Located in Lake Zurich, TreeHouse is an indoor play place for kids ages one year and older. I recently took my three-year-old for the first time along with one of my friends and her four- year-old. Being in the heart of winter, we have been scouting out our various options for indoor places to amuse our kids (and let’s be honest, to let them burn off energy while we sit around to chat!).
TreeHouse quickly shot up to the top of my list of best places! When we walked through the door (on a Friday afternoon), it wasn’t overly busy, but there were lots of people there. The atmosphere was really inviting and we were happy to see they had a ton of seating (and lots of them were comfy couches!), with a majority of the seats facing the play structure so we could keep a close eye on the kids.
We found ourselves a table to drop our stuff at, and then the kids ran off to play, climb and slide! Usually my daughter clings to me for awhile or begs me to go on the play equipment with her, but here she happily ran off not even looking back at me once. They do allow adults to accompany the kids on all the equipment at TreeHouse which is really nice, for those little ones that need some assistance.
For the parents/caregivers, they have a huge selection of magazines to read while you’re there, and they also offer free Wi-Fi. With many tables and seating scattered throughout, it would be a great place to catch up on emails or a good book while the kids have fun playing.
I was also impressed with the food and drink options they offered. They have a full menu featuring everything from salads and sandwiches to espresso and lattes, and a kids menu too. There were also plenty of snacks, from small bags of goldfish crackers for $1, jello jigglers, and madeleine cookies (2 for $1 – and they were delicious!!), there is something to appeal to everyone.
Normally we would have left part-way through to go get lunch somewhere, so we were thrilled that we didn’t have to venture back out into the cold at all. We enjoyed lunch there while the kids took a break from playing, and the food was really good. I had a sandwich and a latte, and my child insisted on trying several of their various snacks, all a win-win.
We ended up staying until closing (7:30 p.m. on Friday), and we noticed people started filtering out around 5-ish and it got progressively less busy after that. We basically had the place to ourselves around 6:30 p.m. along with a couple other families.
The only downsides I found here:
It costs $10.50 to get in (ages 1-15, adults are free), which at first seemed a little high, but compared to similar places, I found I enjoyed being here more and my child did too. She didn’t want to leave even though we were there about five hours in total! She has never lasted more than two hours at other play places.
You are not allowed to bring your own food and drinks in. So if you get hungry, you either have to leave to get food or buy food there. I enjoyed their food and thought their prices were very reasonable, but keep that in mind as things can quickly add up.
The biggest downside I think was that there was no form of security. I love how they have the hand stamps at Chuck E. Cheese’s and they check everyone before leaving to make sure your stamp matches your child’s. Another play place has bracelets that they check on your way out to make sure you have the right child. This place had nothing at all, which shouldn’t be a big deal as long as you are keeping a close eye on your child(ren). But if you have a houdini, it might be a risk. There was not always a staff member at the counter, so a child could have slipped out the door with them not even noticing. I’m hoping they implement something in the future.
All in all, we all enjoyed our visit to TreeHouse and we will be back! My daughter talks about it all the time, so we will likely be going back very soon.
TreeHouse
985 S. Rand Rd, Lake Zurich | (847) 438-8887
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