Biggest and Best Playgrounds

Tired of going to the same playground?

Check out our biggest/best ones that have been repeatedly recommended by our readers and fans.

Make sure you also check out our descriptions below and our Central/South Jersey playgrounds too.

We update this page as we get new recommendations,

Did we miss your biggest and best playground?

Comment below so we can add it to our map!

Over the summer, we have visited quite a few playgrounds thanks to recommendations from other moms and dads from parks, and also from City Data If you’d like to see ones that got our interest, click on Featured Playgrounds

This includes:

img_0442North Jersey (Bergen/Hudson): Lyndhurst Town Park – which has a great sprayground open from 11am-4 in the summer. It’s open as of June 20,2009! Also it is pretty new, and it has a great wall to practice handball or your tennis swing.

 

 

Van Saun Park (Paramus), my favorite in Bergen County that has a train you can ride for a $1.50, that takes you through a dark tunnel and through part of the zoo. Yes there’s a zoo, stables, a newly renovated half-finished playground, but should be done soon, and a carousel. My boys think the train is the best part. check out our link

I recently visited Ross Park in Fort Lee, which is really great for grillling and very scenic, (you drive right under the George Was by the rocks you can throw some bread to feed the ducks.

Spin thing

They also have the super spinner thing that the kids clamor for (see photo on right)

***Updated Section***

With the recent merge with The Playground Guide, we have been able to add alot more playgrounds, and are happy to include some great ones in Bergen County:

Votee Park– What a beautiful park in Teaneck, NJ, with 2 great play areas one in the North and one in the South.

Saddle River County Park– The Otto-Pehle section made five stars in The Playground Guide, but many will debate which section is the best since this park offers 4 separate playground areas that span Paramus, Glen Rock, Saddle Brook and Ridgewood (Wild Duck Pond Area) . This is my favorite place to bike, about 6 miles in length, and the shady trees keep you cool. Check out this link for the playground highlights collection of Saddle River County Park NJ.

Other parks added to our Bergen County favorites include our sandbox spot, Wyckoff Community Playground, Clark Field in Washington Township (with a cool pirate ship), Dahnerts Lake County Park in Garfield, Finch Park Creative Playground in Ramsey, Fireman’s Field Playground in Mount Arlington, Haworth Memorial Park (great wooden castle type), and Oradell Kids Foundation Playground.

We also would like to add Overpeck County Park, it’s a pretty amazing place, with lots of spiderweb structures, check it out!

North Jersey (Morris/Essex/Union):

**Updated Section 5/2011** New ones that have been added to this section/map include: Esposito Park in Clark (with skate park) and RVA Johanson Memorial Fields in Boonton,

Castle (Shunpike) Playground (Chatham), word of mouth suggestion from many many parents, when I ask what’s their favorite this one comes up in the Summit/Madison/Short Hills area.

 

Camp Jefferson (Jefferson), great big fenced one, with a skate park. Dodge Field (Madison) – Nice fenced in one close to downtown Madison.

 

Gardner Field (Denville) is wonderful. There are some jumbo slides once you get past the little obstacle course.

 

Verona Park– Beautiful picturesque area, and great playground. Watchung Reservation– Hey, how can I forget my own county, I love Watchung, it also has a great Trailside Nature Center open from 12-5PM daily.

 

img_0485

Another great one is the Community Playground in Montville that has some great structures. It is sprawling, and has great structures for all ages, including the super slides shown on the left.

 

If you want gigantic, you have to visit Ralston Playground in Mendham, I’ll have to start getting stats for square footage, because it is getting tougher to compare big playgrounds.

North Jersey (Sussex/Warren): Finally we’ve added some great playgrounds to our map in the Sussex/Warren area: Byram Johnson (with interesting kid powered monorail type thing), Field of Dreams in Independence (near Shades of Death), and Hillside Park in Newton (unique old fashioned seesaw section).
North/Central Jersey (Somerset/Hunterdon): Kidstreet is a great wooden castle playground with picnic tables, wooden structures. If you are on your way to PA on Rt 22, this is a great stop.

LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Westchester

One of the newer playgrounds in Somerset County is the Warren Township Municipal Park! This one is three stories tall, and it even boasts an old-fashioned merry go round. We plan on making a trip there in 2014 to update all the photos. Looks great and Warren is a pretty nice town too to explore.

Warren's Municipal Playground- ADA compliant

Warren’s Municipal Playground- ADA compliant

 

Central Jersey (Monmouth/Ocean): Castle Park II (Toms River)– Awesome playground which is huge, fenced and very popular;
Dorbrook Recreation Center (Colts Neck) – Wow, this place is hopping in the summer with a great water table, sprinklers galore in a fenced area. The playground is also very expansive with a huge sand area with multiple sand tools available.

7 Presidents

**Added on 5/2011** A close friend got some fabulous pictures of Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park, one of our favorites, and we are happy to share with you this perfect shore spot. Close to the beach with playgrounds for little ones and school-age kids, the park is perfect for climbing around and a change of pace from ocean play. Check out our post for video as well.

If you are searching for a park for summer sandal weather, check out our No-Wood-Chip Parks Post, it has some really nice playgrounds there as well, including some mentioned here.

 

8 Comments

  1. MammaBear

    Why do people keep buying steel and plastic playgrounds? Wood is so much GREENER and better! Who cares if it requires a little more maintenance, it’s worth it!!

  2. Katie

    How come there are no links or references to playgrounds in Southern NJ? I live in Gloucester County and have 2 young daughters. Knowing where there are cooler parks to play at would be very helpful! These parks you have posted are wonderful but I would rather not drive 2 hours to get to one!
    Anyone know of any cool parks or sprinkler parks in Southern NJ?
    Thanks!
    Katie

  3. Victoria

    I know that Shiela relies on individuals to supply her with photos and reviews of parks. As someone in lives in northern NJ, I actually have driven to a number of parks listed here and emailed her photos and updated reviews since some of the parks/playgrounds have changed. Katie, if you know of a great local park I am sure she would love to have some photos and a review. As for steel and plastic, the advantage of rubber multch and padding on the ground is that it is good for those children who are new walkers and/or who are crawling. I don’t mind my kids getting dirty, but I do mind my 1 year old crawling daughter eating woodchips, so we often go to parks that have padding on the ground and/or those that have grass. I also like wood, but again crawling on wood playgrounds is a challenge because of splinters.

  4. Sharon Huffman

    I live in South Jersey, Mt Laurel, there are there not any great playgrounds in my area?? please let me know, thanks.

  5. Cass

    I agree with mammabear. Sustainable, community built playgrounds are the best. And splinters are a problem of bad maintenace, not material.

  6. Eleanor

    There is a miracle playground that is 3 stories high with 35 different climbing items, two large tube slides, climbing wall, swings, tire swing, large whirl and loaded with handicap accessible activities. Next to it a baby playground, pavilion, gazebo,and two basketball courts. Something for everyone in one place. See pictures on on http://www.warrennj.org, recreation, photo gallary.

  7. Nostalgic

    HISTORIC QUESTION. When i was little my grandparents lived in Clifton. Occasionally we would stay with them. There’s one particular memory i have (this would have been in the mid to late 60s) of them taking us to some park one such time. All i remember is there was a lake with a nice gentle slope towards the water, where you could feed ducks. Also the park had a kiddy train ride (not sure if there were tracks or it was on wheels, can’t remember), which went either around or very near the lake. It wouldn’t have been very far from the immediate Clifton area i don’t think, because they wouldn’t have driven very far for something like this (Paramus would have been too far and i don’t think they even knew much about it), and usually stuck to the Clifton/Passaic area and maybe neighboring towns. Does anybody have any idea which park that may have been? Would appreciate any thoughts.

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