

Hudson River Park Pier 51
I couldn't write this article without including the pier 51 water park because it's very well known as being a great water park, but in truth it's not one of my favorites. It can be ridiculously crowded and there's no shade, so it doesn't live up to my pleasant for parents test. It does have great water features though and the kids love it.

Harmony Playground, Park Slope
Harmony Playground gets its inspiration from the nearby Bandshell, with an exciting music motif that includes xylophones that kids can play, but the real draw is the plethora of water features in this Brooklyn park. The designers of this recently renovated park covered all their bases. There's the geysers, the spraying animal sculptures, the misters, the shower. It's got them all.

Madison Street Park, Hoboken
This much needed, brand new water park in Hoboken, New Jersey (pictured above) brings NYC playground glam to the left shore. Water feature heaven you don't have to fight through the Duc Duc-sporting hordes to enjoy. (at Madison and 3rd Sts.)