tz
/ July 16, 2026
Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park sits on about 65 acres along the Platte River in downtown Denver, Colorado, combining roughly 40 rides — including six roller coasters — with the adjacent 20-acre Island Kingdom Family Water Park. It’s one of the few U.S. amusement
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
Enchanted Forest Water Safari is a water and amusement park in Old Forge, New York, tucked into the Adirondack Mountains. It opened on July 7, 1956 as The Enchanted Forest of the Adirondacks, a storybook-themed attraction built on 35 acres of reclaimed swampland, and was
Read more
tz
/ July 12, 2026
A 25-meter glass pyramid still stands on the beachfront at Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, its slides and pools empty behind cracked glazing. That’s what’s left of Aqualud, the water park that drew families to France’s Channel coast for over three decades before shutting for good in 2019.
Read more
tz
/ July 11, 2026
Morey’s Piers has been a fixture on the Wildwood boardwalk since 1969, when brothers Bill and Will Morey Sr. purchased two boardwalk lots in North Wildwood and opened a single attraction: a 40-foot fiberglass slide called the Wipe Out, where riders paid a quarter to
Read more
tz
/ July 11, 2026
Darien Lake is a large amusement park and resort in Darien Center, New York, roughly midway between Buffalo and Rochester and about 45 minutes from Niagara Falls. The park opened in May 1981 as Darien Lake Fun Country on a sprawling property that today covers
Read more
tz
/ July 11, 2026
Elitch Gardens is Denver’s 65-acre theme and water park, and one of the oldest continuously operating amusement parks in the United States, with roots stretching back to 1890. It’s also a park whose future has been in the news almost as much as its rides,
Read more
tz
/ July 11, 2026
Waldameer Park & Water World sits at the base of Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania, where it has drawn lakeside crowds since 1896 — making 2026 its 130th season. Originally a picnic ground called Hoffman’s Grove, the site was leased and renamed by
Read more
tz
/ July 11, 2026
Lake Compounce is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States, tracing its roots to a lakeside picnic ground that opened to the public in 1846 on the Bristol-Southington line in Connecticut. Today it’s a 332-acre amusement and water park that pairs a
Read more
tz
/ July 11, 2026
Ocean Breeze Waterpark sits just two miles south of the Virginia Beach oceanfront, and it holds a title no other local attraction can claim: the only full-scale water park in the Hampton Roads region. What started in 1974 as a small slide operation called Jungle
Read more
tz
/ July 10, 2026
Myrtle Waves has been Myrtle Beach’s largest water park since it threw open its gates on June 1, 1985, and heading into the 2026 season it’s still splashing away on Mr. Joe White Avenue, just off the Grand Strand. Four decades in, the park is
Read more
tz
/ July 9, 2026
Michigan’s Adventure sits just outside Muskegon and holds the title of the largest amusement park in the state, spreading across roughly 250 acres alongside its adjoining water park, WildWater Adventure. What began in 1956 as a small petting zoo called Deer Park has grown into
Read more
tz
/ July 8, 2026
Valleyfair has been the Twin Cities’ go-to theme park for 50 years, growing from a 26-acre park with 20 rides in 1976 into Minnesota’s largest amusement park — headlined today by the 207-foot hypercoaster Wild Thing and the newly expanded Superior Shores waterpark. Ownership changed
Read more
tz
/ July 7, 2026
Water Country USA is a water park located in York County, Virginia, just outside Williamsburg. Opened on June 20, 1984, it bills itself as “Virginia’s Largest Family Water Park” and is owned by United Parks & Resorts, the same company behind neighboring Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Read more
tz
/ July 2, 2026
For 35 summers, Breakers Water Park was the place Tucson-area families went to beat the desert heat, floating in a wave pool the size of a small lake and racing down slides that kept getting taller and faster. Then, almost overnight in early 2018, it
Read more
tz
/ June 25, 2026
Noah’s Ark Waterpark in Lake Delton, Wisconsin — at the heart of the Wisconsin Dells resort corridor — has carried the title of America’s Largest Outdoor Waterpark since 1987, when the opening of The Wave gave the park enough scale to claim that distinction. Spreading
Read more
tz
/ June 24, 2026
Aquatica Orlando opened on March 1, 2008, as SeaWorld’s dedicated water park — a 59-acre Pacific-themed playground built for roughly $50 million adjacent to SeaWorld Orlando. The park attracted about 950,000 guests in its debut year alone, ranking as the fourth-most visited water park in
Read more
tz
/ June 23, 2026
Disney’s Blizzard Beach is the rare water park where the theming is as memorable as the slides — a fictional Florida ski resort that melted into 60-plus acres of raft rides, a 120-foot free fall, and a lazy river with its own ice cave. It’s
Read more
tz
/ June 22, 2026
Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon is the storm-wrecked tropical paradise at Walt Disney World where a shrimp boat sits marooned atop a volcano, a wave pool churns out 6-foot swells, and a lazy river winds past waterfalls and mist-filled caves. It’s one of the largest and most
Read more
tz
/ June 20, 2026
Cedar Point Shores is the water park at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio — an 18-acre complex of speed slides, a giant wave pool, two lazy rivers, and family splash zones perched directly on the shore of Lake Erie. Operated by Six Flags, it consistently
Read more
tz
/ April 20, 2026
Finding the best water parks in the United States for families means cutting through hundreds of options to find the ones that actually deliver — thrilling enough for teens, gentle enough for toddlers, comfortable enough for the adults keeping everyone happy. In 2026, the top
Read more