27 Kid-Approved Summer Adventures

New York Times

03-07-2025

School is out, summer is in full swing and families everywhere are asking the same question: How can we make this summer as fun as humanly possible? There's nothing wrong with spending hot afternoons lazing around at the local pool. But with just a little planning, your family can pack a lot more adventure into the weeks ahead.
To give you some ideas, The New York Times for Kids asked dozens of young people around the country to tell us about their own favorite places to go and things to do over the break. Use their suggestions as inspiration to seek out similar activities in your area — or add their tried-and-true spots to your travel itinerary. Either way, when the kids in your life go back to school in the fall and are asked how they spent their summer vacation, they'll have a lot to say.
Rent a camper
In the summer, we go camping a lot. We take the camper truck, which has a bed and a bunk in it. My favorite place to go is Silver Lake State Park, because there's a big dock to jump off. The water is really deep. We light a fire, and usually we eat hot dogs and marshmallows. At night, my brother and I put on concerts for our parents where we dance. Ellen L., 7, South Royalton, Vt.
Slide down a ski hill
The ski resort here, Whitefish Mountain Resort, is really fun in the summer. There are alpine slides, which are very long slides where you sit in a little cart. You can control your speed as you go down the mountain. You definitely feel like you're going fast, and you're kind of scared, but you can look around and see the mountains all around you. Pearse J., 9, Whitefish, Mont.
Take an overnight train trip
I like to take overnight trains, like from Boston to Chicago. It's a really different kind of travel than flying in a metal tube in the air. We stay in a sleeper car, and my favorite thing is to listen to music and podcasts and look out the window. I take a lot of pictures of the sky as the clouds change and we pass by different cities and nature and train stations. It's so relaxing. Charlie W., 12, Maynard, Mass.
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