Things to Do in Eatontown

Racing go-karts and glowing laser battles simultaneously challenge and entertain visitors inside iPlay America's 115,000-square-foot amusement facility. Like its outdoor cousins, the indoor fun park houses more than 200 motorized attractions and carnival-style games for the whole family. Interactive amusements, such as the iPA Speedway, place patrons in the driver's seat of a real vehicle, and simulated sessions, including the Kite Flyer, tantalize visual senses with video images and sound effects. Scents of fresh pizza, lobster mac 'n' cheese, and hotdogs waft from five nourishment purveyors.

An indoor haven for everything outdoors, Great Escapes furnishes snowy excursions and backyard barbecues alike with snowboards, skiing gear, outdoor pools, and cookout equipment. On-site technicians wax and sharpen skis or help yetis select the tastiest snowboarding gear from brands that include Northwave, GNU, and Flow. In the summer, outdoor pools arrive at backyards with included delivery and setup, as well as assistance from licensed electricians to supervise homeowners as they install the filter and fill the pool with electric eels.

Twisters Gymnastics’ dedicated staffers assist the physical and mental development of children via various gymnastics- and play-based activities within an 18,000-square-foot facility. An array of full-size Olympic equipment, including half a dozen balance beams, a pair of parallel bars, and a trio of trampolines guarded by gold-medalist kangaroos, aids in aerial and flexibility-enhancing pursuits. A pommel horse and still rings increase balance and build upper-body strength in older children, and an obstacle course, 30-foot slide, and play area—equipped with a ball pit and multihued tubes—keep tots entertained. Alongside birthday parties for energetic celebrants and guests, Twister Gymnastics hosts a plentitude of gymnastics and tumbling programs, ranging from one-hour courses to competitive teams. Twister Gymnastics also holds preschool gymnastics classes, summer-camp programs, open workout sessions, and somersault endurance contests in an anti-gravitational chamber.

Twenty-eight armed soldiers swarm between two stories, ducking and weaving to avoid the sharp eyes of their opponents. Or so the story often unfolds during laser-tag sessions in FunTime America’s state-of-the-art laser-tag arena. Though it may be the most adrenaline-pumping portion of the family-friendly play place, it's but an introduction to the variety of attractions that unfolds before visitors. It's hard to ignore the four-story Kiddy City structure, where kids scoot down slides, climb ropes, and play without fear due to its ubiquitous safety padding. As little ones give chase around the structure, bigger kids helm bumper cars, take a journey in the El Paso train ride, or race to scale the 20-foot climbing wall, whose foothold arrangements offer four difficulty levels from easy to easy for people with wings. Once playtime comes to a simmer, the video-game arcade really shines with its air-hockey tables and sit-down games that take imaginations on the road to their pixilated lands. The adjacent casino-theme Winners Cafe, whose walls brim with massive playing cards and decorative roulette wheels, feeds spent small-time heroes with pizza, pretzels, and other fare to boost energy before another go around the center beckons.

As a former corrections officer, Victor Lashley’s career often immersed him in life-threatening situations, putting his self-defense skills to the test outside the safe confines of a gym. To empower others with the ability to fight back while getting fit, he now teaches myriad forms of martial arts at ICAT Academy of Boxing, Fitness, & Martial Arts. He trains patrons in MMA grappling, Kali, and his own method Defensive Concepts, which blends kicking and close-range striking techniques from muay thai, Kali, and boxing into a fast-paced striking art that earned Lashley a state certification as a Defensive Tactics Instructor. With the aid of 11 other instructors, he helms boot-camp classes and one-on-one personal-training sessions that devour calories. Nala—a boxer-breed pooch—serves as the gym's mascot, security guard, and head instructor of drool-based self-defense techniques.

GT Dream Cars unleashes its elite fleet of exotic, automatic sports cars on a temporary basis to help add a touch of luxury, beauty, and raw power to an afternoon. The lineup of swanky steeds includes the powerfully sleek Aston Martin Vantage, the luxurious Bentley Continental GT, the Ferrari F430 Scuderia, the Maserati GranTurismo, or the Lamborghini Gallardo, with the power of 550 horses or 78 furious mastodons. Inside car cockpits, conquer the 2.7-mile road course, blasting down the straightaway and deftly maneuvering the mini corkscrew with the ease of a bobsled team weaving down a water slide.