50 Amazing Places In the U.S. You've Got to Take Your Kids To

Welcome to our state-by-state guide to an unforgettable family vacation. Your next adventure could be a mere five-minute drive away. Or, a five-hour flight—you've got the freedom to choose, people!

Learn about life as an astronaut at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville — no rigorous NASA physical necessary. Big kids can ride the Moon Shot, which launches up 140 feet in 2.5 seconds to simulate 4Gs of force, while little ones can inspect a charred space capsule, a legit moon rock, and other cool planetary artifacts.

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage is the place for spotting (and taking Instagram-worthy photos of) Alaskan wildlife like moose and wolves against a breathtaking backdrop of meadows and moss-covered ponds. You can also witness bear feeding along the 1.5-mile loop.

At night, the telescopes at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff are powerful enough to check in on faraway planets (Saturn, have you lost weight?) as well as star clusters. During the day, you can spot solar flares on the sun.

How'd you like a necklace made out of something a wee bit fancier than macaroni? At Crater of Diamonds State Park, everyone can dig for hours in its 37-acre volcanic soil area for white, brown, and yellow diamonds. On average, two diamonds are found daily.

For an honest-to-goodness behind-the-scenes glimpse of Hollywood, take the three-hour Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood in Burbank. You'll see sound stages where beloved TV shows and movies are filmed, back lots (basically fake towns), an awesome prop warehouse, and even the iconic Friends Central Perk Café.

Mesa Verde National Park's 600 ancient cliff dwellings — structures constructed from sandstone blocks that look as if they were carved out of the mountain — are just as incredible as Peru's Machu Picchu, but way more local. Cliff Palace, a 150-room complex built by the Ancestral Puebloans in the 13th century, is one of the most impressive examples.

The charming Mystic Seaport is a living history museum, portraying life in a 19th-century New England seafaring village. Watch artisans make wood barrels and iron whaling tools, and work to restore a large 60-year-old wooden ship. Kids can also build a wooden toy boat to take home — souvenirs, done.

Inside Winterthur Museum, you'll find an astounding collection of decorative arts (like a painstakingly detailed doll "mansion"). Outside, a whimsical children's garden has a giant bird's nest, toadstools, and thatched-roof cottages designed for woodland fairies.

At Walt Disney World, the magic just does. not. quit. One of many amazing attractions is Animal Kingdom's land "Pandora: The World of Avatar " — a bioluminescent rainforest inspired by the film — on a boat ride through a winding river or atop a flying reptile, soaring over the trees.

There's only one aquarium on this whole entire list, and that's because no other can top it. Georgia Aquarium (North America's largest), in Atlanta, is home to tens of thousands of animals, including giant manta rays and 20-foot-long whale sharks.

Volcanoes National Park is not only educational, but it's breathtakingly beautiful as well. Learn all about volcanoes on the Big Island, and make sure to check out the Junior Ranger activities for your little ones.

The secret to inspiring good behavior: walking the eerie halls of Old Idaho Penitentiary, a prison in Boise that held roughly 13,000 criminals from 1872 to 1973. Tour the jail, including the 3x8-foot solitary confinement cells, and even learn the meaning of prison tattoos. That'll scare 'em straight!

A visit to Chicago's Willis Tower is the closest thing to walking on air. On the 103rd floor of the building are enclosed, transparent rooms (Skydeck Chicago) that jut out into the sky so that glass is the only thing between you and the ground — 1,353 feet below.

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's biggest, so it's got room for elaborate exhibits, like one that mimics the experience of traveling to China through a simulated airplane ride and replicas of Chinese structures. There are equally great exhibits centered on science, trains, and more.

The John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines consists of 28 unique and enormous sculptures — a 27-foot hollow human form made of white steel letters is one you can admire from the inside and outside — spread across four acres of velvety grass.

Make sure to show your kids The Wizard of Oz before your Kansas trip, so that they recognize all the famous characters they'll see at the OZ Museum in Wamego. Explore over 2,000 artifacts from the classic film, including a pair of ruby slippers that were made for the 50th anniversary of the movie with 3,500 Swarovski crystals.

