What to expect at the Contra Costa County Amusement park?

If you’re looking for things to do with kids in Concord this weekend check out Pixieland Amusement Park in Concord. This theme park is specifically designed for the little ones and probably would be ideal for very small children like toddlers and perhaps kids up to age of 10. Although there’s probably only one ride that the older kids will enjoy – the Dragon Coaster.

Pixieland Amusement Park in Concord better for toddlers than Disneyland! They won’t remember a thing anyways )

Located off of Willow Pass Road only 5 minutes away from Downtown Concord and 15 minutes from Walnut Creek downtown. Easily accessible with plenty of free parking. Typically the park is open on the weekends in the off season and almost daily during June and July. Additionally there are “Unlimited ride wristband” days available throughout the year on special occasions like holidays. Check out their official website for the calendar info. The hours of operations vary on daily basis so make sure to check out the website.

How expensive is the amusement park?

Clearly not every parent has the time and finances to take their toddler to the Disneyland in Anaheim, especially if you live in San Francisco Bay area. To be completely reasonable – children before age of 5-6 probably won’t even remember the experience. Thus we’d like to present you with a mini version of an amusement park – Pixieland in Contra Costa County. Designed especially for the little ones – mostly toddlers and kids around 5-8 years of age.

It really won’t cost you an arm and a leg to enjoy the local attraction in San Francisco East Bay. In fact the entrance is completely free! That’s right, if your kid doesn’t feel all that excited about the rides you can simply leave without a regret that you paid for entrance. You get to pick and choose how many tickets you need to buy after entering the park. This alone we find rather enticing.

What kind of rides will you find at the Pixieland?

There are multiple fun rides to choose from in the park. Here’s a short summary with pictures and videos.

Pixieland Express

– a really cool electrical train, of course it’s not a steam engine driven caboose like the one at Tilden Park Steam Train, but it’s pretty fun and takes you out of the park into the nearby garden area. We had a pretty fun engine operator so the parents enjoyed the ride as much as the kids

Fly Me aka Red Baron Airplane

a carousel-like ride where kids are “flown around” in circles – mostly for toddlers

Drive Me aka Windy Grove Cars

Pretty fun experience for little kids – they get to pretend like they driving, the distance was very limited though

Antique Carousel

A definite must do, it’s everything that you might expect from a carousel

Tea cups

A gyrating vomit inducing ride that only a few would enjoy, but hey you’re at the park already, just do it before you eat

Frog hopper

Plummet down and then reach high for the sky – a fun one, only one adult is allowed on the ride

Dragon Coaster

Probably the coolest ride that they have in the park – fun for parents as well as older kids

Note: Don’t be fooled by the Token machine. Apparently You need to buy tickets from the “main booth” and they are actual tiny paper tickets. Here’s the pic of the booth:

& if you want to enjoy the small rides (probably for kids 1-4) there’s a separate token machine that releases coins – those are not honored for the main rides.

Again, the coins spat out by the machine below are not honered at pixieland amusement park. You will have to buy tickets from the booth in the picture above to enjoy all the general rides. Furthermore, general rides have variable costs – from 1 to 5 tickets, thus you might want to plan your budget ahead of buying tickets (consider purchasing full day pass).

Conclusion:

We had a blast at the pixieland amusement park & I think our little dude did too. We’ve been coming here at least once or twice every couple of weeks and I think won’t get tired of it for a awhile.