Lava Island

About

One word keeps coming back from visitors to this Englewood park: clean. They describe it as clean and well kept, one of them bringing a group of active six-year-old boys, and it holds even for the reviewer with a complaint: the food, they say, is way overpriced, and the play equipment is still well maintained. Under one roof there is a playground and a trampoline park, and one parent who expected the usual controlled chaos says this visit was among the best they have had at a place like this.

The ticket is the decision to make at the desk. Unlike the Aurora park, which sells an hour at a time, Englewood sells both a one-hour and an all-day wristband, and everyone who goes past the lobby needs one, adults included. The all-day ticket is the one that matters, because outside food and drinks are not allowed and cake comes in only with a booked party, so a long day means eating from the in-house kitchen, which runs to pizza, wings, smoothies and coffee.