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School started in mid-August around most of the Metroplex, and the bills came with it. Supply lists. A backpack that had to be the specific one. Spirit wear, band fees, club soccer registration that came due in a single payment, picture day, the fundraiser nobody could say no to. Six weeks, all of it mandatory.
Then the weekend gets cut, because no school sends home a form about Saturdays.
Which leaves you with a long fall. Saturday and Sunday are the two days your kids are around and awake, and spring break is a long way off from here. If yours are still dragging through Monday mornings, we wrote separately about easing DFW kids back into the school routine. This one is about the money.
A GetOut membership for Texas DFW costs $74.95 per person for twelve months against a comparison value of $93, covering 67 or more venues around North Texas. Five of them are below. We picked ones that haven't shown up in our other DFW guides, and we spread them across the metro so at least one sits near you.
Why DFW Weekends Get Expensive Right When the Budget Is Thinnest
Here's what an ordinary Saturday costs at the counter around here.
Indoor waterpark admission starts at $44 a person. An all-day pass at a trampoline and ninja park in Arlington runs $20.99 to $35.99. A botanical garden asks $14 for an adult and $8 for a kid. An interactive zoo east of Dallas charges $15 and $12. Pro soccer for four people, once you've parked and fed everybody, gets past $150.
Take four people anywhere on that list and you've spent $50 on the low end and $200 on the high end. Do it twice a month from September through May and you're carrying a four-figure line in a budget that already has cleats in it.
So most families around here pick two or three outings a year and stay home the rest of the time. Once the year is paid for, though, a 30-minute drive to Grand Prairie becomes a plan instead of a purchase, and you make it without running the numbers in your head first.
If your problem is the weekday version of this, we covered Monday through Thursday in our guide to budget-friendly after-school routines for DFW parents.
5 Weekend Activities for Kids in DFW That Won't Add to the Bill
1. Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark, Grand Prairie
Where: 2970 Epic Place, Grand Prairie, TX 75052, inside EpicCentral GetOut visits: 1x yearly Counter price: general admission from $44 online
Every open-air water option in North Texas has shut down for the season. Epic Waters keeps going, since the whole building sits under a retractable roof with climate control, so a Saturday in there in November feels like one in July.
The park runs 80,000 square feet. Eleven slides, including the Lasso Loop and the Yellowjacket Drop. A FlowRider surfing simulator if somebody in your house wants to learn. The longest indoor lazy river in North Texas, which is where the parents end up. There's a multi-level playground built for the small ones, and a 4,000-square-foot arcade for whoever gets tired of being wet. USA Today readers have voted it into the national top three for indoor waterparks more than once.
Before you go: Parking costs nothing. Kids three and under get in free. You can rent a locker. Outside coolers and food stay in the car, with a few exceptions listed on the site. Fall hours are shorter than summer hours and shift week to week, so look them up the night before. Towels aren't provided.
2. FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium, Frisco
Where: 9200 World Cup Way, Frisco, TX 75033 GetOut visits: 1x yearly Counter price: varies by match, usually the highest face value on the DFW pass
Four home matches remain in the regular season, and the dates work for families.
Saturday, October 24 is Harry Potter Night against the San Jose Earthquakes, with themed activations around the stadium. Wednesday, October 28 brings Columbus in for the last Three-Point Wednesday of the year, which puts hot dogs at $1 and beer at $3. Saturday, November 7 closes the season against Colorado on Decision Day, and the club has made it Fan Appreciation Night.
Toyota Stadium is halfway through a renovation, so capacity sits near 11,000 this season. Your seats are closer to the pitch than they would have been two years ago, and the noise has nowhere to go. The National Soccer Hall of Fame lives in the south end if you show up early.
Before you go: Kickoff times move, so check before you leave the house. The DART Orange Line runs to Parker Road, and you can drive the rest on a busy night. The Texas Derby is in Houston on October 17 this year, the latest it has ever landed in a regular season, and families making that drive can put GetOut's Houston membership to work on the Sunday afterward.
3. Texas Discovery Gardens, Fair Park, Dallas
Where: 3601 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Dallas, TX 75210 GetOut visits: 1x yearly Counter price: $14 adults, $8 kids 4 to 12, free under 3
Some weekends nobody in your house can face a building with go-karts in it. This is where you go on those.
Texas Discovery Gardens covers 7.5 acres inside Fair Park, and it was the first public garden in the state to get certified 100% organic. The two-story Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium is the reason to come. It's warm and green year-round, with hundreds of butterflies flying loose around your head. Staff release new ones into the conservatory every day at noon, and kids who see it tend to talk about it afterward.
Outside there's a Snakes of Texas exhibit, koi ponds, a native butterfly and hummingbird habitat, garden trains that run past a small Alamo, and a playscape with a sandbox, a climbing wall and a rope bridge. Doors open at 10 a.m. daily and close at 5. If the fall science unit is on habitats or life cycles, bring it up in the car, and look at more DFW places that line up with what they're studying while you're planning.
Before you go: The State Fair of Texas takes over Fair Park from September 25 through October 18. Parking and access change completely for those 24 days, so either wait until after the 18th or read what the gardens say about getting in during the fair. Once the weather turns, walking the outdoor acreage stops being a chore.
4. Canton Grand Safari, Grand Saline
Where: 9515 FM 1255, Grand Saline, TX 75140 GetOut visits: 1x yearly Counter price: $15 adults, $12 kids
This is your one-tank Saturday. Grand Saline is an hour east of Dallas on I-20, and a drive like that only makes sense once the weather cools off, which it's doing now.
