Cheap and Free Things to Do With Kids Around Lake Minnetonka (With Real Prices)

Here is the ranked short list by price, from free to about $9 per person, all family-friendly and close to the lake:

- Excelsior Commons beaches (Excelsior) — free. A 13-acre lakeside park with two swimming beaches, a band shell, playgrounds, tennis courts, ballfields, and public docks.

- Excelsior Farmers' Market (downtown Excelsior) — free to walk. Runs Tuesday afternoons through the warm season.

- Excelsior Streetcar ride (Minnesota Streetcar Museum) — $2.00 per person, children 3 and under free. A roughly 15-minute round trip, running May through October.

- Lake Minnetonka Regional Park swim pond (Minnetrista) — $9 daily wristband, or $25 for a season wristband. A chlorinated, sandy-bottom pond, six feet at its deepest, with lifeguards on duty noon to 7 PM.

You can pair the free stuff with one paid stop and keep a whole afternoon under $15 for a family of four. The streetcar plus a walk on the Commons is my go-to when I have kids in tow and an hour to fill.

The Excelsior Streetcar Line costs $2.00 per person, and children 3 and under ride free. It runs May through October, so it covers spring, summer, and fall color season.

You board at the Water Street platform next to the Excelsior Library at 337 Water Street. The ride is about 15 minutes along a half-mile of track laid on the old Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway right-of-way, run by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum.

At the carbarn stop there is a photo gallery of 1800s hotels, trains, and paddlewheel boats, plus a streetcar restoration in progress you can look at. For toddlers and early-elementary kids it hits the sweet spot — long enough to feel like a real ride, short enough that nobody melts down. At $2 a head it is the best cheap thrill on this lake.

If you searched for a Lake Minnetonka boat ride for the kids, do not drive out expecting the Steamboat Minnehaha. As of the 2026 season she is not sailing.

The short version: she lost access to her launch ramp, no other marina on the lake has a ramp that fits her size and draft, and she is sitting in heated storage undergoing maintenance while the Lake Minnetonka Historical Society sorts it out. It is a real loss — the Minnehaha was built in 1906 as one of six yellow-and-red streetcar boats, scuttled north of Big Island in 1926, raised from the lake bottom in 1980, and returned to service in 1996.

For now, the on-track substitute is the Excelsior streetcar. Same historical hook, same neighborhood, $2 a ride, and it is actually running. Point the kids there instead.

The two best low-cost swim options are the free beaches at Excelsior Commons and the paid swim pond at Lake Minnetonka Regional Park. They serve different needs.

Excelsior Commons is free and sits right in town — 13 lakeside acres with two swimming beaches, playgrounds, a band shell that hosts summer concerts, tennis courts, ballfields, and public docks. Because it is free and walkable, it is genuinely mobbed on a hot summer Saturday, so go on a weekday morning if you want elbow room and easy parking.

The swim pond at Lake Minnetonka Regional Park in Minnetrista is the safer-feeling water: a chlorinated, filtered, sandy-bottom pond on a 1.75-acre site with a maximum depth of six feet. A daily wristband is $9, a season wristband is $25 (required for anyone age 1 and up), and it is open daily 9 AM to 8 PM with lifeguards noon to 7 PM. That lifeguard window is the reason I send nervous-swimmer families here over the open-lake beaches.

This corridor gives you a cheap family outing in all four seasons, which is why it is worth knowing beyond the July beach rush:

- Summer: the $9 swim pond at Lake Minnetonka Regional Park (lifeguards noon to 7 PM) and the free Excelsior Commons beaches.

- Fall: the $2 Excelsior streetcar runs through October, so you catch fall color from the car; the park's 3.2 miles of trails are quiet and cool.

- Winter: the open space and gentle slopes at Excelsior Commons make it a low-key spot for sledding and outdoor play once snow sets in.

- Spring: the Excelsior Farmers' Market on Tuesday afternoons and the paved trails reopen for stroller-friendly walks.

Lake Minnetonka Regional Park itself is a free, all-season anchor: 3.2 miles of trails, a nautical-themed play area, a fishing pier, a three-hole disc golf practice area, and the stabilized Schmid Farmhouse ruins as a self-guided feature. You only pay if you swim.

Excelsior Commons is the one to time carefully. It is free, walkable, and small, so on a packed summer Saturday the beaches and the parking both fill early. Hit it on a weekday morning and it is a different, calmer place — that is when I take my own family.

Lake Minnetonka Regional Park in Minnetrista has real parking capacity and a boat launch, so it handles weekend crowds far better than the in-town Commons. If you are coming on a Saturday with kids, the swim pond is the lower-stress choice even at $9 a head.

For the streetcar, park in downtown Excelsior and make an afternoon of it — the Water Street platform is next to the library at 337 Water Street, steps from the Tuesday farmers market and Excelsior Bay Books at 36 Water Street. Excelsior is a town of just over 2,000, so the walkable core is small enough that you can leave the car once and do the ride, a snack, and the beach on foot.