Summer Vacation May Be Over, But There’s Still Lots Of Fall Fun To Enjoy
Looking for fun ways to keep the kids entertained this fall and squash the back to school blues?
Businesses and organizations in Windsor, Essex and Chatham Kent are full of exciting adventures, designed with families and kids in mind. From puzzling your way through kid-friendly escape rooms; enjoying pony rides and farm life; to racing through a giant corn maze; climbing, swinging, and conquering obstacles; or stepping into a world of magic at an upcoming event, there are endless opportunities for little ones and teenagers as well, to laugh, explore, and burn off energy.
Your kids will have such a good time that they’ll forget about having to be back in the classroom Monday morning!
So read on to discover what four area businesses and one festival (where you can “expect the unexpected”) have to offer your family, in September and October!
Plan Your Escape To Hidden Trail Experiences
Situated at 1441 McDougall Street in Windsor, with a satellite location at 4897 Tecumseh Road East, Hidden Trail Experiences offers five different escape rooms (with two more in the works), an Archery Time
simulator (the fourth in North America), a rage room where you can cathartically break stuff, a pixel room, and a padded UV gellyball arena.
“The two main reasons we opened in 2015 were because everyone in Windsor was always complaining about there being nothing to do for fun, and always complaining about there being no jobs,” recounts Brent McBride, Owner/Operator of Hidden Trail Experiences, which employs 22 staff. “I wanted to help alleviate both of those issues, as much as I could.”
While all their attractions are popular, the escape rooms have the biggest draw.
“The escape rooms are designed with families in mind and have something for everyone,” McBride says. “We make some of the puzzles easier to solve for younger minds in some of our rooms like the Mad Hatter’s UN-birthday and Timepiece Genesis. Everything else that we offer does not and has never existed in Windsor.”
Escape rooms are not the only thing they offer that is new to the city.
“The archery simulator is just as it sounds — real archery played alongside an array of digital games that are great for ages seven and up; we get a lot of dads bringing their kids in for that,” he comments.
“Gellyball and the pixel room are two great physical activities, the latter is where you work together to play through as many levels of a digital ‘floor-is-lava’ game as possible in a time limit, and the former gets out a more competitive crew in a paintball style (shooting small gellyballs at one another instead of paintballs) battle with no mess or paint.”
Hidden Trail Experiences also hosts several other events including Dungeons and Dragons, Minute to Win It, LEGO build contests, Mother’s and Father’s Day events, massive 300-plus person Pokemon trade days, TCG (Trading Card Game) competitive play, Blood on the Clocktower social deduction game, plus they hosted their first wedding this summer!
“The escape rooms are definitely our main attraction still, but most people come for multiple activities to create a package that is physically and mentally challenging,” explains McBride. “We also get a ton of people that come out just to hang out in our fantasy themed lobby and play board games or just take part in our ongoing scavenger hunt.”
While the business has grown much over the past 10 years, McBride is still a long way from where he wants Hidden Trail Experiences to be. “I’ve lived in Windsor my whole life and I haven’t gone a year without hearing the words ‘there’s nothing to do in Windsor,” he says. “I think that sometimes that sentiment is still valid, despite our best efforts; my goal is to get to a point where a person would get looked at sideways if they said that after we are done with our plans.”
For very young children (up to age five), Hidden Trail Experiences also offers glow parties in their large, padded UV gellyball arena, where they set up soft play items for the kids to play with and lots of glow sticks! To learn more about everything there is to do here, go online.
Oh My Gourdness, Allsop Farm Pumpkins & More Has It All
Located at 195 Road 3 East in Kingsville, since 2011, family-owned Allsop Farm Pumpkins & More sells a wide variety of pumpkins, gourds, squash, straw bales, corn stalks, Indian corn, mums and fall crafts.
Activities include a six-acre corn maze, a three acre play area/store, human foosball, gravity bin basketball, rat races by Underground Specialties and Wolseley Waterworks, pumpkin bowling, a huge straw pyramid with slides by Highline Mushrooms and Allsop Plumbing, playground, pumpkin tic-tac-toe, checkers, and corn hole. If you get hungry or thirsty during your visit, there are food trucks and donuts made on site; apple cider and peach slushies; cotton candy, candy/caramel apples; What’s Poppin kettle corn and Wagner Orchards’ pies. Plus, every weekend you can find Kingsville Brewery at the farm!
Allsop Farm Pumpkins & More has earned Harrow Fair Parade awards, and they are members of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
“We have supported Fight Like Mason and Little Hands Kids for a Cause,” states Ben Allsop, Farm Manager/Owner of Allsop Farm Pumpkins & More. “We shut down the farm to the public one night,
clean everything, and provide a space where the families can visit and have a fall experience without the large crowds.”
Starting in October, the Flashlight Maze (where you navigate the maze in the dark and celebrate your success with a hot beverage around the fire) is held every weekend on Friday and Saturday nights.
Fall Fest (where the yard is filled with fabulous vendors) takes place on October 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and one day in October they hold trick-or-treating on the farm!
New to the farm for 2025, is giant plinko, gravity bin football, and an interactive Disney-themed corn maze — which is a search and find using GPS and QR codes.
“We’re a family-rooted farm built on creativity, tradition, and community,” Ben expresses. “By blending our love for the outdoors with a passion for building meaningful experiences, our family along with our
staff of 20 created an affordable space where families come together, celebrate, and make lasting memories. Seeing others enjoy what we’ve built is our greatest success — it’s all about growing something beautiful together.”
Admission to the farm is free; however, activities like the mazes cost extra. For up-to-date information on all activities and hours of operation, see their social media page.
