Zionsville fits a lot into a small town: a brick Main Street you can walk end to end, a string of creek-side parks tied together by the Big-4 Rail Trail, a working dairy farm and a nature center inside the public library. These picks run from parks and trails to rainy-day spots, and all but the golf course, which closes for the winter at the end of November, work in any month. What’s on the calendar this season is at the end, and hours and prices come from each venue’s own website.
Planning beyond Zionsville? Our list of things to do in Indianapolis with kids covers the rest of the metro.
1) Zionsville’s Brick Main Street
Downtown Zionsville, known as the Village, runs along a brick Main Street of shops and restaurants that’s short enough to walk with a stroller and a snack budget. The Village Corner pocket park at Cedar and Main has a street clock with a carillon and a historical marker, and the Santa House sits on the same corner on weekends from late November into December. On Saturday mornings from May through September, the Zionsville Farmers Market sets up at the south end of the street.
- Where: Main Street, downtown Zionsville; Village Corner is at Cedar and Main streets
- Events: The Christmas in the Village parade comes down Main Street the Saturday after Thanksgiving; the Brick Street Market and the Street Dance take over the street in warmer months
Know before you go: SullivanMunce Cultural Center (No. 3) doubles as the town’s Welcome Center, on West Hawthorne Street.
2) Lincoln Park
Zionsville’s oldest park is a half-acre square downtown on the site of the town’s original railway depot, where Abraham Lincoln stopped in 1861 on his way to Washington to be inaugurated. It has accessible paths, a gazebo, a fountain and a Lincoln memorial, which makes it a five-minute history lesson with a bench nearby. The town celebrates the park’s 2026 makeover with Love Lincoln, an afternoon with a Lincoln impersonator and 19th-century music, in mid-November (dates in the events list below).
- Address: 100 W. Oak St., Zionsville
- Details: Zionsville Parks Love Lincoln page
3) SullivanMunce Cultural Center
SullivanMunce is Zionsville’s art, history and genealogy center, with history exhibits in the P.H. Sullivan Museum and local art in the Munce Art Center, a 1920s bungalow next door. Admission is free, so it’s an easy stop before lunch on Main Street. It also runs art classes for all ages; our SullivanMunce Cultural Center feature has more.
- Address: 225 W. Hawthorne St., Zionsville
- Hours: Tuesdays through Fridays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (SullivanMunce website)
- Cost: Free
4) Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library
The children’s department at Hussey-Mayfield has several play areas: the Exploration Station for hands-on play, a reading tree and a model train that runs around a track. Weekly storytimes come in different levels by age, and the Zionsville Nature Center, the next entry, is in the same building. It’s free, warm and open seven days a week.
- Address: 250 N. Fifth St., Zionsville
- Hours: Mondays through Thursdays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays 1 to 5 p.m.
Know before you go: Storytime times are on the library’s kids page.
5) Zionsville Nature Center
Zionsville Parks runs its nature center from the Hoffman Room inside the library’s Youth Services Department, with exhibits on Indiana habitats and live turtles, snakes and amphibians. The park naturalists also run PEEPs, a hands-on series for preschoolers and their caregivers, and Toddler Treks for ages 4 and under at a different park each month. With the library next door, it’s on our list of free places to play indoors around Indianapolis.
- Location: Inside the Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library, 250 N. Fifth St.; 317-873-8950
- Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sundays and Mondays
- Programs: Calendar and registration on the Zionsville Nature Center page
Know before you go: If you remember the Zion Nature Center on Beech Street, that site is now Zion Nature Sanctuary, a short accessible trail loop through woods and wetland at 690 Beech St.; the nature center itself is in the library.
6) Traders Point Creamery
Traders Point is a working organic dairy farm with grass-fed Brown Swiss and Jersey cows, and the way to see it is the self-guided farm walk: a 1.5-mile trail through the pastures and along Eagle Creek, past a 300-year-old bur oak. No reservation is needed; pick up a pass at the farm store. The herd rotates between pastures, so the trail doesn’t always pass close to the cows. Anyone can watch the evening milking at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and the Dairy Bar scoops the farm’s own ice cream.
