The Commons

I cannot rave about this place enough. My biggest complaint is that Indy doesn't have something like this for the community. I continue to be in awe of the kid friendly offerings downtown Columbus offers their community. Our favorites are The Commons (free indoor cushioned playscape), Lucabbe Coffee (featuring a built in kids area with a high top for adults) and the small children's museum across the street from the Commons. You can literally fill a whole morning/half day with these three spots alone. The Commons is open to the community and free. Their are playscapes ideal for toddlers up through elementary school. The plush flooring and overall layout makes this a low stress experience for parents. Bravo, Columbus! Many Saturday mornings on our horizon with you.

My girls loooooooooove this place! It's so nice to be able to sit back and watch them have so much fun. We take the kids and watch them play, get some frozen yogurt at the orange leaf inside, and just talk to the other parents. We LOVE spending an afternoon at the commons!

This is a new and modern indoor playground that is located across the street from KidsCommons. It is 5,000 square feet. There is free street parking, limited to 3 hours, located in front of the building that the playground is in and within a reasonable walking distance. There are tons of places we parents can sit and watch their little ones play. The playground was initially opened in 2017. It was closed in 2020 due to the pandemic and reopened in March 2022 with $1.27 million in renovations.The playground is amazing. It is so clean and has the "new car smell". They have very trendy and high tech equipment. The entire area is lined with the rubbery mat surface. It is so soft. You will find a couple of interactive games here, a colorful LED illuminated tunnel, slides, a climbing ball, and other structures. The main feature of the playground, by far, is its huge Luckey Climber that runes from the floor to the ceiling. It is hugggggeee and it was the first thing that I noticed when I look at the playground through the window across the street. TO put it in perspective, it is 2-stories and is constructed of six miles of coated stainless steel aircraft cable to connect 50 custom-made curved platform pieces.The playground's equipment is split into 3 different areas. A toddler area aimed at kids ages 6 months to 2 years, a preschool area for kids ages 2 to 5, and a school age area for 5 to 12 years old. It is a good idea, but children of all ages were all over the playground and did not really follow the age suggestion of certain areas.The playground is unsupervised, so, parents/guardians/caregivers must watch their kids. It has the following rules: Adult supervision is required at all times, NO food or drink, shoes must be ON at all times, and no rough play or running.I was hesitant to come in here at first, because I thought you had to pay admission. However, once I found out that it was totally free, I was in. My littles loved this place. They had so much fun. Surprisingly, it was not too packed. This is a must visit. This place is awesome. I wish there were more places like this. I have seen places charge admission for less. As the weather starts to get colder, this place will become more popular. Gotta love climate controlled playgrounds. I highly recommend checking this place out.

It's free, it's interactive, and it's clean. It's about as good as it gets. There is a small toddler area and a larger area for bigger kids. I brought two nine-year-olds who had a fabulous time, but tired of it after about 45 minutes. I'm not sure you could spend much more than an hour here, either because the kids would start to get bored or tired, but it is a great place to take a break and wear out the kiddos.

Huge, free indoor play scape for kids! We brought my cousins here and they had a lot of fun. It is unsupervised area with rules posted which of course not everyone follows so keep an eye on your littles. There are places for parents/guardians to sit which is nice. Huge negative for this place was only two bathrooms and the water was not running in the faucets.

We love an excuse to go back to our home town of Columbus. We enjoyed visiting THE COMMONS and the famous moving sculpture CHAOS. DEJA VU Art and Fine Craft Show had many artisans displaying and selling the art of recycled and reused material. It was and amazing experience to view the ideas and creativity coming from folks from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. We found many interesting items and settled on a beautiful vase that utilized actual leaves impressed into wet clay to form a beautiful and unique pattern

Playgrounds are our jam and this one is in our top 10 favorites since the remodel. There is a space for kids of ALL ages. The hours are great. It is open earlier than any other indoor playground we know of. You can also grab a bite to eat right next doorThe family restrooms make it great for families with more than one kid.Get there early for no crowds & if you want a table snag it early.. -Strollability & Mamas in the Midwest

I enjoyed it. there is not much to do unfortunately but it is free and clean. I will say that you should wear warm weather clothes because you get sooo hot if you're in long sleeves. If you need to plan or work and need to keep your kids occupied then this is the place for you.

We took our niece and nephew to this playground during a family visit. They had a blast and loved the multistory climbing tower (with nets). Their mom even commented, "it's amazing something like this is so nice and free!" We feel really lucky that Columbus invested in this family playground.It was very kid-friendly and great for ages 4 to 10. A VERY noisy and busy place. If your child is sensitive to noise or general overwhelm, maybe check on the best time of day to visit because when we went it was a wild place! Easily 100 kids there. Kids were having so much fun running, climbing, sliding and playing with the various light installations. Plenty of parking in the city and great family places nearby to grab a bite afterwards. Just go in expecting the chaos and you'll have a great time.

We had so much fun spending the afternoon here. Definitely sensory overload for parents but a great way to get your kids energy out especially if you're on a road trip and need a break for lunch and to stretch.