At the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, your Little Leaguers can swing replicas of bats used by baseball legends like Babe Ruth and try to smack a ball out of the park in a simulated batting cage. They even get a mini bat to take home. Score.

You don't actually need to be in New Orleans during Mardi Gras to see the iconic parades. (Phew!) Take a year-round tour of Mardi Gras World's workshops to see artists magically morph stuff like Styrofoam into spectacular floats and props.

So much of the coast is rocky in this lovely state, but at Old Orchard Beach you'll find its best stretch of sandy shore. There's a pier with great shops and restaurants as well as an old-school amusement park behind the beach with 28 rides, including a Ferris wheel and Tilt-a-Whirl.

Assateague Island National Seashore and neighboring Assateague State Park are home to a free-roaming herd of about 90 wild horses. While kayaking or strolling the beaches, you'll catch the majestic animals napping on the shore and grazing in the salt marshes.

The six historic naval vessels at Fall River's Battleship Cove seem huge — that is, until you step inside one and see every inch of a 681-foot battleship crammed with machinery and rows of sailor bunks. Your kids won't complain about sharing a room ever again! You're welcome.

Dearborn's Ford Rouge Factory: It's the Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory of the car world, and a golden ticket is so easy to get. Watch the final stages of an F-150 truck being built, then browse a collection of historic vehicles. The film that details the entire production process is tricked out like a rock concert with 3-D projections, lasers, and moving robots.

After a trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota, your kids will be little Einsteins. With exhibits ranging from dinosaur fossils to "sportsology," there's something for everyone here. As if it couldn't get better, interactive experiments allow for children of all ages to create tornadoes, control waves, and more.

On Biloxi Shrimping Trip's shrimping expedition, kids can interact with sea creatures they'd normally see behind a wall of glass (or, um, in a bowl of pasta). Guides throw out the net and let you hold whatever they pull back up, like shrimp, sea turtles, and crabs, before tossing many back into the water.

City Museum in St. Louis is the jungle gym of everyone's dreams (grown-ups included). Designed by a sculptor, this giant playground is made of reclaimed materials, including the body of an entire airplane. Start at the 10-story spiral slide or the cave maze.

Interested in time travel? Of course you are! Well, that's what a trip to former gold mining towns Nevada City and Virginia City feels like. Go inside some of the 100 authentic 19th-century buildings in Nevada City, then hit up Virginia City (1 mile away) to eat at an old Western saloon and shop for hoop skirts.

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo cleverly reversed the day-night cycle in their nocturnal animals exhibit (the world's largest), allowing you to spy those you wouldn't otherwise see active, like aardvarks, an albino alligator, and hundreds of fruit bats flying around a cave.

For parents with kids that are thrill-seekers, we've got the perfect activity for you in Nevada. The 550-foot-tall High Roller ferris wheel is located outside the famous LINQ Hotel. The full ride takes about 30 minutes, and provides you with stunning views from all angles.

Meteorologists study some of the country's most severe winter weather at the observatory atop Mount Washington, the Northeast's tallest peak. You can take in unbelievable above-the-clouds views and learn how to predict the next polar vortex.

Kids already think pushing a truck in a sandbox is delightful, so imagine how excited they'll be — and how many points you'll score — when they're sitting in an excavator (or a dump truck or a steamroller) and dredging up massive amounts of dirt at Diggerland USA, a construction-themed amusement park in West Berlin.

Santa Fe's Meow Wolf art complex is an interactive mash-up of art, science fiction, and carnival fun house. One exhibit, based on a fictional family's disappearance, involves walking through secret passageways in their home that lead to other dimensions, like a neon forest. Truly amazing.

Ausable Chasm, a 125-foot-deep sandstone gorge, has lots of the Grand Canyon's wow factor coupled with the fun of a water park. Float down the Ausable River in a tube, visit a 91-foot waterfall, or — brace yourself — cross the river on cable bridges.