- Address: 9101 Moore Road, Zionsville
- Farm walk: $5 per person, free for 2 and under; Tuesdays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Traders Point tours page)
- Guided tours: By reservation, Tuesdays through Fridays from April through October: $16 per person for groups of 12 or more, or $25 per person for the Intimate Guided Tour for smaller groups, which stops at the milking parlor and the calves; free for 2 and under
Know before you go: The farm sells advance-only tickets for its Christmas on the Farm day in early December (Christmas on the Farm page), and from the day after Thanksgiving, Watts Christmas Tree Farm sells pre-cut trees on the farm; it’s in our guide to Christmas tree farms near Indianapolis.
7) Mulberry Fields Park
Mulberry Fields is the town’s big active park, off Whitestown Road: a playground, a skate park, four pickleball courts, athletic fields and more than 2.5 miles of paved paths, plus a splash pad in summer. When it snows, the big hill is open for sledding. Maplelawn Farmstead, a Depression-era farm in the park’s northwest corner, opens for programs and events, and Zionsville Parks stages its fall events here, Fright Nights in late October and Smashin’ Pumpkins in early November.
- Address: 9645 Whitestown Road, Zionsville
- Hours: Dawn to 11 p.m. daily
- Amenities: Four picnic shelters, a concession stand, restrooms and Big-4 Rail Trail access (Mulberry Fields page)
8) Zionsville Aquatic Center
For a swim in January, the Zionsville Community Schools pool inside Zionsville Community High School is open to the public seven days a week, with family swim and lap swim on a schedule that changes daily. It also runs swim lessons from infant and toddler classes up. It’s on our list of indoor pools and water parks around Indianapolis.
- Address: 1000 Mulberry St., Zionsville; enter through Door 9
- Cost: $7.50 per swimmer for a daily pass, including the convenience fee
- Schedule: Check the daily calendar on the Zionsville aquatic programs website or call 317-733-4808
Know before you go: When Zionsville schools cancel for weather, the pool schedule is canceled too. Bring the receipt for a daily pass bought online.
9) Overley-Worman Park
Overley-Worman packs more into one park than most in town: playgrounds, a disc golf course, a mountain bike trail loop, a fishing pier on the pond and views of Eagle Creek. A bridge connects it to the Big-4 Rail Trail, and the park has a bike repair station, which makes it a good stop for tweens on bikes.
- Address: 6040 Godello Circle, Zionsville, behind the Vonterra subdivision off Zionsville Road
- Trail rules: Bikes are allowed on all paved and rustic trails except the disc golf fairways; walkers yield to bikes on the mountain bike loop
10) Starkey Nature Park
Starkey is wooded bottomland along Eagle Creek a quarter mile southwest of the Village, with hiking trails, fishing and the stone arch bridge over the creek, where the water below runs shallow enough for creek wading in warm months (our photo). It connects to the Big-4 Rail Trail, so you can walk or bike in from downtown. Our Starkey Nature Park guide has more photos.
- Address: 667 Sugarbush Drive, Zionsville
- Trail map: On the Starkey Nature Park page
Know before you go: Overley-Worman Park (No. 9) is across the way, so a creek walk at Starkey and a playground stop there make one outing.
11) Big-4 Rail Trail
The Big-4 is a paved trail at least 12 feet wide that forms the 5-mile spine of Zionsville’s network of more than 20 miles of connected paths. It runs from Zionsville Road in the southeast corner of town to the Whitestown line, where it keeps going across Boone County, and it links Starkey, Overley-Worman and Mulberry Fields, so a family can ride park to park. At the west end, Heritage Trail Park is the trailhead for a family with a toddler and a dog: a playground built for ages 2 to 5, a 3.5-acre dog park, basketball, pickleball and bocce courts and restrooms.
- Trailhead parking: Zionsville Road Trailhead, Nancy Burton Trailhead, Zionsville Town Hall, American Legion Trail Crossing (721 Ford Road), Carter Station and Heritage Trail Park, 4050 S. 875 E. (Big-4 Rail Trail page)
12) Carpenter Nature Preserve
Carpenter is 215 acres on Eagle Creek in Union Township near Michigan Road and State Road 32, more than twice the size of Starkey. The open section has paved and rustic trails, creek overlooks, a nature playground with a play kitchen, a wildlife blind, an outdoor classroom, an amphitheater and a prairie pavilion with restrooms; later phases will add wetland boardwalks and a tree canopy walk.
