Looking to make memories as a family without going into debt? Well, you’ve made it to the right place, then. I’ve always tried to keep budget conscious when it comes to travel and activities, but don’t want to scrimp on the fun opportunities.

Here are some places throughout Central Texas that we’ve found to be memorable, sometimes educational and of course, fun.

The Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms is a living history museum that interprets and preserves the histories and cultures of Texas. They offer a hands-on look at Central Texas during the 19th century. The Farm at times has live demos and people dressed in historical attire telling stories of days of old. It’s a picturesque place to absorb history while having fun. The Farm offers free admission with the POGO Pass.

Every year we look forward to Fortlandia at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Fortlandia features different interactive structures by different artists around the Wildflower Center. We like to pack a lunch and spend the day exploring.

The Science Mill in Johnson City is a fun, interactive children’s museum offering multiple educational activities. They also host special events for the community as well as special homeschool classes.

Another wonderful museum full of hands-on STEM fun is The Thinkery. They rotate exhibits and offer frequent community days for free entrance.

Cameron Park Zoo is Waco’s 52-acre natural habitat, and the home of many interesting creatures, including jaguars, rhinos, girrafes, orangutans, and more! The layout and design of this zoo makes it so easy to navigate and view all the exhibits throughout. It’s an affordable and wonderful way to spend a portion of your day as a family with kids of all ages.

Austin’s (better known by locals as Austin’s Park and Pizza) is a large indoor and outdoor facility. There’s an indoor roller coaster, arcade, Lazer tag, and bowling. Outside is a two-story carousel, mini golf, bumper boats, and multiple race car tracks. Our POGO pass offer quarterly passes for all the fun as well as free monthly bowling.

If you’re looking for some indoor family fun for a hot or rainy day, there are quite a few options as well.

Monster Mini Golf is an indoor facility offering miniature golf, an arcade and Lazer tag. You can access a trip for free via the POGO Pass.

Gattitown is another fun indoor arcade, offering an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet as well. They have weekday specials for their buffet which makes it an easy choice when you have three growing kids who like to eat! Save some money, play some games and fill your bellies, ha!

It’s always nice to beat the heat in the peak of Summer indoors with some ice skating. The Crossover offers open skate sessions throughout the week.

The Austin Aquarium offers many hands-on learning opportunities. Get up close with many aquatic creatures, learn from the caretakers as they share about some of the animals they take around the building for some time outside of their enclosure and feed some of them in the interactive enclosures. We were able to enjoy a free day thanks again, to our POGO Pass.

Typhoon Texas is another fun way to spend a Summer’s day. There’s a wave pool, kiddie play area, multiple water slides and a lazy river. Our POGO Pass gives us one free day to enjoy, but if you plan on going often, your best bet is purchasing a season pass.

As shared multiple times throughout the post, many of these activities were accessed via use of our POGO Pass, saving us hundreds of dollars to enjoy many of these attractions. If you decide to purchase for yourself, a discount will be added to your cart at checkout when using my link and gives us a discount towards our pass renewal fee.