Angel Island Fun Park | Durham NC

About

Buy the wrong ticket here and your child spends the afternoon watching other children drive past. The playground is one zone inside a much bigger park and it sells on its own: the Adventure Zone gets you a ball pit, several large slides, a three-level obstacle course, a merry-go-round and a separately gated area for the smallest children, bought by the three hours or by the day. Bumper cars, the animal ride, go-karts and the arcade all cost extra, singly or through one of three combo passes. Go-karts start at five.

The same trap is set in the party packages, and that is the thing most worth knowing here. The entry-level tier buys floor time and a private room and no rides whatsoever; each step up the ladder adds a single turn on something rather than the run of the place. Work out which one matches what the children think they are coming for.

It sits inside a shopping center, which makes it easy to fold into an errand, and at least one adult has to go into the Adventure Zone with any child under six — plan on two people going in rather than one. Saturday afternoon into the evening is its heaviest stretch and weekends run at roughly twice weekday levels, but it stays quiet until late morning. One caution about the reviews. The recent ones are almost entirely thank-yous to individual members of staff, warm but silent on the place itself, so judge this one on the layout and the price list rather than on the rating.