- Address: 601 S. 900 E., Zionsville
- Details: Carpenter Nature Preserve page
13) Elm Street Green
Elm Street Green is the park with the adventure play space and a StoryWalk (a picture book posted page by page along the path), plus 0.8 miles of trails, a kayak and canoe launch, a sun shelter up top and a picnic shelter with a charcoal grill down by the stream. It’s also where Zionsville Parks holds Trick or Trees, its costumed trick-or-treat trail, each October.
- Address: 165 Elm St., Zionsville
14) Lions Park
Lions Park is the town’s ballpark and festival grounds, owned and run by the Zionsville Lions Club, with seven diamonds, lighted basketball, tennis and pickleball courts, sand volleyball, two playgrounds and the gazebo where the Sunday Summer Concerts play in July. Across Sycamore Street, Creekside Nature Park adds a kayak launch and 0.6 miles of accessible path through the woods along Eagle Creek, the creek walk that works with a stroller or a wheelchair. Our Lions Park guide has more.
- Address: 115 S. Elm St., Zionsville; Creekside Nature Park is at 11001 E. Sycamore St.
- Events: The Lions Club’s Pumpkin and Hayrides in October, egg hunt, Fourth of July fireworks, summer concerts and September Fall Festival are all here (Zionsville Lions Club website)
15) Sprouts Cooking School
Sprouts runs two-hour drop-off cooking classes on Michigan Road, grouped by age: Tiny Chef for ages 4 to 6, Junior Chef for 6 to 9 and Tween Chef for 10 to 14, with up to 16 kids per class. Each session has a theme and the kids do the cooking. There are family classes and school-break camps too.
- Address: 11145 N. Michigan Road, Suite 140, Zionsville
- Cost: $69 per kids class
Know before you go: Single-session classes pause in June and July for summer camps. Book on the Sprouts Zionsville class page.
16) Zionsville Golf Course (seasonal)
The town’s nine-hole, par-36 course has no sand traps and five sets of tees, including junior tees, so a kid who has outgrown the driving range can play a real round in about two hours. It’s the one seasonal pick on this list: the course is generally open mid-March through November, and Zionsville National LLC runs it and takes tee times.
- Address: 10799 E. 550 S., Zionsville; 317-873-4218
- Cost: Nine holes are $15 on weekdays and $19 on weekends and holidays; juniors 18 and under pay $13, weekdays only. Carts are $12 and drivers must be 18 (Zionsville Golf Course rates)
- Details: Zionsville Golf Course page
Zionsville’s fall and holiday calendar runs from the parks department’s trick-or-treat trail and pumpkin smash through Santa’s arrival on Main Street; town trick-or-treat hours are on our list of Indianapolis-area trick-or-treat times.
Coming Up in Zionsville
Family events in and near Zionsville, updated daily
The town’s signature tradition is Christmas in the Village: Santa arrives in a parade down the brick Main Street the Saturday after Thanksgiving, lights the tree with Mrs. Claus and then holds court at the Santa House at Cedar and Main on weekends through mid-December.
Related Article: Holiday Fun in Indianapolis
How to Plan Your Zionsville Day
- Downtown morning: SullivanMunce and Lincoln Park, a walk down Main Street, then the library’s train and the nature center (closed Sundays and Mondays).
- Creek day: Starkey’s trails and Overley-Worman’s playground across the way, linked by the Big-4 Rail Trail.
- Rainy day: The Exploration Station at the library and the nature center’s turtles, then family swim at the Zionsville Aquatic Center.
- Farm afternoon: The Traders Point farm walk, ice cream at the Dairy Bar and, on a Tuesday through Saturday, the 6:30 p.m. milking.
- Big kids and teens: Mountain biking or disc golf at Overley-Worman, the skate park at Mulberry Fields or, through November, nine holes at the Zionsville Golf Course.
Our guides to things to do in Carmel with kids and things to do in Brownsburg with kids cover the towns on either side. For a cheaper day anywhere in the metro, here are our favorite free things to do in Indianapolis.
