Who Needs the Fountain of Youth? Make Like a Kid at an Epic Adult Playground

Leave your fear of heights at home and visit the harness-free climbing wall at Utah Olympic Park. (Photo: Alamy)

Legitimate question: When it comes to ball pits, jungle gyms and carousels, why should kids get to have all the fun? You work hard, right? Right. So, here are some places to play hard. Literally.

Psicobloc Climbing Wall, Utah Olympic Park; Park City, UT

Rock climbing walls alone aren’t worthy of inclusion on a list like this. But a harness-free climbing wall that towers 50 feet over a 12-foot-deep turquoise pool? That gets our attention. It’s the first of its kind built stateside, at the Utah Olympic Park, in Park City. And listen, if you make it up only a few feet, we won’t judge — falling into the cool water is the best part.

City Museum of St. Louis, MO

At St. Louis, Missouri’s City Museum you’ll find 600,000 square feet of salvaged materials, including two abandoned planes, that have been turned into a playground for adults. Take a ride down a 10-story slide, catch a pop-up circus, go for a spin on a Ferris wheel (on the roof!), wander through man-made caves and order bespoke shoelaces made on a sewing machine that dates back to the 1800s. Insider tip: The best time to visit is Friday or Saturday night, when the place is open only to adults.

Kaleidome Hong Kong

The rainbow-bright jungle gyms of yore have met their match in this laser-cut polyhedral dome, created for Hong Kong’s Sha Tin Park by LAAB architects. The 10-and-under set loves crawling through the 262 cells of polished stainless steel, but don’t let the kiddies stop you from scrambling to the top yourself — it’s one hell of an Instagram souvenir.

SeaGlass Carousel; Battery Conservancy, New York

The 30 fiberglass fish on rotation in the $16 million SeaGlass Carousel, which opened in August 2015 in New York‘s Battery Park, include crayola-bright threadfin butterflyfish and siamese fighting fish illuminated from the inside with color-changing LEDs meant to mimic bioluminescence. What else would you expect from the set designer of Broadway’s Little Mermaid? You’ll have to contend with lots of little people waiting in line to see the show, but it’s worth it.

Area 47, The Ultimate Outdoor Playground; Tyrol, Austria

With their snowcapped peaks and glacial valleys, the Austrian Alps should be adventure enough. But no: Hidden between mountain ranges, the Area 47 adventure park features, among countless other diversions, a high ropes course strung 88 feet over the rushing whitewater of the Otztal River, a brand new hydrospeed slide so fast (27 mph!) that you’re required to wear a helmet, and a guided spelunking adventure 1,500 feet deep in Amberg Mountain.

MountMitte, Beach Ropes Course; Berlin

Ever dreamed of climbing the Matterhorn? This is your chance. At the climbing center Mount Mitte, in Berlin, the six rope courses are named after famous summits. As you make your way to the top, you’ll jockey through punching bags and try your luck crossing a rickety suspension bridge. Just don’t get so nervous you forget to look up — the view is jaw-dropping and includes the 1,200-foot Fernsehturm tower.

Superkilen; Copenhagen, Denmark

Forgive us for our lack of surprise that in design-forward Copenhagen even the parks are museum-worthy. The owners of the Superkilen urban park found inspiration in the vast variety of the 60-plus cultures that live in the neighborhood to create their play space. There’s an alfresco boxing ring from Thailand, a hulking black slide shaped like an elephant from Chernobyl, and workout machines from Santa Monica, California (where else?).

Dig This, Heavy Equipment Playground; Las Vegas

If what happens in Vegas is that you get to drive a climate-controlled Caterpillar bulldozer while rocking a hard hat, you should tell everyone you know about it. At the Dig This Heavy Equipment Playground you can do that, plus lift 2,000-pound tires, build a giant mound of dirt, and rip deep ravines into the earth using your choice of heavy machines. (How about an excavator?) And there’s no need for training — just pass a breathalyzer test, take a quick orientation and go.

This article was published through a partnership with Jetsetter magazine.

---