Theme & Amusement Parks in Vero Beach

Safari Mini Golf & Games curates friendly competition with more than two acres of tropical parkland that encompasses a 36-hole miniature golf course and four batting cages. Vibrant palms, streams, and waterfalls line the miniature golf course, creating a safari-like habitat for life-size statues of elephants, monkeys, and other exotic creatures along the way. The piercing timbre of sharp line-drives resonates from four batting cages, where cyborg pitchers contemplate charging the plate as they paint the strike zone with high-arcing softballs and baseballs hurled at speeds between 35 and 60 mph. Competitive appetites can find relief in the arcade, where guests seek out goals on the foosball pitch, square off in the digital realm of video games, or display their dominion over sugar by vanquishing scoops of Blue Bell ice cream.

A fog-filled laser tag arena. A bowling alley with 48 computerized lanes. A nine-hole mini-golf course. Superplay USA collects a wide range of family friendly activities inside a 70,000-square foot fun complex. Bowlers can take turns obliterating pins during sessions played by the game or by the hour. Cosmic bowling on Friday and Saturday nights further intensifies the 10-pin action by bathing the alley in black light that makes the lanes glow and reveals which bowling balls are really alien eggs. Galactic laser tag drops players into a fog-filled arena lit by strobe lights, where the sound of sci-fi music masks the footsteps of other players. The nine-hole mini-golf course punishes poorly aimed shots with bumps, secret alleys, and sharp turns. Kids can also work themselves into a frenzy inside Superplay's giant arcade and cool down over a burger from Duffy's Sports Grill.

76 Golf World Family Fun Center fills its sunny grounds with attractions to entertain visitors of all ages. The Racing Rascals go-kart track puts young ones behind the wheel as they circle a simple beginner's track, whereas the Slick Track's surface of shiny concrete lets teens practice fishtailing before taking their driver's test. Kids aged 2–7 board bumper boats and cruise on a foot-deep pool, safely colliding with other captains. Just as two 18-hole mini-golf courses challenge putters to sink shots amid lighthouses and waterfalls, a driving range and chipping area beckon players to practice hitting balls and shredding scorecards with their clubs. A slew of other attractions—from batting cages and arcade games to bounce houses and trampolines—tire families out before they refuel on hot dogs, nachos, and candy at the full snack bar.

Zombies created by an old factory’s chemical spill roam through the darkness, carnies banished for animal abuse and torture scream in the distance, and a murderous Santa greets visitors with a wicked grin and a bloody ax. These are just snapshots of the horrors awaiting visitors to Fright Nights at the South Florida Fairgrounds. Hair-raising creatures and the souls of murder victims lurk throughout five haunted mazes. But those who wander into these haunts aren’t always helpless. At Kill Shot, victims running through an old factory must find an ammo closet and arm themselves with rifles to shoot free of zombie hordes. The Creature, on the other hand, leaves people little time before it swallows them whole.

Screams echoing out of the Carnival of Creeps’ tattered red-and-white-striped tents pierce the air of Santa’s Workshop and join shrieks coming from the midway itself, where 13 rides, such as the High Flyer and Zero Gravity, whip passengers through the air. Food stalls nestle amid the attractions, tempting guests with hot dogs, tacos, funnel cakes, and tufts of cotton candy, which patrons can use as hair for the decoy body they place in their bed later that night.

Lion Country Safari is a zoo with no cages. Instead, more than 900 animals, including the largest zebra herd outside of Africa, roam its 320 acres freely. During drive-through safaris, cars tour seven sections of the preserve—which represent different areas such as western Zimbabwe and the Serengeti—to see llamas, asiatic water buffalo, chimpanzees, and white rhinoceros. Lions have a section all to themselves so that they don't prey on other animals or disturb them with giggles from the pride's late-night slumber parties.

In addition to the four-mile drive, Lion Country Safari's Safari World allows guests to explore rides and attractions as they visit with animals on foot. They can feed giraffes, practice animal-massage techniques at the petting zoo, or hop on the carousel next to Lake Shanalee's paddleboat rides. After kids splash through the interactive Safari Splash waterpark, they can hop onto the ferris wheel or ask exotic birds for advice on how to fly.

During a round of golf in this region, it’s not uncommon for players to see the occasional alligator sunning itself on the banks of a fairway pond. The same, however, cannot be said for miniature-golf courses, unless you’re playing at Congo River Golf, where the civilized sinking of putts coexists with the visceral carnage of live-alligator feedings. More than 25 alligators wait for patrons to feed them morsels of gator food in an exhibit beside the course. Though the course offers no chance for an encounter with the ancient, scaly species, it enchants players with waterfalls, safari-themed artifacts, and towering rock faces. In addition, Congo River Golf encompasses an indoor arcade and a gemstone-mining station, where guests dig through dirt for fossils, arrowheads, and Neanderthal’s kindergarten time capsules.