Things to Do in Phoenixville

Players at Lehigh Valley Paintball wage simulated war across a variety of battlefields, choosing from a variety of play styles on both speedball and woodsball fields. The staff can also customize markers with engravings or leather wristbands, useful for proudly showing team affiliations, graphic designs, or helping identify guns that have escaped.

Arnold's Family Fun Center's 200,000-square foot facility buzzes with flashing lights, bright colors, and adrenaline-fueled activities suitable for all ages. Guests use softball-sized bowling balls to bust birds masquerading as pins during rounds of duckpin bowling, and black-light mini golf plunges putters into the depths of an ocean reef as they fight radiant octopi and pirates. More than 75 go-karts speed around two racetracks, and bumper cars let drivers explore the safer side of road rage. Inside one of the largest arcades in the area, guests try their luck at more than 200 arcade games, including favorites such as Deal or No Deal, Big Buck Hunter Safari, and Guitar Hero. A bounce area keeps young feet busy, and a pizza and salad buffet refuel energy reserves before rigorous games of laser tag.

Offering a menu of inventive American cuisine with seasonal ingredients, SugarToad's kitchen at the Hotel Arista excels at bold flavors. The chef sources the freshest ingredients possible, including produce plucked from his own Chef’s Garden right outside the door. The rotating menu changes to match the calendar, with past entrees including pork tenderloin with dried-apricot chutney, sweet-potato mash, and napa cabbage, and Slagel Family Farm beef burgers with sun-dried-tomato relish. Willis also serves an ever-changing roster of organic brunch entrees, which may include smoked-salmon benedicts and caramel-banana french toast with candied walnuts and maple syrup. Between bites of tot-sized brunch boxes with fresh fruit and housemade twinkies, children may sip milk flights of chocolate, strawberry, and banana flavors while caregivers sample cucumber-cantaloupe mimosas, french-press coffee, and the sweet, fleeting silence of a tear-free breakfast.

A pencil peeks out of hole in the lid of a shiny red apple, bits of yellow and black fleck a butterfly's wings, and blue and green glass curves to catch the light from the candle it holds. These are just a few of the projects invented at Busy Bees Pottery and Art Studio, where visitors can paint bisqueware, sculpt clay, or fuse glass to make homes or city-bus windows more beautiful.

Long tables sprawl across the studio's checkered floor, and plates bearing pastel treats and serene landscapes polka-dot the walls for inspiration. A paint bar arrays samples of tiles painted in each color so artists can preview their ceramic's finished looks.

A champagne toast signifies luxury, but Air Ventures provides an even more luxurious amenity—champagne toasts conducted while floating in midair. Customers sip from bottles of bubbly while on one of the company’s hot-air-balloon rides, which float over Chester County’s rolling hills, glistening lakes, and historic estates at either sunrise or sunset. The rainbow-hued balloon’s trips range from one-hour jaunts to flight packages with overnight inn stops. After their airborne adventures, passengers take home a souvenir picture of the balloon, which they can supplement with downloaded shots of their own tour.