Adventure Vacations Recommendations for 6 year olds

I'm looking for ideas for 1-1.5 week summer vacations suitable for 6 year old kids.
Ideally it would be a vacation that has outdoor activities without full time outdoors (meaning= not a full week camping or backpacking)
Could be domestic or international. Outside our region preferred.
Any first hand experience would be appreciated.

A week isn't very long if you're including air travel and jet lag.

When I was six my ideal vacation was to swim in a pool with friends. I could do that all day every day. But I'm glad my parents also dragged me to places I'd never been.

If you don't mind about seven hours of flying and six hours of jet lag, northern Spain (Bilbao, Santander) would be hard to beat. Beaches, mountains, a world-class museum, enough other vacationers from various places that speaking only English won't be a huge problem even for a six-year-old. It's easy enough to make new friends on the beach, especially if you bring a soccer ball. It's not the best location in Europe for cathedrals and castles, but there is enough within driving range to impress. I haven't been in over twenty years (and the museum hadn't been built yet), but the things I've mentioned should still hold true.

The obvious solution for avoiding jet lag is to go south instead of east. Have you considered Rio?

Speaking of south, normally I'd recommend Costa Rica, but our summer is their rainy season.

You could also go west. San Francisco has great weather too (the whole west coast of the US will be fine - most of Seattle's famous rain comes in the winter) and not enough jet lag to matter, but while the adults will love the scenery , the kids won't get to feel any culture shock. If you're going to say in North America, I'd wait a few years until the kids can handle their own backpacks, and go for Alaska or the high Rockies.

Thanks for the info. Rio is way too dangerous.

We were thinking about Yellowstone for all it offers, but wanted to hear other ideas.

You can't go wrong with Yellowstone and its not too soon to book reservations in the Park. They'll see plenty of elk, bison and big horn sheep and maybe coyotes and wolves in addition to the fascination thermal features. Plenty of easy nature walks and hikes in the Parks, including Teton NP.

A side trip to West Yellowstone and the Grizzly Center, which also has wolves, has a lot of displays and demonstrations appealing to children ... fostering an appreciation of the wildlife. On the way, Firehole River, heated by hot springs, is a popular swimming hole. In the other direction, Cody, I bet a six year old would enjoy a rodeo which they have every night in the summer. The Buffalo Bill Museum is a gem but I'm not sure how much of it would be appealing to that age. There is a ghost town near Cody but I'm not sure about its appeal to children.

Finally heading south out of the Park, towards the airport in Jackson Hole, I think they'd enjoy a Snake River Rafting trip which is only a few hours. There's also a Chuckwagon Western Dinner Show that is family oriented. Colter Bay is reasonably priced and a good place to stay. The breakfast cruise out to Elk Island is fun; we saw a bear swimming across the channel to the island and my son and I were left behind while exploring the island ... my wife not saying a thing having long adopted the attitude, "They got themselves into it, they can get themselves out of it." As for rodeos, I think jackson Hole has one once or twice a week during summer.

As much as I'd like not to be sending more people there, I can't help it. There is no place that I think has more for both the children and outdoorsy adults than the Yellowstone Region. Make it at least two weeks if you can.

Watch the kids wear their new Naconas and Stetsons back to school!

Here is the sad thing. My kids remember about 5% of the trips I took with them when they were 6 year old. :-( I am telling myself that those memories are somewhere in their brain waiting to be released consciously or subconsciously but my another assessment would be the realization that it could have been a local pond vs Yellowstone lake and as long as they were having fun and did not have any traumatic experience it counted about the same.

Now for ideas. If you do Yellowstone, don't forget to take them to the swimming spot on the Firehole River. Kids climb upstream and then bob down in the water in this narrow mini canyon. Of all the experiences in Yellowstone with my kids this is the one they actually remember.

Last summer I went to the Azores and I recommend this destination for a family vacation without any hesitation.

It is a direct flight,
there is no jetlag,
it only takes 4 hours to fly there
it is safe
food is great
the local fruit is amazing (bananas, passion fruit etc...)
seafood selection is better than in New England (I mean it)
local food is cheap compared to US (if you shop at the supermarket)
there are swimming holes, hot springs, few mountains to climb, beaches, clean air and friendy people who like Americans, especially people from around Boston because we have a Azorean community here and we (Boston) are the only city in the USA with flights to the Azores.

Yellowstone is a great idea; there is a lot you can see by short walks/hikes and the geothermal features are especially a treat since they are not something you see here. The chance to see wildlife is also great. The drawbacks are crowds, need to book lodging well in advance, and depending on your lodging, you might be spending a bit of time in the car. Depending on where you are flying into, there are other areas you can include too (Tetons, Cody,etc). There are some other activities you can book with kids: a float trip on the Snake River, a cookout in Yellowstone, etc. Overall I think it's a good trip with a kid. And with only a week, I think it's also a good choice because it's likely you will have pretty good weather (I mention this because last year we spent two weeks in the Canadian Rockies and one week was completely wiped out by rain - thankfully it wasn't our only week). We've been to Yellowstone six times and have always had good luck with weather. The only catch is if it's a big wildfire season, the smoke can be bad.

