An Adult Getaway Where You’d Least Expect It

Rethinking Indoor Waterparks

It’s a genre of vacation primarily advertised to young families.  And while an indoor waterpark has plenty to keep the kiddies entertained, in some respects it’s actually a getaway better suited for adults.

To fully enjoy everything an indoor waterpark has to offer requires a certain degree of physical as well as emotional maturity.  Think about it.  Sliding down a couple hundred feet is great fun.  But first walking up a couple hundred feet can be taxing on the lower body, especially when you’re doing it over and over again.  Park-goers must also often wait before riding their favorite slides, giving a huge advantage to vacationers with larger quadriceps and more patience.

The popularity of indoor waterparks has risen in recent years, prompting many resorts to open new locations all across the country.  Great Wolf Lodge, which is already in over a dozen cities, will open their latest in Bloomington, Minnesota this December.  With average winter temperatures in Minnesota struggling to get above the freezing mark, it’s not hard to see why the locals are excited.

Vacationers in similarly cold states like Michigan and Wisconsin can enjoy more tropical temperatures in their own backyards, too.  In fact, Wisconsin Dells has more indoor waterparks per capita than any other American city, with over 20 parks and under 3,000 people.  But Americans all over the country are increasingly turning to indoor waterparks, in large part to ensure that unpredictably inclement weather doesn’t get in the way of their fun.

The question remains, then, why families with young children make up such a disproportionate percentage of visitors at indoor waterparks when these resorts are continuously adding attractions and amenities aimed specifically at adults.

Recent expansions to the Kalahari Resort in the Pocono Mountains have doubled its size to a whopping 220,000 square feet, making it America’s largest indoor waterpark.  But it’s not all slides.  The additions include three new restaurants, a health spa and a fitness center.  The project also created over 1,000 new jobs in the area, a development the adult population at Kalahari is more likely to appreciate.

Practically all of the rides at parks like these have height requirements.  Some are even exclusively for “strong swimmers.”  And we all know nothing frustrates a little kid more than being barred from an activity for being a little kid.  Here, again, a more-developed muscular system comes in handy.

And besides, the gravity-defying, adrenaline-inducing nature of many of the slides may simply be too overwhelming for those of a younger generation.  And they can’t exactly unwind at the many swim-up bars scattered around these properties.

So don’t rule out a trip to an indoor waterpark just because you don’t have children to take with you.  Even if you do, you might just want to get a sitter.