February break often sneaks up on you because you’re barely recovered from the holidays. It’s also one where the weather could go either way so it makes it hard to plan in advance.
We are very lucky to live in a place that provides endless things to do in every season within a short drive. Additionally, many of these things won’t cost you a cent!
Plus, many provide a little fun and a little history so you can sneak in some learning without your kids knowing.
Lastly, we also love visiting places in the winter that we visit in other seasons showcasing a totally different experience.
So let’s start planning your awesome February break week!
1. Playgrounds
Go to your favorite playground all year round! It’s fun in every season! Some of my favorites are – Jones Beach, Eisenhower Park, Bethpage State Park, Garvies Point, Rocketship Park, and Heckscher Park. Also check out my list of unique playgrounds around Long Island.
2. Take A Hike Or Nature Walk
You can never go wrong with a winter hike or nature walk.
There are so many beautiful hiking paths on Long Island – you can check out part 1 and part 2 of my hiking guide or my guide to Long Island parks offering pretty walks to find some new places.
If you’re looking for an elevated (ha!) experience check out the highest point on Long Island at Jayne’s Hill in West Hills. This spot is marked by a big boulder and Walt Whitman quote. The quote is not “yay! I have a mall!”.
We also love the grounds of the Nassau County Museum of Art and Old Westbury Gardens in all seasons and walking to Fire Island from the Robert Moses State Park field 5 parking lot.
Not into nature or looking for a short drive? Your school’s track is a fun place to get some energy out too.
Into nature and looking for a long drive? We love Greenport and Orient Point State Park on the North fork of Long Island.
3. Beaches
The beach is a great place for a winter walk. Sometimes you can find a beach cleanup as well and double-down on your day’s activity by helping the Earth too!
For fun winter beach walks check out Short Beach Park, Reeves Park Beach, and Jones Beach field 10.
4. Library Are The Best!
Libraries are the best places to take little kids. Each is unique and some go above and beyond to create incredible play spaces for kids. Plus, it’s all free! They often load up on classes and events over school breaks too. You can easily make up a library tour in your county (and neighboring counties) for the day or for the whole week!
My favorite library tip of all are the free museum passes. Often found on their website or app, you can sign up for these complimentary tickets to local museums and attractions and thank your tax dollars for the membership. The Middle County Library in Suffolk is one of our favorites.
Speaking of the library, if you live in New York State you’re able to get a New York City Public Library Card allowing you to take advantage of their excellent NYC Culture Pass. Here you’ll find all kinds of free passes to amazing museums and cultural institutions across the five boroughs.
Additionally, libraries offer all kinds of free online classes good for the whole family. Also, you know – they have books.
5. Bake Something
Baking is both inexpensive and results in something delicious. If you have a tween or teen suggest they try it themselves. This gives you both a break for an hour and your favorite treat served up to you on a platter! For example – as I’m writing this I just answered the question “should I make cookies or pretzel bombs”. Yes, why don’t you go ahead and make both! Meanwhile – my daughter learned how to make pretzel bombs from a free online library cooking class. #fullcircle
Other fun and easy-to-make family friendly kitchen treats include chocolate bark or a chocolate pop-it. I’m also mildly obsessed with this customizable letter baking pan.
6. February Break New York City Day
Yes, Manhattan is expensive but there is so much you can do for free! Just walking around and looking up is a fun experience.
Some of our February break favorites are: Bryant Park, the Staten Island Ferry, South Street Seaport, the High Line, Little Island, walking around Central Park and the reservoir, or walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Many city museums have free library passes through your local library. You can often reserve them up to a month in advance so take a look and plan ahead. Some of our favorites include: New York Historical Society, The Met, The Frick Collection, The Natural History Museum, The Intrepid, The Guggenheim, and The MOMA.
If you have a little shopper nothing is better than walking around Soho. Added bonus if they still have holiday or birthday money to spend!
