Kids Party Venues in Indianapolis: 8 Great Spots

The pick of the three Royal Pin houses in the city, because it is the only one that will sell you the Pick Two package: an hour of bowling plus either a game of laser tag or a round of mini golf, which is a far better shape for a nine-year-old than two straight hours of lanes.

The standard Strike package covers eight guests for ninety minutes with shoes, a party host, a decorated table, arcade cards, treat passes and a bowling pin souvenir; a version with pizza and soda per child steps up from there. Bumpers and ball ramps are available on request. One rule to plan around: outside cake is welcome, but they cannot store it in their coolers, so bring it when you arrive.

A genuine roller rink on the north-west side, on Glen Arm Road, running the format that has not needed updating in forty years — a wooden floor, a live DJ, a serious sound system, a Roller Cafe and a large arcade off to one side.

Parties are sold in three brackets, and the distinction is useful: a kids' party, a teen party and an adult one, so a group of twelve-year-olds is not being handed the same package as a group of six-year-olds. There is a private-hire option as well if you would rather not share the floor with a public session. Confirm which session your slot sits in before you set a start time and send the invitations.

Two NHL-sized sheets of ice in Carmel, and the one venue on this list where the activity is a genuine skill rather than a room to run around in. That cuts both ways: it is wonderful for a child who already skates and a long hour for one who does not, so know your guest list.

The party is unusually clean in shape — sixty minutes of private ice time, skate rentals covered for up to twenty-five skaters, and a private party room with the food and drink handled through the rink's own club rather than by you. Extra skaters beyond the twenty-five are charged per head. Because the ice is private rather than a public session, the slot is the constraint, so ask early.

Indiana's living history museum, on a thousand-plus acres in Fishers, and comfortably the most interesting booking here. Costumed interpreters work an 1836 village, there is a four-story treehouse at Treetop Outpost, and a tethered helium balloon carries passengers several hundred feet above the grounds.

Four party shapes, all recommended for ages two to twelve and all holding up to fifty people. The basic one takes an outdoor pavilion in a morning or afternoon slot with twenty-five complimentary admissions and a prairie craft included. The premium versions add concierge transport to Treetop Outpost and River Crossing from April through October, or the indoor Museum Experience Center when the weather will not cooperate. In October there is a Headless Horseman party on select evenings for up to a hundred.

Carmel Clay Parks runs this one, and municipal ownership is the whole appeal: a properly maintained outdoor water park with a lazy river and a wave feature, at a fraction of the fuss of a resort. The party unit is the Party Patio, which holds up to twenty-five people in one of two slots, noon to three or four to seven.

Read the package carefully, because it is a hire rather than a full-service party. You get ten youth passes and four adult passes; extra passes are bought at the ticket window, and the decorations, food, drinks and tableware are all yours to bring. That makes it flexible, and more work than a trampoline park. It is strictly seasonal, so a February birthday is not having one here.

The west-side answer, run by the town of Plainfield on Vestal Road, with outdoor pools and water features alongside an indoor aquatic center attached to the recreation center. For a summer birthday it is the most straightforward booking in this guide.

The party unit is a cabana, and there is one trap worth knowing before you invite anybody: day passes are not included in the rental, so every guest still needs admission on top. The cabana has a firm maximum occupancy and only that number receives wristbands, and the venue asks the whole group to arrive together to keep check-in moving. Reservations are first come, first served and must be paid in full when you book.