Thousand Oaks Ice Skating Rinks 2026: Which Fits Your Evening?

The last time anyone in Thousand Oaks skated outdoors on local ice was the 2019–20 holiday season. That was the final winter for the Holiday Ice Rink at The Lakes, which had run every year from mid-November into January. Six winters passed with no rink. On Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, the city gets two. The Lakes rink comes back over its two-tier pond, and a brand-new venue called Ice at The Oaks opens at 5 p.m. beside The Oaks mall.

Both are open-air, both run daily through the second weekend of January, and the skating tickets cost within a few dollars of each other. Past that, they don't have much in common. The Lakes is set up around skating. Ice at The Oaks is set up around a night out, with the rink as its centerpiece. The right pick on any given evening depends more on who you bring and what time you get there than on the ticket price.

A town that keeps losing its ice

The Conejo Valley has gone without a rink before. The Conejo Valley Ice Skating Rink opened in 1977 at 510 North Ventu Park Road in Newbury Park and closed in 1994 after 17 years. That address is now a Hampton Inn & Suites. Farther west, the Channel Islands Ice Center in Oxnard closed in April 2016. Today the nearest indoor options are LA Kings Iceoplex in Simi Valley and Hockey Alley, a hockey training facility in Newbury Park.

The seasonal rink at The Lakes filled part of that gap for a long time. The Acorn reported an outdoor rink there in December 2005, with skating running into early January. If you count each winter from 2005–06 through 2019–20, that's about 15 seasons before the break. The Conejo Valley Guide describes this year's return as coming "after an extended absence."

So 2026 is the first season Thousand Oaks has two rinks to choose from, and the two operators made different choices about what a rink night should include.

One rink sells skating, the other sells an evening

The Holiday Ice Rink at The Lakes keeps things simple. You pay for ice time, rent skates if you need them, and skate above the pond. The center's page describes it as open-air skating above "our signature two-tiered pond," and it's cashless.

Ice at The Oaks adds a lot around the ice. Special Ice builds and manages the venue in partnership with Eventful LA. Next to the rink are a 40-foot Ferris wheel, a 100-foot "Super Slide," and the Cocoa Cabin, which sells hot chocolate, funnel cakes, cotton candy and s'mores.

The $22 skating price is the one published so far. If the Ferris wheel or slide is the main draw for your group, check iceattheoaks.com for ride details before you go.

The math changes depending on who's skating

On a single ticket, the difference comes down to skates. A skater who brings their own pays $20 at The Lakes, before tax and fees. A skater who needs rentals pays $25 there, or $22 at Ice at The Oaks with rentals included.

For families the gap gets bigger, because Ice at The Oaks built its deals around them:

• Wednesday Family Night: four tickets for $60, rentals included, on Nov. 11, Nov. 18, Dec. 2, Dec. 9 and Dec. 16. Four skaters renting at The Lakes would pay $100 before tax and fees.
• Littles Skate: $44 for one adult and one child age 8 or under, and a third child skates free.

Ice at The Oaks also runs Sunday Learn to Skate classes. The 9 a.m. class is for ages 4 to 10, and the 10 a.m. class is for ages 11 and up. Each class is a 30-minute coached lesson followed by 15 minutes of free skate. A four-class session costs $185 with skates included, and the sessions run Nov. 22 to Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 to Jan. 10. The first session begins the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and the second ends the same weekend the rink closes, so a child who signs up early can fit in both before the ice comes down.

The hours split the week in different places

On weeknights the two rinks keep nearly the same hours. Weekends and holidays are where they differ.

Regular weeks

• Monday to Thursday: both open at 3 p.m. and close at 9:30 p.m.
• Friday: The Lakes runs 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Ice at The Oaks runs 3 to 10:30 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday: The Lakes opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m. Ice at The Oaks opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 10:30 p.m.

Holiday windows

• The Lakes switches to holiday hours Nov. 21 to 30 and Dec. 21 to Jan. 11. During those windows it's open 1 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
• Ice at The Oaks switches Nov. 21 to 30 and Dec. 19 to Jan. 10. It opens at 11 a.m. every day, closes at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and closes at 10:30 p.m. the rest of the week.

A few patterns come out of that. On a regular Friday, The Lakes is the only one of the two open in the daytime. On weekend mornings, The Lakes opens an hour earlier. Ice at The Oaks starts its holiday hours two days sooner in December, on Saturday, Dec. 19, which helps families whose winter break starts that weekend. Ice at The Oaks says it's open on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. The Lakes describes its rink as open daily.

What sits around each rink

Each rink comes with a shopping center, and the stores nearby can shape the evening as much as the ice does.

At The Lakes, Erewhon opened on Aug. 26 at 2150 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. It's the chain's 15th store, with a Tonic Bar, a café, and indoor and outdoor seating. Its "Amidst The Oaks" smoothie benefits Manna Conejo Valley Food Bank. The center's calendar also lists Live Weekend Entertainment through Dec. 26, 2026, so weekend skating overlaps with that run.

At The Oaks, the rink sits beside the mall's east parking lot, and several of the mall's newest tenants work well before or after a session. POP MART opened its first Ventura County store there in August. It sells designer toys and blind-box collectibles from a first-floor spot near Starbucks. The mall also lists Newberry Candy as open, selling handcrafted toffee, fudge, chocolate-dipped treats and caramel apples. Add the Cocoa Cabin at the rink, and it's easy to make a full evening of dessert around one skating session.

The two addresses, 147 West and 2150 East, sit on opposite sides of Thousand Oaks Boulevard's east-west dividing line. That makes it simple to pick whichever rink is on your side of town on a weeknight and save the other for a weekend.

Before Nov. 6

1. Book The Lakes ahead. The center recommends advance booking for tickets and skate rentals, and the rink is cashless.
2. Watch for Ice at The Oaks tickets. The operator listed skating tickets as coming soon ahead of the premiere.
3. Check the parking map. Ice at The Oaks says free parking is available nearby and that a parking map will be posted before opening day. Rideshare drop-off is at the entrance.
4. Plan around the resurfacing. Each 90-minute session at Ice at The Oaks is followed by 30 minutes of resurfacing, so time your arrival to a session start instead of just showing up.
5. Save the Wednesdays. Family Night falls on just five dates, and the last one is Dec. 16.

If a skate night turns into wondering what it would be like to live a short drive from either rink, Jodi Rosales knows the streets around The Lakes and The Oaks and is happy to talk it through over a hot chocolate this season. Let's Connect.