12 rainy-day outings in Langley that actually work in November

November in Langley is wet, and so are the boots by the door. So we went looking for places across the City and the Township where November doesn’t matter, then checked every hour, price and booking rule against the operator’s own page. Twelve made it. They’re grouped by who they suit, not ranked; that part is your job (see the bottom).

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  Little kidsW.C. Blair wave pool

  Waves, a rain tree and a climbing wall, in Murrayville.

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  Little kidsCanadian Museum of Flight

  A hangar of old planes at the airport. Five and under free.

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  Little kidsFort Langley National Historic Site

  Kids free, and most of it has a roof.

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  Big kids & teensWalnut Grove pool

  The 300-foot slide and a 5-metre dive tower.

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  Big kids & teensTownship public skating

  George Preston and Aldergrove. Book a spot 23 hours out.

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  Big kids & teensAlder Alley Bowling

  Five-pin in Aldergrove, Glowbowl all day Saturday.

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  Big kids & teensA Giants game

  Eight home dates at the LEC in November.

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  Big kids & teensTimms games room

  Saturday Youth Night, in downtown Langley City.

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  Grown-upsTheatre in the Country

  A Christmas Story opens November 25.

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  Grown-upssalishan Place by the River

  The Township's new museum, across from the fort.

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  FreeLangley's libraries

  Seven free FVRL branches in the two Langleys.

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  FreeAldergrove Telephone Museum

  Sundays only, by donation, and a fire truck out back.

Photos: Township of Langley; Canadian Museum of Flight (header); Michel Teiten, CC BY 2.5; Themightyquill, CC BY-SA 2.5; Alder Alley; Garrett James, CC BY-SA 4.0; City of Langley; Theatre in the Country; Fraser Valley Regional Library; Alder Grove Heritage Society.

A quick note on money: the Township’s pools and public skates share one set of drop-in rates (effective September 1). Adult $7.50, youth $4.70, child $3.70, under 4 free, and a family of up to five, max two adults, for $15. That family rate is the best deal on this page.

Little kids

W.C. Blair wave pool (Township, Murrayville)

The leisure end has a free-form wave pool, a spray lagoon with a rain tree, what the Township calls a “tricky bucket” and a water table, plus beach-style entry. Big siblings get the pool’s climbing wall and a diving board. The building is open 6 am to 9 pm weekdays and 8 am to 9 pm weekends, but swim times vary, so use the pool schedule. Know this: under-7s need a responsible person watching them directly the whole visit, in the pool and on deck.

Make it a Murrayville morning. The Murrayville Library is a few hundred metres away on 48 Avenue (open until 8 pm Monday to Thursday), and the Museum of Flight is a short drive up 216 Street. Our Murrayville guide has the rest of the village.

Canadian Museum of Flight (Township, Langley Regional Airport)

Hangar 3 is a wooden-roofed barn of a building, wingtip to wingtip with old aircraft: a Waco cabin biplane, a Harvard trainer and an Avro CF-100 Canuck among them. It’s open Wednesday to Saturday 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday noon to 5; closed Monday and Tuesday. Adults $14, seniors and youth 6 to 18 $10, a family of two adults and up to five kids $35, and children 5 and under free. No booking. It runs a Halloween day on Saturday, October 31, and on Remembrance Day current and former military get in free. The museum asks you to phone ahead in bad weather: 604-532-0035.

Fort Langley National Historic Site (Township, Fort Langley)

Open every day, 10 am to 4:30 pm, until it closes for December 24 to 26, 31 and January 1. Adults $10, seniors $8.50, anyone 17 and under free. The palisade yard is outdoors, but the historic buildings, the blacksmith and the Xplorers activities are where the time goes. The bastions and upper gallery are closed for conservation work. Children 12 and under must be with an adult. Parking: the Mavis Avenue lot is pay parking now, but fort visitors get four hours free. Our November visit notes go deeper.

Big kids & teens

Walnut Grove Community Centre pool (Township, Walnut Grove)

The 300-foot waterslide and the 5-metre dive tower are why teenagers will agree to come. There’s also a 50-metre pool, a leisure pool, and 1- and 3-metre boards. Same Township drop-in prices, building open 6 am to 9 pm daily, swim times on the schedule. Bonus: the Dean Drysdale branch of the library and the Second Wave café are in the same building, so a parent who doesn’t swim has somewhere to be. Torn between pools? Read our head-to-head.

