Children’s Fairyland
699 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland
510.238.6876
www.fairyland.org
Cost: 7 dollars entrance fee for ages 1-100 (Adults are not admitted without a child and vice versa).
Parking: 2 hours free around Lake Merritt and weekend parking is available for a small fee.
Calling all princesses, princes, wizards, dreamers and fairytale believers … you have found your home! The whimsical children and tot amusement park situated on the beautiful Lake Merritt in Oakland is a must see, must visit, must frequent.
Fairy Coco rides a dragon
Want to cross Disneyland off of your family vacation to do list this year? Just cross the Bay Bridge and enjoy this local treasure! Opened in 1950, Fairyland is said to be the original inspiration for Disneyland (which opened five years later) and was introduced to Kid Friendly by my friend Jessica, an East Bay Native who went often as a child.
Each enchanting bit of this park is child sized and based on a fairytale or children story that we all know and love. At the entrance you will be greeted by the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and before you know it, you will find roosters and donkeys, gardens and fountains, Miss Muffet and her Spider, puppet shows (check out their site for times), train rides, carousels, Alice in Wonderland card mazes, tunnels with instruments attached to their walls, parks structures shaped as pirate ships and a miniature chapel. If you have never been, already been or only have been when you yourself were a child, go and check it out and plan to stay all day or at least until your child’s bewitching hour (a.k.a. naptime).
If you must leave Fairyland and still have some steam left in you, you can walk around Lake Merritt, picnic amongst the local birds, visit a wonderful park play structure situated on the lake, or go to the Botanical Gardens (all this you will see on your way out on Bellevue Avenue.)
Kid Friendly fairydust has been sprinkled all over Children’s Fairyland… and you will leave with some sprinkled on you too!
A giraffe encounter
