Known as the Mile High City, Denver, Colorado, is a charming all-seasons destination for a family vacation. You'll find big-city attractions like Denver art museums and animal sanctuaries, including the Denver Zoo and Denver Aquarium, but its outdoor scene is also unparalleled—and don't let the weather scare you: Locals will tell you if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. Another commonly cited fact: Colorado enjoys more than 300 days of sunshine a year. In fact, it's quite easy to get sunburned on its famous ski slopes!

Born and raised in the Denver area, I now enjoy it with my three kids as a tourist on our annual family visits. When we're not in the mountains, there's a good bet you can find us enjoying one of these 40 family-friendly things to do in Denver. Find more of our favorite destinations in our City Travel Guides, including our local guide to Exploring the Rocky Mountains: The Best Things To Do in Boulder, CO with Kids.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is returning to the streets of NYC on Thursday, November 25, organizers and city officials announced. Following a made-for-TV spectacle in 2020, the 95th annual parade is planning a return to a more traditional parade route to kick off the 2021 holiday season.

Safety protocols will be finalized in the coming weeks, but expect to see larger-than-life helium balloons, marching bands, giant floats, and A-list celebrity performances, plus Santa Claus himself all parading down NYC's avenues.

Editor's note: This review was written when Cosmic CAMP was at the Flatiron location. It has since moved to City Point so there may be minor differences. 

Grab your space suits and get ready to blast off on an all-ages family adventure. CAMP, the innovative toy store/play space is taking families on an interactive journey with Cosmic CAMP an intergalactic-themed family experience, which cultivates a sense of adventure while testing the mental mettle and physical skills of your all-ages "crew."

Read on for a sneak peek at what's in store once you open the magic door and enter the Cosmic Launch Pad.

New York City's recreation centers are reopening with big perks for New Yorkers—FREE citywide, one-year memberships will be doled out to all visitors who sign up between Tuesday, September 7 and the end of the year.

The news comes amidst the final week of the season for the FREE public swimming pools housed at city rec centers and marks the first time most of the 36 indoor spaces have reopened since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Looking for the 2022-2023 NYC Public School Calendar? Find it here.

If you've got a child in public school, you live by the public school calendar, and after a year of fits and starts, delays, and COVID-induced quarantines and closures, parents are wondering what the new school year will bring. With less than three weeks before the first day of school, we're republishing the public school calendar. Many local NYC preschools follow the public school schedule, too. The New York City Department of Education's calendar for the 2021-2022 school year is below, and you'll want to bookmark it now for reference—and to help with planning family vacations and school break camp coverage.

One notable change for the upcoming school year: There will be no snow days. Plan on logging your kiddos on for a day of remote learning whenever buildings are closed for snow or other emergencies.

These are all of the dates you can count on your kiddos being out of school during the 2021-2022 school year.

When out-of-towners ask me how I have managed to stay sane with three kids in Manhattan, my answer is always easy: Central Park. It's been our family playground for more than a decade. My son's first steps were taken there, and every day of elementary school in our house has started with a trek across the urban oasis. Our afternoons just don't feel quite right without a stop at the East 110th Street Playground, where my daughter finally conquered the monkey bars.

Central Park is our family's collective happy place, thanks in large part to its diverse array of playgrounds, which always keep us coming back for more (sanity-saving) playtime. In the spirit of our posts ranking the playgrounds in Prospect Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Riverside Park, we present our top playground picks for Central Park. Find more places to play in our Guide to NYC's Top Playgrounds.

Pixar fans take note: You can now interact with some of your favorite movie scenes thanks to Pixar Putt, an immersive, interactive, pop-up mini-golf experience that's taken over Pier A in Battery Park for a limited time.

I recently played the 18-hole course with my trio of kids, and we've got a sneak peek at the fun that awaits. Whether you want to walk in the shoes of The Good Dinosaur, sail away with Up, or whack a golf ball a little too hard at a creepy Benson doll bust, Pixar Putt is a fun addition to the city's mini-golf scene, but act fast: Your favorite characters are only in town until Halloween.

Vincent Van Gogh is certainly having a moment. A slew of immersive, larger-than-life art exhibits dedicated to the Dutch master have opened in cities all over the world. DC can now add itself to that list with the opening of Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience on August 6 at northeast DC's Rhode Island Center. And in a city teeming with museums, it offers something quite unique. 

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is a 20,000-square-foot light and sound installation featuring two-story projections of the artist’s most compelling works so you can experience them in 360 degrees. It includes three galleries tracing the artist's development and life story. Giant fact-filled placards hang in the first two exhibition spaces before you ever encounter the finale: total immersion.