spring break fun

The ultimate Houston guide to family-friendly fun for spring break 2025

With kids out of school, families looking for activities to keep them engaged will have a host of things to choose from. Houston has options for all ages and all interests. Here are several of our favorites.

Attractions and Immersive Experiences

Discovery Green
Head to the downtown park for The Rink: Rolling at Discovery Green, Houston’s only outdoor roller rink. Open daily during Spring Break, tickets start at $14. The park also offers STEM activities, Sunday jazz concerts, and a showing of Hidden Figures on March 13.

Great Wolf Lodge
The Webster hotel and indoor water park’s Great Wolf Lodge’s Spring Breakout celebration includes activities like family yoga, dance parties, games, character photo ops, and other family-friendly offerings. Rates vary by day.

The Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa
Book one of the hotel’s Spring Break Stay and Play Getaway packages and get accommodations with no resort fees, access to three resort pools, fitness facilities at The Houstonian Club, outdoor walking trails, an in-room movie, complimentary self-parking, and special gifts for children and teens. Additionally, The Spring Break Racquet Sports Camps provides tennis and pickleball instruction for children ages 4 to 16, from March 10 to 14. The Spring Break Three-Day Swim Camp runs from March 11 to 13, offering group swim lessons for children ages 3 to 8. The spring break package is available through March 27, with prices starting at $559 a night.

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
One of Houston's most popular attractions, the nearly month-long livestock show and rodeo is the biggest in the world. Spring break concerts include Brad Paisley, Lauren Daigle, Jon Pardi, and Journey. Concert tickets also get guests day passes to the grounds, where they can explore animal exhibits, a massive shopping set-up, the carnival, food stalls, and more. Tickets are available to the grounds only for $21 for adults and $10 for kids.

Margaritaville Lake Resort Lake Conroe
Get 30 percent off rates from March 7 to 23, and enjoy spring break-themed activities like a mermaid meet-and-greet, cannonball contest, temporary tattoos and leis, trivia and bingo, plus food and drink, and playing in the pool.

Space Center Houston’s 2025 Moon 2 Mars Festival
This two-week-long festival from March 9 to 22 has something for everyone, with opportunities to meet astronauts, take part in hands-on STEM activities, barbecue, live music by bands including Third Eye Blind and The Revivalist, and the chance to see The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks, a new immersive experience in the recently renovated Space Center Theater, where guests can embark on the retelling of Apollo missions within the 270-degree theater space. General admission tickets start at $24.95 for kids and $29.95 for adults.

Arts and Performances

Houston Grand Opera
The opera company has a selection of free performances at Levy Park, Lynn Wyatt Square, the Alief Community Center, and Rodeo Houston from March 8-15. Designed for children ages pre-K to 2, performances include Mo Willems’s Bite-Sized Operas!, The Armadillo’s Dream, Opera Cat, and more. The full schedule is available online.

Main Street Theater’s Theater for Youth
Main Street Theater presents two kid-friendly options at the MATCH. The Wind in the Willows is the story of Mr. Toad and his friends, who take to the open road on an adventure. The show isn’t recommended for children under 3. Elephant and Piggie’s We Are In A Play runs March 11-14, and finds the beloved Mo Willems; characters on stage and full of fun. The show is recommended for pre-kindergarten kids and older. Tickets start at $24.

Theater District Open House
From noon to 5 pm on Monday, March 10, head downtown for this celebration of the arts. There will be performances, a stage combat demonstration, a multi-generational dance class taught by Houston Ballet, food, games, and more. The full schedule is online, and it’s completely free.

Museums

Asia Society Texas
Journey to the Moon is an interactive experience for all ages, where guests must salvage the International Space Academy’s mission when complications arise. Along the way, they'll learn about historical and mythological characters from Asia, the importance of the Moon to Earth, and see the exhibitions Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis and Explore Asia. Admission is free.

Holocaust Museum Houston
The museum offers a series of spring break activities, including a family-friendly magic show from Richard Hatch on March 11, storytime and survivor accounts on March 12, and tours throughout the week. Many events are included with museum admission, which is $22 for adults and free for those under 18.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
There’s plenty to offer all ages here, from art-making classes to kid-friendly activities at Bayou Bend to a moonlight screening of The Princess Bride. Whether guests are seeking hands-on crafting or exploring the current exhibits, the museum is a place for adults and children to come together. Museum admission is $24 for adults, $20 for ages 13 to 18, and free for those under 12. There may be additional costs for some activities.

Kids and adults in big water tubes at Great Wolf Lodge

Photo courtesy Great Wolf Lodge

Great Wolf Lodger in Webster has a host of special Spring Break activities for kids and adults

SUDDEN SHUTTERS

GameStop to close 11 Houston-area stores amid nationwide cuts

GameStop/ Facebook

Long lines for video game releases are a rarity these days.

