Virginia Highlands Park
1600 S. Hayes St.Arlington, VA 22202
Website ~ Map Link
Bottom Line: A great many-featured park with amenities for kids and adults of all ages. 5 star park, 3 star playground.
Note: this review, written in August 2011, focuses on the playground and park in general. Check out my new review on the the sprayground, which opened in June 2013.
The Review:
Virginia Highlands is a large park in Pentagon City with a variety of features. It has two playground areas — one designed for younger kids (0-2, 2-5) and one designed for older kids (5-12). Update: check out my review of the new sprayground!
The Little Kids Playground
The tot lot for younger kids is located close to the parking lot on S. Hayes park. It is fenced, shady, and right next to the bathhouse and water fountain. This playground features a large play structure, a sand area, and a set of swings (2 bucket, and 2 regular).
Play Structure
Sand Box
Swings
There is a good amount of bench seating in the play area.
Bathrooms
The tot lot is also close to the Aurora Hills Senior Center, the Aurora Hills Library, and the #5 Fire Station.
Highlands Park is huge, with several fields and other amenities like basketball courts, tennis courts, a volleyball court, even a new synthetic turf field.
Big Kid Playground
There is also a playground designed for older kids (5-12); it is a short walk across the park, closer to 15th St. It gets more sun than the other playground, and was less populated, but my monkeys kids had fun climbing and sliding.
There is a reservable picnic pavilion, plenty of picnic tables, and charcoal grills in this area as well.
A nice paved path runs through the park, closer to the big kid playground, but not the tot lot.
All in all, Virginia Highlands is a wonderful park with enough amenities to please all kinds of park goers. All 3 of my kids had a great time there, and I suspect yours would too!
Find more parks by visiting my main Arlington Parks & Playgrounds page.
As of Summer 2013, there is also a new spray ground next to the toddler play area. It has some tables and benches, and isn’t very shady, but has lots of features.