Conducting an experiment in a hands-on lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh could spark a love for science in even the most aloof tween. If not, seeing preserved animals (gross yet so cool) or touching a meteorite could do the trick.

Your kid's pricey model planes have got nothing on the Fargo Air Museum. Its amazing flight collection includes a Vietnam-era helicopter, a reconnaissance drone, and a plane designed to look like Dusty from the Disney film Planes, which you can even climb into.

At the African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton, you can feed the animals. Just watch out for the elk that'll snatch your cup of feed, and the slobbery buffaloes that love poking their heads through open car windows.

The Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur turns a lesson on the culture of these Native Americans into the ultimate block party. In a re-created village, tribe members demonstrate special traditions (like archery and hide-scraping), cook traditional foods, tell stories, and teach stomp dancing.

Who needs ocean waves when you can ride a "sandboard" down the state's 40-plus miles of coastal sand dunes? It's much easier than surfing, but you can get lessons on the private dunes at Sand Master Park in Florence, then tackle steeper sections at Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.

The Crayola Experience in Easton, the birthplace of the Crayola crayon, mixes in the elements of a factory tour (kids see how crayons are made) and ups the ante by offering three stories of innovative activities. One favorite: creating a wax painting with melted crayons.

Newport's Cliff Walk may be one of the only trails in the country that is a stunning combo of raw nature and total opulence. On one side of this 3.5-mile walkway are ocean views and rugged shoreline, while the other reveals fancy mansions built in the Gilded Age.

A canopy of moss-draped oak trees makes the historic Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens in Mount Pleasant stunning. But what makes it especially compelling is the estate's original slave cabins, some depicting aspects of a slave's life and others honoring black history leaders and heroes.

In Keystone, a pass for Rushmore Tramway Adventures' alpine slide buys you a scenic chairlift up to the summit, where Mountain Top Grille's patio sits right across from the famous faces of Mount Rushmore. After lunch with the U.S. presidents, race down the mountain on a thrilling bobsled-like track.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis serves as a powerful reminder to fight for what you believe in. Relive historical moments by sitting next to a figure of Rosa Parks on a vintage city bus, then looking inside the actual hotel room where Martin Luther King Jr. spent his last moments.

On a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth, you'll witness how sheets of plain paper are transformed into dollar bills using specialized equipment, cutting-edge technology, and the talents of designers and engravers. Sorry, no samples.

Monument Valley, a sprawling desert that has starred in numerous classic Westerns, is also part of the Navajo Nation reservation. Explore the area with a Navajo guide, who will share the legends behind every towering red-rock formation. Your gang will return home feeling small — in a great way.

Three magic words: ice cream factory. After a 30-minute tour of Ben & Jerry's original production plant in Waterbury, load up on generous samples of exclusive flavors like maple walnut and check out the cheeky tombstones of flavors that have come and gone.

Mount Vernon, George Washington's Alexandria plantation home, is a biography of the country's first president come to life. In addition to a mansion filled with 18th-century objects, you can see agricultural demonstrations — he was an avid farmer — and his invention: a 16-sided barn for separating wheat.

At the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, you can step inside an alien spacecraft and ogle artifacts from iconic sci-fi movies and shows (like Star Trek), or play instruments and record your own song in the Sound Lab. Go on, your 15 minutes of fame are waiting!

Fans of Thomas the Tank Engine — or just gorgeous views — should hop on board Cass Scenic Railroad's historic steam-engine train for a ride through the heart of the lush Appalachian Mountains. The journey includes a stop at a re-created 1940s logging camp.

There are a whopping 200 water slides to choose from in the Wisconsin Dells area, and 51 of them are at Noah's Ark, the nation's biggest water park. One drops you 10 stories and sends you plummeting 50 feet per second. Not your speed? Hit up the surfing simulator, lazy river, or wave pool.

No Jurassic Park props here. Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis gives your kids the rare opportunity to be a paleontologist. More than 10,000 dinosaur fossils have been found at its dig site. If your kid unearths one, her treasure will join the museum's impressive skeleton collection.