Gaming venues Golf Lounge 18 and Activate open on Long Island

If you want to take a break from shopping at the mall this season, why not add a little golf or a few energetic games to the mix?

Here are two gaming sites that recently opened at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove and Roosevelt Field in Uniondale where kids and adults are gaming, exercising, learning to play a new sport and most importantly, having fun:

Tee up at Golf Lounge 18

619 Smith Haven Mall, Lake Grove

Golf Lounge 18, with locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts, opened its first  Long Island spot in August.

Practice your swing at one of the 11 bays, each featuring Trackman technology. The software has more than 450 courses to play and golfers can also take skill tests.

Nick Donnelly says his golf game has improved since he’s been going to the lounge about two or three times a week, sometimes with friends

“It’s a bit more convenient, definitely a bit more flexible on time. You’re out on the course, it could take anywhere from three to five hours, being out there for playing 18 [holes],” says Donnelly, 25, a financial adviser who lives in Nesconset. “I could get things done a lot faster playing inside at Golf Lounge and the Trackman they use is really, really good because I’m able to see where I’m hitting the club face off of, so it gives me a little bit better of an opportunity to actually fix what I’m doing wrong.”

In addition to the golf bays, Golf Lounge 18 has games for families and kids, says Ryan O’Mara, general manager of the Lake Grove outpost, who hopes to attract more youths to the game.

"I think it’s important, as I grew up playing the sport, and it teaches some unbelievable life lessons," O’Mara says. "So, the more we can be family-oriented, I think that’s a great thing and that’s something I’m working on to build." 

The lounge is definitely not miniature golf.

"This is swinging a real club with a real golf ball," O’Mara says. "And we’ll provide instruction here from PGA professionals as time goes on and we get more into our busy season in the winter."

Golf teaches kids (and grown-ups, too) etiquette and how to handle frustration.

"When you play golf and you’re going out to play a round by yourself, it’s you versus the course," O’Mara says. " It’s not you versus another individual, so it teaches honesty and integrity in the game and that follows outside the sport as well."

The lounge features 20 65-inch TVs tuned into sports all the time.

"We have a full bar, a full restaurant with a spectacular menu ranging from small bites of appetizers like wings or mac-and-cheese bites to full handheld sandwiches, like chicken Parm or burgers or tacos," says O’Mara, adding that some people come in just to eat. "We have a full outdoor patio that’s heated throughout the winter, with two more TVs and a sitting area out there."

• COST Prices are per golf bay (not per player); early bird: $40 per hour, Monday through Friday until 2 p.m.; off-peak: $60 per hour, Monday through Thursday, 2 p.m. until closing; peak: $75 per hour, Friday, 2 p.m. to closing; all day Saturday, Sunday and holidays; book time slot online 
• HOURS Open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. 
• MORE INFO 631-366-8156, golflounge18.com

Jump around at Activate

Roosevelt Field (second floor, Nordstrom entrance of mall), 630 Old Country Rd., Uniondale 

A state-of-the-art gaming center is now open in Roosevelt Field.

"Activate is an immersive gaming center where you’re running around, jumping around, moving, pushing, shoving, dodging lasers, shooting lasers, playing ‘the floor is lava,’ games where you’re throwing balls at asteroids on screens or games where you’re shooting basketballs into hoops," says Darion Medford, assistant manager.

One of the 11 gaming rooms even features the old-fashioned game of hide-and-seek, but with a newfangled twist.

"The only thing with this place is you’re not putting on a VR headset: It’s you and just getting active," Medford says.

Players receive a wristband that grants them a one-hour session of play in any room. If someone is already playing in that room, they must wait, typically less than a minute, as people are racing from one activity to another.

"People even stopped subscribing to their gym, just so they can come here," Medford says. "People go into the rooms with clothes that are completely dry, they come out like they just took a shower inside of the room."

Josh Cheng, who went to Activate with his 11-year-old son, Jacob, and a few of their friends, says everyone enjoyed their time there.

“It’s a lot of running around, going from room to room,” says Cheng, 42, who lives in Huntington and manages a hospital radiology department.

Cheng looks forward to going back. “Definitely it’s a workout for both brain and body,” Cheng says.

The game center doesn't serve refreshments but has an arrangement with Nordstrom Grill, the restaurant and bar next door, where Activate players receive 20% off their meal.

Designed for kids of all ages, Activate is best for ages 5 and older, Medford says.

"Games like Mega Laser, it’s completely different," he says. "You’re dodging through lasers getting all the way to the other side. Games like Hide, where there’s big eyes on the wall and you have to hide from the eyes and there’s a giant pillar in the center of the room. It’s like playing hide-and-seek, except it’s not with a real person."

The "Portals" game room challenges players to place the ball in specific holes.

"Every game room has multiple games that line up with the mechanics of that room," Medford says. 

• COST $25 per hour on weekdays, $30 per hour on weekends; walk in or book online, booking in advance recommended on weekends;
• HOURS Monday through Thursday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
• MORE INFO 516-755-3075, playactivate.com/roosevelt-field