Canton Grand Safari is a small private interactive zoo with more than 140 exotic animals, and the whole idea is that hardly anything has a "do not touch" sign on it. You walk the grounds at your own speed and run into animals along the way. Geo the giraffe. George the tapir. Otters, lemurs, a room full of babies. You can buy feed at the entrance, and staff run animal presentations through the day, with feedings around 11 and 3.
Families out toward Rockwall, Terrell and Greenville are closer to this than to most of what's happening in Fort Worth, which almost never happens on a DFW list. Keep going east on I-20 and you're in Arkansas in about four more hours, which some North Texas families do over a long weekend. GetOut runs an Arkansas membership with its own venue list if that's a trip you make.
Before you go: General admission is closed on Tuesdays, and the zoo shuts to daily public visits for the winter season, so October into early November is the window. Hours run 10 to 5. Book ahead through the site. If your dates line up with First Monday Trade Days in Canton, you can make a day of both.
5. Launch Family Entertainment, Lewisville and Arlington
Where: 2460 S. Stemmons Fwy., Lewisville, and 4907 S. Cooper St., Arlington GetOut visits: 1x yearly Counter price: walk-in passes $20.99 to $35.99
Save this one for the Friday a cold front blows in and somebody's game gets called off.
Launch puts trampolines, a ninja course, a ropes course, a climbing wall, dodgeball, a battle pit, a trapeze, VR laser tag, bowling, toddler soft play and forty-odd arcade games in one building. The all-day pass means you're not watching a ninety-minute clock, and the layout handles a wide age spread, so a four-year-old and a fourteen-year-old can both do something they'd choose.
Lewisville was the first Texas location the company opened. Arlington takes care of the south side and runs until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Club tournaments send a lot of North Texas families down I-35 on weekends, and the Austin membership covers that city the same way this one covers yours.
Before you go: Grip socks are required and sold at the desk. Sign the waiver online so nobody fills out paperwork in the lobby. Walk-ins are fine for general admission. Open the GetOut app to confirm which location your visit applies to before you drive anywhere.
Four Weekend Plans You Can Copy
The cheap Saturday. Get to Texas Discovery Gardens by 11, catch the butterfly release at noon, eat what you packed at the picnic tables, and you're home by two having spent gas money.
The rained-out Sunday. Launch or Epic Waters. Both are indoors and both will hold a family for four hours.
The one-tank drive. Canton Grand Safari in the morning, lunch in Canton after, back in Dallas mid-afternoon. Best on a cool October Saturday, while the zoo is still open to the public.
The one you save. An FC Dallas match on October 24 or November 7. Pro sports carries the highest face value on the pass, so spend that visit on a night your kids will remember in five years.
Any of these gets better when the night before goes well, and we put together what to do with the Friday night before it as its own guide. When a single outing turns into the whole weekend, there's a full 48-hour version to work from.
What These Five Weekends Cost Without a Membership
Venue
Per-person counter price
Epic Waters
From $44
FC Dallas
Varies by match, commonly $30+
Texas Discovery Gardens
$14 adult / $8 child
Canton Grand Safari
$15 adult / $12 child
Launch Family Entertainment
$20.99–$35.99
One adult doing Epic Waters, then Launch, then the gardens pays about $79 at the counter. The membership costs $74.95 and covers those three plus another 64 venues for a year.
Everyone in the family needs their own. LEGOLAND Discovery Center and SEA LIFE Grapevine come as a paid add-on you pick at checkout, both sitting at Grapevine Mills. The Starving Student Card rides along on the DFW lineup, which helps with what you spend on food while you're out. You get 120 days risk-free.
Frequency differs by venue. All five here reset once a year, while Main Event, Shenaniganz and Alley Cats come back around monthly. The app tells you what's open to you before you leave, and our walkthrough on how to use your GetOut membership goes through setup screen by screen. Once you've worked through these five, our list of 25 kid-friendly things to do around Dallas-Fort Worth is where to pick the next one.
When the Weekend Leaves DFW
Fall break and Thanksgiving pull North Texas families out of the metro every year. Oklahoma is close enough to leave after breakfast and be somewhere new by lunch, with venues in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Ski trips and holidays with family put a lot of DFW households in Denver, and the Colorado membership runs its own lineup out there. A pass also works as a gift for whoever is hosting your kids over a long week.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can we do this weekend in DFW without spending money? With a GetOut membership, Texas Discovery Gardens, Epic Waters, Launch, Canton Grand Safari and an FC Dallas match all cost nothing more at the gate. Epic Waters parks you for free on top of that.
What are the cheapest family activities in Dallas-Fort Worth right now? Gardens and small zoos sit at the bottom, $8 to $15 a head. Waterparks and entertainment centers land between $21 and $44.
Where can I take my kids in DFW when it rains? Epic Waters in Grand Prairie, or Launch in Lewisville or Arlington. All indoors.
Is there an indoor waterpark near Dallas open in the fall? Epic Waters runs year-round under a retractable roof with climate control.
How much does a family weekend out cost in Dallas-Fort Worth? For four people at one venue, plan on $50 to $200 depending on where you go.
Is a GetOut membership worth it for a family of four? Everyone needs their own at $74.95. A family that gets out twice a month during the school year clears the break-even inside the first two trips.
What's there to do near Fort Worth on a Sunday with kids? Launch Arlington opens at 11 on Sundays, and Epic Waters is a short drive east on I-30.
Can I use my GetOut membership more than once at the same venue? It depends on the venue. The five in this guide are once a year each. Others reset monthly or quarterly, and the app shows you the limit before you go.
Start With One Weekend
Look at the next open Saturday, pick whichever of these fits it, and put it on the calendar tonight. Sign up for a GetOut membership for Texas DFW and go through all 67 venues.