Kids Out and About Top 20 Places to Take Kids (Minneapolis-St. Paul): How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Top 20 Places to Take Kids survey?

The Top 20 Places to Take Kids survey is KidsOutAndAbout Minneapolis/St. Paul's annual readers' choice ballot for the Twin Cities. Each year the publication asks local families to name the spots around Minneapolis-St. Paul they love taking their kids to, then ranks the results into a Top 20 list that parents use for outing plans.

The ballot is unusual among Minnesota votes because its subject is not businesses or restaurants in general but places designed for children: wherever a parent, grandparent or caregiver would take a kid on a free afternoon. The survey runs on the publisher's own domain at msp.kidsoutandabout.com rather than through an outside polling service, which keeps the nominees list and the voting in a single place.

The description the organizer uses for the programme is "the Top 20 Places to Take Kids in and around the Twin Cities," and the people it addresses directly are "local parents, grandparents, and caregivers," who the publication says weigh in by the thousands every season. That breadth matters when reading the results: a place that lands on the final list has drawn support across a wide slice of the metro's family community rather than from a single school or neighborhood crowd.

When does the survey run, and which cycles are documented?

The survey is a warm-weather fixture. KidsOutAndAbout has sponsored the Top 20 exercise every summer since 2005, which makes it among the longest-running family ballots in Minnesota. Three recent cycles are documented: 2024, 2025 and the live 2026 edition now collecting votes.

Inside each cycle the window falls in late spring, and the organizer's own description places it there deliberately: "Every May and June, thousands of local parents, grandparents, and caregivers weigh in on their favorite local places to take kids." The 2026 window follows that pattern, running through June 20 before the results are compiled.

Two details stay unstated. The nominees page headlines the close but does not print a matching opening day, and no separate nomination round is described ahead of voting. The nominees page also names the places currently in the running yet stops short of laying out the ballot's complete category spread; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Season shape at a glance

How does a supporter vote in the 2026 survey?

Every ballot in this survey is cast on msp.kidsoutandabout.com, the Minneapolis-St. Paul domain KidsOutAndAbout publishes under its own masthead. The nominees page presents the places in the running for the Top 20, and a supporter picks favorites straight from that list. The printed rule is unusually concrete: "You can vote once on each device you have."

That line does two things at once. It sets the ceiling on any individual's weight, and it quietly tells a household how to think about turnout, because a phone, a work laptop and a home computer each carry their own ballot under the organizer's reading. Earlier cycles ran the same way; in 2024 the survey asked visitors to place their votes for their top three venues and educator categories, so expect to back a short list of favorites rather than tick every nominee on the page.

What the device rule means in practice

Nothing on the nominees page describes a sign-in step, and no daily-return option is advertised; the device limit is the only participation rule printed anywhere on it. Households that want full effect should finish their devices well before the final day rather than waiting for a reset the site never mentions.

Where does this ballot sit among Minnesota's other reader votes?

Minnesota's reader-vote scene is crowded, and this survey claims a lane none of its neighbors occupy. The closest comparisons are all best-of ballots: Best of the Midwest and Minnesota's Best appeal to shoppers and diners across wide geographies; Best of the Best Brainerd Lakes Area speaks for the lakes region; CommunityVotes Duluth, CommunityVotes Rochester and Best of the Best (Duluth News Tribune) run city or regional contests elsewhere in the state.

Set against them, the Top 20 survey is the only ballot whose electorate is defined by caregiving: the organizer writes for parents, grandparents and caregivers, and the thing being ranked is where to take a child. Its nominees are drawn from in and around the Twin Cities specifically, while several neighbors rank entries statewide or in outstate cities such as Duluth, the Brainerd Lakes Area and Rochester. That focus changes what a placement means. A spot on the final list tells families the venue earned trust from households across the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro, a signal no general-interest ballot in this group can offer with the same precision.

How can a favorite place earn more support in this survey?

Support in this survey compounds through households, so work with the device rule rather than around it. Every phone and computer in a family counts once under the printed rule, which means a nominated spot benefits most when each member of the household casts a separate ballot and when the grandparents and caregivers the survey explicitly addresses are asked directly. A short personal note about why a place matters to your kids travels further in family networks than a bare link, because the electorate here is made up of households planning real outings rather than passing web traffic.

The nominees page carries no guidance on outside promotion, so any business or booster weighing paid help should read the organizer's terms first, brush up via this guide to growing vote totals, and understand how award-ballot vote support works before committing. Keep expectations anchored to the device rule, since the organizer alone tallies the outcome.