Our daughter is now eight and we've been with her to the greater Yellowstone area five times (the most recent when she was six) and all the trips have been fun. We always stayed in Cooke City in a cabin we rented with my parents (they are within a day's driving distance of Yellowstone, which was our catalyst for choosing the area for vacations and seeing family), so we haven't spent a whole week in Yellowstone, but have always visited it on our trips. I have trip reports and pictures posted here.

With only a week I would stay domestic.

Blue Ridge Parkway. Amble as far as you like, stop by swimming holes, take short hikes. Avoid starting in Shenandoah. My kids still remember some of the swimming holes, and you will have far less crowding than a national park.

+1 to Blue Ridge. You can hike peaks from trivial to challenging, visit fire towers, high points, etc. Ashville, NC is a great 'base camp', especially if you like beer!

Last fall my wife and I took our two year old to Shenandoah NP for a 5 day trip. Granted we couldn't do anything crazy in the bc, but we still had a great time. There are some really nice park campgrounds that are in the middle of the park and off trail bc camping is pretty lax inside the park. Cool thing about the park is if you start from Skyline, most hiking starts down as your mostly on the ridge. Kind of like hiking in the Grand Canyon or Bryce NPs. Good thing about Shenandoah is if you need to bail because of an unhappy child, you have civilization not too far away. Driving is 6 hours-ish from MA, or an one hour flight from Logan and two hour drive from DC. Bonus on flying to DC is you can routinely get $39/way tickets and fairly cheap rentals. Flying is obviously harder to camp with, but still doable.

Thanks for all the great ideas and comments. I appreciate the thoughtful responses.

My parents took us kids out West to visit National Parks every other year for a number of years--I was 3 on my first trip (my brother was 6) and they continued until I was in high school. They took us on a number of day hikes--I was on Grinnell Glacier (Glacier NP) at 3... (I even still remember a few scenes from this trip!!) Later on we included some multi-day hikes to backcountry walk-in "motels" such as Granite Park Chalet (Glacier NP) and Phantom Ranch (Grand Canyon NP) for overnights. (My parents were dayhikers, but not backpackers.) This was hard work for my mother, but it gave us kids a heritage that we treasure. (I should note that my parents enjoyed these trips too and took some before and after the kids trips.)

Logistics were fly or train out and then travel by rented car. My father planned the itineraries and made the reservations (by snail mail back in those days... Also pre-credit card.). Food was a mixture of restaurants and supermarket supplies.

On the in-between years, we generally vacationed at a conference facility on Lake George (NY). (This was my mother's rest...) We did a lot of hiking from this base too.

I have been out West (as well as the place on Lake George) several times on my own since then, visiting some new parks as well as some repeats. The old memories were still pretty fresh...


IMO, many (or most) of the western NPs as well as the Canadian Rocky parks are good destinations for kids. Rather than seeing how many parks you can visit, visit a limited number of parks in a region and spend a bit of time in each. Research the parks ahead of time and get out of the car and on the trails--many of the nature walks and half or full day hikes will be enjoyable and will form lasting memories for both parent and kid. We also found many of the Ranger-led walks and talks to be enjoyable.

Edit: I should add that a number of eastern NPs are good destinations too. My parents took us to a number of eastern natural places too.

Doug

When our kids were 6 and 8 we did a week-long Maine trip, camping at Peaks Kenny State Park and then at various points in Baxter. Out of ~ six nights away from home we were backpacking two (nights at Chimney Pond bracketing our Katahdin climb). That was one of the best vacations we've had.

Two summers later we flew into Seattle and spent five weeks car-camping our way down to Santa Cruz, with a few breaks at friends houses and one longer backpacking trip in Yosemite. A few of the areas where we spent time would probably fit the bill for what you're asking about. The orbit from Seattle out to Olympic National Park and back would make a great week, with good camping, hiking, beaches, rivers, and hot springs. Highlights include the Sol Duc and Hoh areas. You could also make a cool week with hiking, rivers, tree-watching, volcanic features, camping, and hot spring opportunities out of the axis between Lassen Volcanic NP and Redwood NP in northern California. Or, the circuit from the Bay Area to Tahoe to Yosemite is stuffed with more recreational opportunities than you could exploit in a lifetime.

We camped and hiked our behinds off, but more domesticated options like indoor lodging, dining, museums, etc. are available in or near all of these areas.

Are your kids pretty well accustomed to hiking and camping already? I think one of the things that made these trips work so well for us is that our kids were already pretty fluent in these activities, so we were going on the road with a skill set they were already very comfortable with.