I'm not sure the hype this place gets. It's nice that it's indoors and a little bit of an energy burner but there really isn't much to do at all. I would suggest going to the children's museum across the street instead. read more

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. read more

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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. read more

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! read more

The Commons - Jungle gym, climbing, playground - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Columbus, Indiana

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. read more

The Commons - The climbing area - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Columbus, Indiana

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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. read more

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 read more

The Commons - Art and craft show poster - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Columbus, Indiana

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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 door The 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 read more

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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. read more

Heck yeah. We drove about 50 miles to visit this free indoor playground, and honestly it was completely worth it. The climbing structure inside here is huge (but safe) and surprisingly clean. The structure is next to a big wall of windows that overlooks the street outside. The climbing structure is great for kids about 4 years and older, but there's also fun for younger kids. There's a whole section for little kids, with a slide, hills, tunnel and pretend tree to hide in. There is a lot of seating available for parents, with tables and chairs. It's also attached to a frozen yogurt shop and a Subway. Get here early! It opens at 7 a.m. most days, but we got here at 9 a.m. and the crowd was decent. Not too many people. Then we went to the children's museum across the street. (Yes, there's a children's museum within walking distance! It's a great little area for kids.) When we came back at 3 p.m. it was so packed that we just turned around and left. But it's free and awesome, so I would expect that it would be a popular place to play. read more

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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. read more

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. read more

We loved our first trip here! It was quite crowded as we were there on a Saturday. Orange Leaf froyo is conveniently located within the playground area. Other places for food you need to exit the enclosed playground area. Bathroom was messy, but not dirty. My 4 year old noted that not all the rules were being followed at 100%. Many kids had shoes off and some were also without socks. It was definitely worth the hour trip from Indy! read more

The Commons - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Columbus, Indiana

It is a place made for kids or any age and it is super fun I am giving it a 5 star review because I love it and my family does too. My favorite part was when I dip the ring into the bubble soap and lift up to make a bubble around you. read more

Columbus, Indiana is an uncommonly nice little place, and The Commons is an uncommonly nice little venue. I am especially fond of the Cabaret at the Commons series, which brings some spectacular artists to this town. And I love the surrounding area, which features some cool restaurants and plenty of parking. I'm happy for any excuse to go here. read more

This is probably my favorite part of Columbus and the coolest I've found (so far). The structure is just so cool! Unfortunately my son is afraid of heights but he still had a blast seeing how high he could climb. The "food court" is small but has a few options. The restrooms should probably be better advertised as I saw someone changing a baby behind one of the play walls and that was extremely unnecessary with all the kids running around and playing. So please just get up and take your littles to the restroom to change them :) That is my only complaint. I highly suggest stopping in and spending some time here. read more

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Nothing ordinary about the The Commons. This indoor playground and basic food court is an excellent cold weather alternative to the traditional outdoor playground. The price is right (Free) but the play options are limited if your kids don't like to climb a 2-story netted adventure. There are a few tunnels and slides for the littler ones. It's only a few miles off I65 in downtown Columbus. Worth a visit if you're in the area. read more

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Free! Free! Free! Is what the parents chant - and what the kids behave like when they get there and are set loose. We were in search of a place to let our 3 yr old son and 2 yr old daughter run around in on a cold December day and this place had it all! We drove in from Greensburg, IN just to let these guys burn off some energy and it was worth it! What a great place for kids! Unique and fun - great shapes and areas to explore. Places to climb, slides and holes to crawl into. The ground is padded in the play area for kids to run and if the trip and fall - it cushions the blow. There's a HUGE 3 story climbing tower that if your kiddo is braver than ours - can maybe explore all the way to the top! This space kept our little guys busy for a good solid hour. We were able to get a drink at one of the restaurants in the space and kick back and watch the chaos unfold. They have table and chairs and benches in which to sit and visit while the kids burn off some energy. The area is broken out in what looks like four sections - one section for babies and wee toddlers, another for 3-4 yr olds and the other two sections for 5+ ... of course they all play wherever they want ... but when they can't scale or reach that bar, they quickly more onto the next thing. What a great concept - so tickled we found this place. I'm sure the local area families love this space. What was the cherry on the top was this place wore our little guys out enough that they actually sat through an entire meal afterwards and fell asleep in the car on our way back to my in-laws. Perfection! Good job Columbus! read more

Downtown large windowed place that is great for taking small kids, as they have a huge, but safe looking, play ground area, and there are normally several other children playing there at any given time too. So great social interaction and a way to wear them out so they sleep better, ha. And it's all free to use. The rest of the building has small office areas, tables, desks, computers, art work, and several places to get a tasty bite to eat. This is a very nice, modern, well kept place to go with kids in downtown Columbus. It's walking distance to many other shops, bars, and eateries too. read more

the climbing structure, for children, is great, but you must supervise, as it is 'challenging.; The structure is very spacious, and like everything else in Columbus, you could spend hours photographing every aspect of it. The food court next door leaves a lot to be desired, but you could gorge on ice cream at the historical shop across the street and then......Opens at 7 AM so you can take your children to the COMMONS instead of .......and then you could go to the Dairy Queen around the corner (Sorry, I would have loved to sample the'nostalgia' had I had time...). All part of the 'magic'. read more

Wow....what a great free indoor play area! Kids had fun and allowed me to feel at ease with limited access areas in downtown.

Very well designed space. The playground looks fun as well as being very aesthetically pleasing. More and more little fast food joints are going into the food court and I feel in the next year or so, this will be an even better space. There is a beautiful open area upstairs where you can look down on the giant sculpture in the foyer and have access to the outdoors on a gorgeous patio. Look like it has a great area for receptions as well as other events. Thumbs up! read more

The Commons re-opened a while back and I can't believe it isn't listed on Yelp yet! The playground is totally re-done and even better than it was when I was a kid. I will upload a panoramic photo if I can. This is the best playground I have ever seen. If you have kids (baby to tween) and live in or visit Columbus, do not miss this! We just visited and brought our 7 month old. She had a great time alongside much older kids. Apart from the playground, the Commons has some interesting spaces that you can rent for events. The great Jean Tinguely sculpture, Chaos I is still there. My parents say that it never moved and the Commons was re-built around it. There are some restaurants here, which can be reviewed separately. read more

This is one of the greatest (free) indoor play areas we have ever been to. The climbing apparatus is amazing. read more

The Commons - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Columbus, Indiana

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Fun indoor playground. During busy times it can get crazy. Our 7 year old got plowed down twice by older kids that were running. There is an area for the toddlers that our 1.5 year old enjoyed. read more

Columbus has achieved something very few smaller Indiana cities have, designed a place for all ages and cultures to come together in the center of town, for food, meetings, play, and work. This place is clean, has awesome art, is friendly, and best of all promotes a great "let's come together," vibe. read more