7. Board Games
Board games can do so much more than sit in piles in your basement. I love giving my kids new games for the holidays and inevitably taking off the plastic over February break. If you hit the jackpot and find a good one then you’ll have countless hours of family fun. Here are some of my favorite family games.
8. Read
I bet you have a list or pile of books you’ve been wanting to read. Now is the perfect time to start. Plus, if you own them finishing one over February break and passing it along means you cleaned your house too!
This is also a great opportunity to snuggle with your kids on the couch. If you need to bargain with them to achieve this goal you can always say if you read for an hour you can play video games for an hour. If you want to spice it up you can add “and for every time you complain the video game time gets reduced by ten minutes”. Looking for a new book? Check out my book suggestions for kids and adults.
9. Coffee And Dessert Shops
Speaking of reading, if you have an avid little reader than make like Friends and go sit in a coffee shop for the afternoon. Bring a book, grab something made of chocolate, a mocha or chai latte, and relax in the quiet. This is a great one-on-one activity to do with a big kid while your little kid stays at home with your plus one.
10. Food For Fun!
Try a new restaurant for breakfast or lunch. There are lots of fun burger places with great shakes or crazy breakfast spots with Nutella filled everything. A new meal is always a fun adventure. Plus, if you go during the day it will fill everyone up so you can sneak by with a light dinner.
11. Build A Fort
Kids love building forts. You can do this simply with couch cushions, pillows, and sheets. Or, you can get fancy with a fort building set or even better a super cool AirFort that pops up in seconds.
12. Make Ice Cream
Adding an ice cream maker into your home is so much fun. Not only does it bring you fresh ice cream all year but it allows a budding chef all kinds experimenting and creativity. Plus, it’s fun to have fresh ice cream in any season! If you didn’t buy one for the holidays President’s Day is a good excuse. Because presidents like ice cream…
13. Movies
February break is a good time to catch up on movies. While there are many you could watch since your kids were born, it’s fun to introduce them to movies you loved from the 80s and 90s. Since you have so much time this week you can even do a movie marathon and watch all the movies in a series. As an added bonus you can discuss if the movie stood the test of time and how an 80s movie could be rated PG or PG-13 and get away with so much!
For a more exciting February break cinematic experience, plan for a movie day on Tuesday at a theater like Showcase Cinema when they offer $5 movies all day.
14. Art Projects
I bet you have a zillion art projects waiting to be made in your house. What better time to make them than February break! This is also a great time to make a collage, vision board, or fun name sign with your kids. If you’re looking to redo your kid’s room now is a good time to get creative as well! This also counts as cleaning your house because you’ll inevitably throw something out (yay!).
15. Start Your Garden Inside Over February Break
February break is the perfect time to start your garden from scratch. It’s also a fun time to start growing flowers. In fact, you can do all types of fun experiments with bulbs too.
If you want some extra credit, start saving the seeds from your fruits and vegetables, dry them out, and then sow them on your counter top in an egg carton or yogurt cups.
If the weather is mild this is also a great time to cut back out of place bushes or branches in your yard. Since it’s winter and they’re dormant it’s much easier to manicure your property now. It’s also a great time to yank out any remaining weeds from the summer so they don’t come back with a vengeance in the Spring.
16. Your Backyard
Just because it’s cold out doesn’t mean your swing set has to be lonely. The winter is a great time to play outside! you can add on a new swing, addition, or reconfigure your current swings to mix things up.
Additionally, if there’s snow on the ground that alone can provide hours of fun. Also remember – if you’re a kid, snow plus your swing set is the best day ever!
If you have a fire pit, winter s’mores are great! It’s exciting to sit outside in the snow and it can be really pretty.
If you have a budding astronomer, the winter sky is a great time to pull out your telescope. Plus, since it gets dark early it won’t interfere with bedtime.
17. Museums
We spend a ton of time at museums and at this point my kids have their favorites. School breaks are a great time to visit (or revisit) and February break is even better because they are usually inside (warm) and not very busy.
