The Play Group

About

Book before you set off. Every visit here is reserved in advance, and the door opens on a code sent by email beforehand. Private groups can take the room too: one family drove more than an hour, was turned away because of a private booking, and could find nothing on the website saying so. On Saturdays and Sundays the space is also rented out for parties.

What you are booking is a small, calm room for babies and toddlers up to about four, stocked with Montessori-style and imaginative-play toys. The site's own argument is that most indoor playgrounds in the Twin Cities are built for school-age children and can overwhelm a small one, and parents of under-threes rate it for exactly that. Several single out how clean it is, and one says it meets a toddler where he is developmentally. A coffee bar has opened alongside, and there are enrichment classes as well as open play.

One winter visitor found it cold, with the thermostat reading 62, so dress a baby warmly.