The best free things to do in Wilmington with kids are Fort Fisher, the flytrap trail, the recreation area beach and the Riverwalk, with eight more below. Fort Fisher is the one to plan the week around. It is a Civil War sea fort at the tip of the peninsula, with a new visitor center, earthworks you can walk and cannons on the mounds, and admission costs nothing. We travel slowly with kids, one thing a day and a long afternoon in the water, and a town whose free things are real outings rather than filler makes that easy. Every item was checked against the park, city or county’s own page on September 16, 2026, and where a small fee sits beside a free thing it says so. By the end you will have a week of days that cost nothing, and not one of the twelve carries a charge.
How We Chose These
Free means the thing itself costs the family nothing to do. We left out anything that is only free for one age group, anything that is really a free walk past a paid attraction, and the tips-based tours. Where a free place charges for one part of itself, or charges for parking, that fee is printed in the item rather than left for you to discover at the gate. All twelve carry no charge at all, and that is rarer than it sounds.
Hours and fees change. Every item links to the page the operator maintains, and the dates and prices here were read from those pages on September 16, 2026. If a line below disagrees with the official page on the day you go, the official page wins.
The 12 Best Free Things to Do in Wilmington with Kids
1. Fort Fisher State Historic Site
The Civil War fort that kept the port of Wilmington open until 1865, with a new visitor center and museum, walkable earthworks, mounted cannons and a trail along the remains of the sea face. Earthworks are hills to a child and the cannons are the photograph. The visitor center is air-conditioned and short enough to hold a six-year-old, and the beach is next door, so the fort is the free half of a full day at the end of the peninsula. Watch the calendar for the artillery firing days.
Where: 1610 Fort Fisher Boulevard South, Kure Beach, at the tip of the peninsula. When: Tuesday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with summer Sunday afternoons. Closed Mondays. Cost: Free. Check the official page before you go.
2. Carolina Beach State Park and the Flytrap Trail
A state park on the river with a marina, campground, picnic areas and six miles of trails, including the half-mile Flytrap Trail loop where Venus flytraps grow wild in the ground beside the path. This is one of the only places on earth the flytraps grow wild, and children take it seriously once they find the first one. The trail is short and flat, the plants are small and low, and the marina afterwards has boats to watch. The ranger-led flytrap walks are the best version of it.
Where: 1010 State Park Road, Carolina Beach, on the Cape Fear River side of the peninsula. When: Day use daily. Ranger programs are posted on the park calendar. Cost: Free for day use, including the trail and parking. The only fee is for launching a boat at the marina. Check the official page before you go.
3. Fort Fisher State Recreation Area beach
A state-run beach at the end of the peninsula with a visitor center, bathhouses, a picnic area and lifeguards in summer, backed by dunes rather than houses. The free beach with lifeguards. The sand is wide and undeveloped, the bathhouse means nobody has to drive back wet, and the fort is minutes away. Stay on the guarded beach and off the four-wheel-drive stretch.
Where: 1000 Loggerhead Road, Kure Beach, at the end of the peninsula. When: Daily from 8 a.m. Lifeguards on duty from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Cost: Free for day use. The four-wheel-drive beach charges per vehicle and is not for a family car. Check the official page before you go.
4. The Wilmington Riverwalk
A two-mile boardwalk along the river through the historic downtown, with the shops on one side, the docks and the boats on the other and the battleship across the water. Flat, stroller-friendly and full of things that move. Tugboats, the riverboat, the lift bridge, and the battleship looming on the far bank. Walk it at the end of the day when the light is on the water and end at an ice cream window on Market Street.
Where: Along the Cape Fear River downtown, from Nun Street to the Isabella Holmes Bridge. When: Always open. Cost: Free. Downtown parking is metered on the street and paid in the decks. Check the official page before you go.
5. The SECU Memorial Walkway beside the Battleship North Carolina
A half-mile boardwalk along the hull of the battleship, honoring the state’s World War II veterans, with the ship close enough to touch and the downtown skyline across the water. The ship is enormous and the walkway gets a child as close to it as a ticket does, from the outside. It is the free way to see the battleship, and it pairs with the Riverwalk across the bridge for a full free afternoon on the river.
Where: Battleship Park, across the river from downtown. When: Daily during park hours. Cost: Free. Going aboard the ship is a separate paid ticket. Check the official page before you go.
6. The New Hanover County Arboretum
Seven acres of gardens run by the county extension service, with a children’s garden, a Japanese garden with koi and a tea house, a water garden and thirty-odd themed plots. The children’s garden is the point, with its cottage, its thunder drums and its colours, and the koi in the Japanese garden are the second stop. It is shaded, quiet and free, and it sits on the road to Wrightsville Beach, so it is the morning before the beach.
Where: 6206 Oleander Drive, between downtown and Wrightsville Beach. When: Daily, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: Free. Check the official page before you go.
7. Greenfield Lake Park
A 250-acre city park around a cypress lake, with a paved loop, boardwalks, playgrounds for different ages, picnic shelters, grills and a fishing dock. The loop around the lake is the walk or the bike ride, the cypress and the Spanish moss are the scenery, and there are alligators and turtles to spot from the boardwalks. The playgrounds are graded by age, which with two children of different sizes is the whole afternoon.