Township public skating (George Preston in Brookswood, Aldergrove arena)

Same drop-in rates as the pools, plus skates $3.50 and a helmet $1.25. Rental hockey skates run from youth size 8 to adult 14. The Township recommends registering online, and spots open 23 hours before each session; walk-ups are let in only if there’s room. Rule to know: helmets are mandatory for skaters 12 and under at public skates. Times are on the skating schedule.

Alder Alley Bowling (Township, Aldergrove)

Ten lanes of five-pin next to the Aldergrove arena and water park. Public bowling this fall and winter is Tuesday 4 to 9:30 pm, Friday 4 to 5:45 and 8:15 to 11 pm, Saturday noon to 11 pm (Glowbowl all day) and Sunday 1 to 6 pm; leagues have the other nights. Public bowling is $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and kids, shoes $3, or $40 an hour for a lane of up to six (shoes extra). Reserve by phone at 604-856-2034; the alley recommends it. No outside food unless you’ve booked a party. Our review and Shop Local profile have more.

A Vancouver Giants game (Township, Langley Events Centre)

The WHL Giants play eight November home games at the LEC: Sunday the 1st (4 pm), Friday the 6th, Saturday the 7th, Tuesday the 10th, Saturday the 14th, Saturday the 21st, Sunday the 22nd (4 pm) and Friday the 27th, all others at 7 pm. Single seats run $23.50 to $45.45 for most games and $27.50 to $52.45 for a few premium dates (November 7 is one). Kids 2 and up need a ticket. No outside food. Parking is free. Our family-night guide covers seats and getting out of the lot.

Timms Community Centre games room (City, downtown)

The City’s centre has a 2,000-square-foot games room, a gym and a 120-metre indoor track. The games room is open 8:30 am to 10 pm weekdays, 8 am to 5:30 pm Saturday and 8 am to 8 pm Sunday. Saturday Youth Night runs 6 to 9:30 pm. A Games & Track Pass, which covers just those two, is $25 for a whole year; ask at the front desk (604-514-2940) about a single visit. The City of Langley Library is attached to the centre (open Sundays 1 to 5).

Grown-ups

Theatre in the Country (City, Glover Road)

Dinner at your table before the show, or theatre-only seats in two raised rows at the back. A Christmas Story: The Musical runs November 25 to December 12. For the musicals, a Friday or Saturday dinner seat is $99.84 all-in and theatre-only is $47.75; Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday matinees cost less. New this season: rush theatre-only seats at the door, $35 for musicals. Book on the theatre’s site or call 604-259-9737. (Over in Brookswood, Langley Little Theatre’s next show, The Pole, opens December 2.)

salishan Place by the River (Township, Fort Langley)

The museum’s new home, across Mavis Avenue from the fort. Its first exhibition, Langley: Many Voices, Shared Place, has been open since June 27. Open Monday to Saturday 9 am to 5 pm, Sunday 10 am to 4 pm. Adults $7.50, families $15, under 4 free, and the Fort Langley Library and Indigenous Garden in the same building cost nothing. Parking tip: the underground parkade gate locks when the building closes, so park on the street if you’re staying for dinner in the village.

Free (or close to it)

Langley’s libraries (City and Township)

Seven FVRL branches, all free, all dry. Murrayville and the City of Langley branch are open 9 am to 8 pm Monday to Thursday and 1 to 5 pm on Sunday, and both have a bookable quiet pod. Both close for Remembrance Day, Wednesday, November 11. Programs for babies through teens (drop-in and registered) are on the FVRL events calendar, where you can filter by branch. Every branch is on our libraries page.

Aldergrove Telephone Museum (Township, Aldergrove)

A 1910 prefab building that was Aldergrove’s BC Telephone exchange until 1952 and has been a telephone museum and community archive since 1993. Sundays noon to 4 pm, admission by donation, at 3190 271 Street. This year the Alder Grove Heritage Society has been restoring the old Aldergrove Volunteer Fire Department’s 1954 GMC pumper, which got new tires this year. Pair it with Sunday bowling at Alder Alley, a few blocks away.

Now rate them

Twelve places, no winner yet. Which one actually saves a wet Saturday at your house? Give it a score out of 10, tell us why, and tell us what we missed. Send it here, with your first name and neighbourhood if you’d like the credit. The ones you rate highest go to the top when we run this again next year.