🪙 Cheap thrills

Pocketful of quarters buys hours on antique coin-op arcade machines. Pure cheap bang-for-buck.

40-plus pinball machines behind a screen-print shop. A few bucks a game, oddball thrill.

Playland-style barcade stuffed with games. Cheap tokens, big silly fun.

Cavernous barcade with pinball, skee-ball and pool. Tiny ticket, outsized fun.

Roller disco in an old church. About $15-22 with skates for a giddy night.

Tiny admission to watch the coast projected live onto a parabolic table. Oddball bargain.

Wildly themed indoor mini-golf with a cocktail bar. Small spend, big goofy fun.

Cheap paddleboat rental to drift a wooded island lagoon. Big fun, small spend.

Rent a paddleboat, find the waterfall and pavilion. A few dollars for a peaceful spin.

About $10 buys a bracing cold-water bay swim and sauna at a historic club.

Glow bowling with blacklights and lasers, plus 45 beers. Cheap lanes, loud fun.

Small admission for koi, a drum bridge, and tea in the oldest US Japanese garden.

Cheap ticket into a Victorian glasshouse of orchids and jungle. Small spend, pretty payoff.

A few dollars rides you up to a full bay panorama, murals at the base for free.

Affordable museum admission, and the observation tower ride for a sweeping park view.

Restaurant-arcade bar loaded with pinball and board game classics. Cheap thrills with a slice.

The city's only two indoor water slides for $8 adult, $2 kids. Unreal bargain.

Public rec swim for $8 adult, $2 kids. Tiny-ticket splash.

Heated indoor pool with water slides for $8 adult, $2 kids. Cheap thrill.

Neighborhood pool with rec and lap swims, $8 adult, $2 kids. Big fun, small spend.