Hologram Zoo Illinois is the indoor kids amusement center serving the Chicago north suburbs from 318 Hawthorn Center inside Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills IL 60061. The venue is minutes from Buffalo Grove (10 minutes), Highland Park (12 minutes), Lake Forest (12 minutes), and Northbrook (15 minutes). The full North Shore family afternoon takes 3 to 4 hours total: 60 to 90 minutes inside Hologram Zoo, then dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy or Slyce Coal Fired Pizza at adjacent Mellody Farm, with an optional movie at AMC Hawthorn 12. Hologram Zoo is fully indoor and open year-round, rated 4.7 stars across 59 Google reviews, and welcomes families with kids ages 3 and up. Birthday parties, field trips, and private events available.
The North Shore’s indoor kids amusement center — plus dinner, all in one stop.
Hologram Zoo Illinois at Hawthorn Mall is the year-round, weather-proof family attraction North Shore parents are choosing for weekends, rainy days, birthdays, and the kind of afternoon kids actually talk about on the ride home.
An indoor kids amusement center the North Shore actually drives to.
You pull off Route 60 into the Hawthorn Mall lot, ten or fifteen minutes from your house in Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, Lake Forest, or Northbrook. You park once. That’s the last logistical decision you have to make for the afternoon.
Inside Hologram Zoo, the kids put on lightweight 3D glasses — no VR headsets, no straps, nothing scary — and walk into a tunnel where a sixty-foot dinosaur looks down at them. Then deep space. Then a deep-sea aquarium where a whale drifts past their shoulder. Sixty to ninety minutes of genuinely new, the kind of thing your nine-year-old will be re-enacting at dinner.
Speaking of dinner. It’s right there. Maggiano’s Little Italy on one side for sit-down family Italian. Slyce Coal Fired Pizza at Mellody Farm for the casual, kids-are-hungry-now option. You walk to it. Same parking spot.
Three to four hours, one stop, weather doesn’t matter, and the kids will talk about the dinosaur for a week. That’s the North Shore family afternoon.
Park once. Stay for the whole afternoon.
3 to 4 hours, one parking spot, dinner included. Here’s exactly how a North Shore family day at Hawthorn Mall flows from start to finish.
PM
Hologram Zoo Illinois 60–90 min
Walk into the immersive 3D holographic tunnels — dinosaurs walking past you, deep-sea creatures gliding overhead, planets you can stand inside. Lightweight 3D glasses, no VR. Designed for ages 3 through teens, but adults take just as many photos as the kids.
PM
Family dinner — your pick 60–90 min
Both restaurants are walkable from Hologram Zoo. Pick the vibe that fits your family today — or the one your kids will tolerate after a sugar rush.
Maggiano’s Little Italy
Upscale family-style Italian. The choice for birthday dinners, special occasions, or anyone who actually wants a real sit-down meal. Right at Hawthorn Mall.
Slyce Coal Fired Pizza
Fast, casual, and kid-loved. Coal-fired pizzas at Mellody Farm — short walk across the way. The easy choice when the kids are hungry now.
PM
Optional: movie or browse add 2 hr
Stretch the day with a movie at AMC Hawthorn 12, or browse Barbara’s Bookstore. All under one roof. All weather-proof. All within a five-minute walk of where you parked four hours ago.
Minutes away from your driveway.
Hologram Zoo sits at the geographic center of the North Shore. Whichever of the four big suburbs you live in, you’re a short, simple drive from Hawthorn Mall — and the rest of the family afternoon is already planned.
The closest suburb — ten minutes door to door.
Buffalo Grove parents have it easiest. Hop on Route 22 east or come up Route 83 and you’re at Hawthorn Mall before the kids have finished their pre-trip snack. Most of our weekday and Sunday-afternoon families come from right here.
Twelve minutes from Ravinia — indoor when the lakefront isn’t cooperating.
Highland Park families come west on Route 22 or take I-94 north. Especially in shoulder seasons — when the lakefront is too cold and the backyard is too wet — this is the indoor afternoon parents tell their friends about. Birthday season here books fast.
A short Route 60 hop — the family afternoon, sorted.
Lake Forest families take Route 60 west and they’re here. Maggiano’s for the post-experience family dinner is a familiar choice for Lake Forest parents — this is the suburb where the full Hologram Zoo + sit-down dinner combo books most often, especially for birthday milestones and grandparent visits.
Fifteen minutes up I-94 — weather-proof, tantrum-proof.
Northbrook is a straight shot up I-94 or Route 21. Especially valuable in winter — while every other Northbrook attraction is weather-dependent, Hologram Zoo never closes and never disappoints. We see a lot of post-school 3 PM bookings from Northbrook families looking for something that runs the kids’ energy down, not up.
Want to do more than walk through?
The Hologram Rooms turn watching into playing. Interactive holographic environments where kids don’t just see the dinosaur — they react with it, dodge it, follow it.
Built into Plus and Ultra birthday packages, available for private events, and a favorite of tween and teen parties. Pair the walk-through tunnels with a HoloRoom session and the afternoon stops feeling like an attraction and starts feeling like a memory.
Explore Hologram RoomsNot another trampoline park. Not a bowling alley. Genuinely new.
Six things parents from Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Northbrook tell us when we ask why they came here over the usual options.
Indoor and year-round
Snow, rain, 95° heat, polar vortex — none of it matters. One of the only kids amusement centers in the Chicago north suburbs you can comfortably visit in January.
60–90 minute experience
Long enough to feel like a real outing. Short enough to leave room for dinner, a movie, and a calm bedtime — without the meltdowns of a half-day commitment.
Animals you cannot see anywhere else
Walk alongside a sixty-foot T-Rex. Stand next to a great white shark. Holographic projection means species from every continent, every habitat, every era — including extinct ones.
Stroller and grandparent friendly
Flat indoor terrain, climate-controlled, no long walks between exhibits. Easy for toddlers, kids in strollers, grandparents, and visitors with mobility needs.
Restaurants steps away
Maggiano’s Little Italy for the sit-down family dinner. Slyce Coal Fired Pizza for the casual option. Both walkable from the same parking spot.
Built for birthdays and field trips
One of the most-booked kids birthday venues in Lake County. Private rooms, themed packages, dedicated hosts. Field trip and school group rates also available.
There’s a lot more than the dinosaurs.
Asia. Deep Space. The HoloRooms. Photo Studio. Projectogram. The dinosaur tunnel is the one everyone talks about — but it’s only the entry point.
See every walk-through experience, every interactive room, and every birthday and group package on the main Hologram Zoo Illinois site.
Check out all our ExperiencesBefore you make the drive.
The questions North Shore parents call us about. If yours isn’t here, call +1 (847) 281-7030 — a real person answers.
What is the best kids amusement center in the Chicago north suburbs?
How far is Hologram Zoo from Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Northbrook?
What restaurants are near Hologram Zoo Illinois?
How long should we plan for a visit?
Is Hologram Zoo open year-round?
Is the Hologram Zoo good for toddlers and young kids?
Can we book a kids birthday party here?
What about field trips and school groups?
Where exactly is Hologram Zoo Illinois?
Have a different question?
Plan the afternoon they’ll talk about all week.
Park once at Hawthorn Mall. Hologram Zoo, dinner, and an optional movie — all walkable, all weather-proof, all ten to fifteen minutes from your driveway in Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, Lake Forest, or Northbrook.