WATCH OUT ORLANDO!

The new vacation hot spot for children everywhere might be Billund, Denmark where the LEGO Group recently opened its much anticipated LEGO House.

Over the last four years, LEGO has been building the family-friendly destination in the small Danish town where LEGO has its headquarters and where carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen first created the toy in 1949. Standing the test of time and its founder’s motto “Only the best is good enough,” the colorful interlocking plastic bricks are the world’s most popular toy, allowing children to explore their creativity through play and encouraging the development of social and motor skills. Almost anything can be built from the small bricks and when another design idea strikes, can be taken apart to build the next masterpiece.

Now one of the world’s most valuable brands, LEGO has something for kids of all ages with LEGO-themed stores, games and competitions. The LEGO movie franchise launched in 2014 with an Academy Award winner and box-office gross over $450 billion. The LEGO Batman movie was released in early 2017 and three more movies are in various stages of production. Although the company does not own the LEGOLAND amusement parks, the parks create brand awareness and sales from their locations in the United States, Europe, Japan, Dubai, Malaysia and two more under construction in South Korea and Shanghai.

LEGO House is the ultimate play destination. It is divided into experience zones that include two exhibition areas and four play areas. The play areas are divided into four zones, each based on one of four primary colors devoted to a special aspect of learning. Red is for creative skills, blue for cognitive skills, green for social skills and yellow is for emotional skills.

Every part of the building is about play, from the play and exhibition rooms to the upper outdoor terraces, the three restaurants, the conference space, store, and the main 20,000-square-foot public square. The 130,000-square-foot building was designed by Bjarke Ingels and built out of massive white LEGO-style bricks.

A trip to Denmark with tickets to LEGO House would put the Santa into Christmas for any child or turn summer vacation into a creative learning experience disguised as a visit to a colorful playhouse that might spark a future engineering, scientific or medical career. If anyone can achieve that, the LEGO company already has a head start. Make sure to book your visit in advance at their website since LEGO wants to make sure every visitor has the space to take full advantage of the experience and not have to wait in lines. Ticket prices are about $31 USD, free for children under age two.