Keeseville, NY
Ausable Chasm
Walk through a 500-million-year-old sandstone gorge with optional rafting. Paid entry. Best from about age 3. A half-day trip.
- Nature
- Ages 3+
- ~3h
- Paid
608 places · 7 states & territories · 224 on the water
Where to take the kids this weekend
Swimming holes, paddling put-ins, sailing lessons, and the trails in between. Every place here carries the four facts that decide it: how far, how much, what ages, and whether you get wet.
The catalog, by region
Places we keep going back to
Eight of the 63 we've marked worth the drive. A teal edge means you get in the water.
Austin, TX
Barton Springs Pool
Iconic 3-acre spring-fed pool in Zilker Park at 68 degrees year-round. Paid entry. Best from about age 3. A half-day trip.
- Swimming
- Ages 3+
- ~3h
- Paid
Stuart, FL
Bathtub Reef Beach
A worm-rock reef sits just offshore and turns the water inside into a warm, calm, waist-deep pool full of fish at low tide.
- Snorkeling
- Ages 3+
- ~3h
- Free
Beacon, NY
Beacon Sloop Club
Free evening sails on the Hudson aboard Pete Seeger's volunteer-crewed sloop Woody Guthrie. No charge, ever. Reserve by phone.
- Sailing
- Ages 5+
- ~2h
- Free
Broken Bow, OK
Broken Bow Lake
Crystal-clear 14,000-acre mountain lake with calm swimming coves and 180 miles of shoreline. Free. Works from toddler age.
- Swimming
- Ages 2+
- ~3h
- Free
Christiansted, VI
Buck Island Reef National Monument
A marked underwater trail through an elkhorn coral barrier reef, on an uninhabited island reached only by licensed boat.
- Snorkeling
- Ages 6+
- ~6h
- Paid
Williston, FL
Devil's Den Spring
Snorkel inside a collapsed underground cavern lit by a single opening in the roof - a prehistoric spring reached by a staircase.
- Snorkeling
- Ages 6+
- ~2h
- Paid
Key West, FL
Dry Tortugas National Park
Seventy miles out from Key West: a vast brick fort on an empty island, ringed by the clearest snorkelling water in Florida.
- Snorkeling
- Ages 6+
- ~12h
- Paid