Where: 1702 Burnett Boulevard, a few minutes south of downtown. When: Daily, dawn to dusk. Cost: Free. Check the official page before you go.
8. Halyburton Park
A 58-acre city nature park with a paved 1.3-mile loop, playgrounds, picnic shelters and a nature center with exhibits and a schedule of programs. The nature center is the rainy-morning answer and the loop is short enough to finish with a toddler. The city runs nature programs here through the year, many of them free, and the playground is beside the parking.
Where: 4099 South 17th Street, south of downtown. When: Park daily, dawn to dusk. Nature center Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: Free. Check the official page before you go.
9. The Carolina Beach Boardwalk and its summer fireworks
A small old-fashioned boardwalk on the beach with rides, arcades, a doughnut counter that has queued since 1939 and, in summer, free concerts and fireworks every Thursday night. Free to walk any day of the year, and on summer Thursdays the town puts on a free concert from 6:30 p.m. and fireworks over the water at 9. The Boardwalk Blast runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Outside summer the boardwalk is quiet and the beach in front of it is wide and gentle.
Where: The oceanfront at Carolina Beach, at the end of Harper Avenue. When: Boardwalk always open. Summer concerts Thursdays 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., fireworks at 9, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Cost: Free. The rides and the arcades are paid, the doughnuts are cash. Check the official page before you go.
10. The River to Sea Bikeway
A signed cycling route on paths and quiet streets from the river to the ocean, passing parks and the arboretum on the way. For a family with bikes it is the way to reach the beach without a parking meter, and the shorter version, from the arboretum to Wrightsville, is a child’s ride. Bike rental is paid, the route is not.
Where: Eleven miles from the Riverwalk downtown to Wrightsville Beach. When: Always open. Cost: Free. Bike rental is paid if you did not bring them. Check the official page before you go.
11. The Wilmington Farmers Market at Tidal Creek
A year-round Saturday market of local farmers, bakers, artists and crafters, with live music and special events through the year. Free to walk through, and a good place to buy breakfast and the week’s fruit on the way to the beach. There is usually a musician and always a dog.
Where: Tidal Creek Co-op, 5329 Oleander Drive. When: Saturday mornings, year round. Cost: Free to browse. Check the official page before you go.
12. Trails End Park at sunset
A small county park on Masonboro Sound with a boat launch, a rebuilt fishing pier and a view west over the water, which is where the sun goes down. The sunset over Masonboro Sound is the free evening, and the pier, with fiddler crabs in the mud below it, is the entertainment while you wait. Bring dinner and a blanket. It is small and quiet and it is over by dark.
Where: 217 Trails End Road, on Masonboro Sound between Wilmington and Carolina Beach. When: Daily until sunset, when the park closes. Cost: Free. Check the official page before you go.
When You Are Ready to Spend
A free week still needs a bed and usually one paid outing. The paid outings worth the money here are the riverboat cruise on the Cape Fear and a surf lesson at Wrightsville, and they book through GetYourGuide. For lodging, Wilmington splits between downtown on the river, where the Riverwalk is a walk from the hotels, and the beaches, Wrightsville to the east and Carolina Beach and Kure Beach to the south, where most of the free list below sits. Our Wilmington activities guide covers the paid side of the town, and the Wilmington beaches guide covers every public beach access.
Wilmington is one of the towns in our ranking of the best beach towns in North Carolina for families, which covers what a week here costs against the rest of the state.
FAQs About Free Things to Do in Wilmington with Kids
Is Wilmington, NC expensive for a family?
The beach parking is, because Wrightsville Beach meters every public space in season, and the battleship and the museums are separate tickets. The rest is not. The fort, the state park, the recreation area beach, the arboretum and the city parks are all free, and Kure Beach and Carolina Beach have free street parking in places Wrightsville does not. Every one of the twelve things on this list carries no charge at all.
Is Fort Fisher free?
The State Historic Site is, the fort, the earthworks, the visitor center and the museum, open Tuesday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The State Recreation Area beach beside it is free for day use too, with lifeguards from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The one charge at Fort Fisher is the four-wheel-drive beach permit if you want to drive on the sand. The aquarium there has been closed since May 26, 2026 for a renovation and expansion, and Discovery Bay, its free mini aquarium at Independence Mall in Wilmington, is open while the work goes on.
Where can you see Venus flytraps for free near Wilmington?
Carolina Beach State Park, on the Flytrap Trail, a half-mile loop where the plants grow wild in the wet ground beside the path. Day use of the park is free, there is no ticket to book, and the ranger-led flytrap walks are posted on the state park’s calendar. They are small and easy to miss, so go slowly and look at ground level.
Is the Wilmington Riverwalk free?
Yes. It runs about two miles along the Cape Fear River from Nun Street to the Isabella Holmes Bridge, past the shops and the docks, and the battleship sits across the water from it. The boats and the lift bridge are the entertainment, and the SECU Memorial Walkway on the far bank is a free half-mile boardwalk along the battleship’s hull.