For GameStop, it’s a blood bath right out of Mortal Kombat. The Grapevine-based video game chain is expected to shed 470 locations nationwide, including 11 in the greater Houston area.

The closures were revealed in the company's newest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that said it would close "a significant number of additional stores in fiscal 2025" ending on January 31. In its last fiscal year, GameStop shuttered 590 locations.

In addition to braving the overall “retail apocalypse,” the retailer faces the same conditions that largely decimated CD and video stores. Video games are now available for digital download in seconds and no longer require a trip to a physical store.

“As a part of our profitability initiative, we are reducing our global store base, which includes closing stores that are not meeting performance standards or stores at the end of their lease terms with the intent of transferring sales to other nearby locations,” the company wrote in its annual report. “ If we are unsuccessful in marketing to customers of the stores that we plan to close or in transferring sales to nearby stores, our results of operations could be negatively impacted.”

The current digital squeeze isn’t the first time GameStop has been thrown for a loop by contemporary internet culture. In 2021, the retailer famously became a meme stock, buoyed by users of Reddit's r/wallstreetbets. The skyrocketing increase in its stock price, followed by short selling, caused major financial consequences for hedge funds and other investors.

Since then, the stock price has been more stable but has decreased approximately 21 percent over the last year. After CEO Ryan Cohen bought 500,000 shares in the company on January 21, the price has slightly rebounded.

GameStop has not issued a formal list of the closures, and a request for more information was not returned at press time. But Ohio’s WKYC Studios put together a list of all the U.S. stores that are on the chopping block, verified through GameStop’s online store locator. The Texas closings are as follows:

Allen – The Village at Allen, 170 E. Stacy Rd
Arlington – Little School Road Shops, 1245 N. Little School Rd
Austin – Ben White Payload Center, 500 E. Ben White Blvd
Balch Springs – Lake June Plaza, 12209 Lake June Rd
Boerne – Menger Crossing, 1375 S. Main St
Cedar Park – Lakeline Plaza, 11066 Pecan Park Blvd
Conroe – Conroe Center, 1231 N. Loop 336 W
Corpus Christi – Padre Island Drive, 1805 S. Padre Island Dr
Corsicana – Corsicana Marketplace, 3811 W. Highway 31
Dallas – Glen Oaks Crossing, 4787 Vista Wood Blvd
El Paso – Alameda Town Center, 9411 Alameda Ave
El Paso – Fountains at Farah, 8889 Gateway West Blvd
Fort Worth – Clifford Retail, 301 Clifford Center Dr
Garland – Ridgewood Village, 2930 S. First St
Houston – Beechnut Street Houston, 10100 Beechnut St
Houston – Bellaire Gessner Center, 8880 Bellaire Blvd
Houston – Market at Uvalde, 13706 East Fwy
Houston – Market Square, 13341 Westheimer Rd
Houston – Oxford Plaza, 10407 North Fwy
Houston – Royal Oaks, 11807 Westheimer Rd
Houston – Wayside Shopping Center, 900 S. Wayside Dr
Huntsville – Ravenwood Village, 245 Interstate 45 N
Irving – MacArthur Park, 7601 N. MacArthur Blvd
Lake Jackson – Lake Jackson Shopping Center, 121 Highway 332 W
La Marque – LaMarque Crossing, 6408 Interstate 45
Laredo – Laredo Crossing Shopping Center, 4415 S. Zapata Hwy
Leon Valley – 5601 Bandera Rd
Lubbock – 7th St Lubbock, 1803 Seventh St
Magnolia – Westwood Village, 33020 FM 2978 Rd
Mansfield – Mansfield Crossing, 1301 E. Debbie Ln
Marble Falls – Highland Lakes, 2400 US Highway 281
McKinney – Lake Forest Crossing, 4100 S. Lake Forest Dr
Mesquite – Town East Mall, 2050 Town East Mall
Mission – Shary Plaza, 808 S. Shary Rd
Palmhurst – Palmhurst Shopping Center, 4416 N. Conway Ave
Paris – Paris Corners, 3842 Lamar Ave
Saginaw – Cross Pointe Shopping Center, 1453 N. Saginaw Blvd
San Antonio – Alamo Quarry Market, E. 255 Basse Rd
San Antonio – Blanco Road, 7117 Blanco Rd
San Antonio – Huebner Oaks Center, 11745 W. I-10
San Antonio – Northwoods Phase III, 1742 N. Loop 1604 E
San Antonio – Walzem Plaza, 5366 Walzem Rd
Stephenville – Stephenville Shopping Center, 2811 W. Washington St
Sulphur Springs – Sulphur Springs Corners, 1707 S. Broadway St
Terrell – Terrell Corner, 1888 W. Moore Ave
Tyler – State Highway 64 Tyler, 3842 State Highway 64 W
Watauga – Watauga Town Crossing, 8004 Denton Hwy

video games retail closings