Some of our favorite include: American Air Power Museum, The Long Island Museum, Heckscher Museum Of Art, Garvies Point Museum, Children’s Museum Of The East End, Cradle of Aviation Museum, South Fork Natural History Museum, Raynham Hall Museum, Museum Of American Armor, and the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum.
18. Street Art
If you love street art and colorful graffiti you can see tons of it out and about for free. Some of our favorites are: King’s Park Psychiatric Center, The Bushwick Collective, Welwyn Preserve, Lakeland County Park, and Muttontown Preserve.
19. Parks
Finding a new park is always exciting. Especially if there’s water or a really pretty view. One of my favorites is Gantry State Park in Long Island City. We also love Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay.
Don’t forget, any park with a handball wall and tennis or pickleball courts is perfect for a few hours of fun February break fun!
20. Zoos & Animal Refuges
The zoo is fun in all seasons! This is a great time to visit some of your favorite animals and see them in their preferred climate.
I always say the sea lions and seals love winter more than anything and will flip for you upon arrival. Also think of all the animals like SNOW leopards who get excited for the winter. This is their time to shine.
Not only are zoos less crowded in the winter but if you’re a member they’re free too! This is a great time to visit a smaller zoo like the Queens Zoo. You can see it all within an hour which is most likely how long your kids can go without complaining that it’s cold.
Besides zoos, you can check out animals at The Quogue Wildlife Refuge, The Sweet Briar Nature Center, and The Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery.
Party, Vacation, Summer, And Gift Planning Over February Break
With everyone home over break now is a great time to start talking and planning for any upcoming parties or vacations. If you were waiting for some time off then now is the perfect time! You can plan for upcoming birthday parties and even focus on large scale event planning.
If you don’t have any big celebrations coming up now is a great time to start discussing your summer trip or proposed summer backyard additions. With everyone home you can look activities up together and nail it down early.
You can even start thinking about your Mother’s Day and Father’s Day plans and make super early reservations to have your pick of times.
February break is also a great time to take your kids for a haircut. If you take them to a fun place like Sharkey’s Cuts For Kids it’s a great destination for the day!
Finally, pick a date for a fun summer parents night out like on Paddle Pub Long Island or start ordering your camp name labels. Yes it’s super early for all of these but getting ahead of the game will take something off your plate once spring sports start and you don’t know which way is up.
Added Bonus: Attractions And Road Trip Destinations For February Break
If you still want more, get in your car and go explore! We have an abundance of activities in every direction! Remember driving in the winter can be tricky so always make sure you’re extra vigilant for ice and scary road conditions. With that said, some of our favorite destinations include:
Urban Air in Dix Hills or Lake Grove
Scott’s Pointe in Calverton, NY
RPM Raceway in Farmingdale, NY
Beyond Van Gogh and Beyond Monet Exhibits in Westbury, NY
Casa de Spin in Massapequa, NY
Hapik Climbing Park in Yonkers, NY
RiseNY in Manhattan
The Ride NYC in Manhattan
The Statue Of Liberty and Ellis Island in Manhattan
The National Museum of Mathematics in Manhattan
New York Hall of Science in Queens, NY
Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY
LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Yonkers, NY
The American Dream Mall including Nickelodeon Universe and TiLt Museum in Rutherford, NJ
Diggerland in West Berlin, NJ (Here are my favorite tips)
Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ (check out my review)
Strasburg Railroad in Ronks, PA
Crayola Experience in Easton, PA
Camelback Resort in Tannersville, PA
The Turkey Hill Experience in Columbia, PA
The Whitaker Center in Harrisburg, PA
Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA (check out my favorite tips!)
Or take a drive to Philadelphia, Washington, DC, or Boston for a few days.
Also, while some of these are no longer running, there are a lot more winter ideas on here too!
You’ve Mastered February Break, See You For April Break!
Ok, February break is mastered and you’ve spent little to no money on a great week. You’re full from all the baked goods and you cleaned your house. Sounds like a pretty successful week to me.
Make sure to save this post for April break when the flowers will be popping out and you’ll be ready for a new adventure!
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