My husband's family has gone there since he was a child and now we all bring our children. This place is small but has so much charm from the past. Teenagers will tire of the place before the small children.
The park was very nicely kept and clean. There was a little bit for everyone. A couple of nice places to eat and drink. The water is beautiful!
A great old time amusement park, on the shores of Lake Okoboji in Iowa. There is more than corn fields and farm animals in north-west Iowa. A very nice family orientated vacation area with the amusement park, put put golf, a beautiful lake to enjoy and many other enjoyable attractions.
This is a smaller, older amusement park, but a must do if in Okoboji! Little rides for the youngest of kids and larger rides for bigger ones. My kids were ages 3-15. There is a go cart track, but my kids were too short to go. It is not inexpensive, but it is good when you need a day off the water.
While Arnolds Park will never win any awards for the biggest amusement park or the most exciting rides, it is a great way to spend a few hours. The setting is beautiful, right on the shore of West Lake, and the view from the ferris wheel is hard to beat. There are very few "thrill" rides, but it doesn't matter at all. Smaller kids have a lot to choose from, and bigger kids (and adults) can find fun rides and activities to pass a couple of hours. We enjoy playing the games in the arcade and they are usually not very busy, so you are almost guaranteed a prize!Definitely a tradition.
Ride the Queen II, get a nutty bar, ride the Ferris wheel, visit the Welcome Center and Maritime Museum, eat at Maxwell's, stroll lakeside! It's a lovely way to spend a day without a bunch of hassle or hustle and bustle!
It reminds a person of Coney Island...I've never been there, but I imagine it would be like Arnold's Park. Little shops, eatries, & walking the pier.
We visited Arnold's Park opening weekend and had a great time! They have a nice variety of rides, especially for the younger children. They also have a great mini golf area called Pirate's Cove and an awesome go cart track, which my son loved. There were no long lines to wait in, the weather was perfect and the food was delicious. Funnel cakes, caramel corn, cotton candy and snow cones were the best we have ever had in an amusement park or fair. Don't forget to take the tour of lake Okoboji on the Queen II. What a fun day for the family! Check it out.
We were in Okoboji for a few days over Memorial Day weekend and thought we would check out Arnold's Park. They could work on some efficiencies for their ticket booths as they moved incredibly slow, just to get in the door. The kids had a lot of fun on the rides and the Go Karts, which are attached. The kids almost seemed to spend the most time on the playground, which was free. The rides were so-so but the kids didn't seem to care. We spent the last of our tickets on games and they came home with lots of prizes so all were happy. I loved hearing the history of Arnold's Park and how the community rallied to save it, so that made me appreciate it more.
My family brought my siblings, cousins, and myself to Arnold's Park every summer when we were kids. Now all the nieces & nephews of all ages are building their own happy memories here. A few things have changed in recent years with the addition of mini golf and the go kart track, but it retains the charm of days gone by. What a great place to take a family; there are rides and things to do for everyone. Tame rides for the little ones & a rocking wooden roller coaster for the braver set! On a steamy summer day the log ride is awesome. We follow up an afternoon or evening full of roller coaster rides with a classic Nutty Bar by the shore. Grab a piece of Okoboji nostalgia. :)