School has started and you might think you have to say goodbye to summer until next year. However we are all fortunate enough to live only 90 minutes away from the new Kalahari Resorts in the Poconos where it feels like summer all year long! My family and I were recently invited to stay at Kalahari as their guests and we thoroughly enjoyed this truly unique experience. Kalahari Resort has all the amenities of a fine family resort such as a Spa and Salon, a special Kids' Club with activities and crafts all day long, and a 30,000 sq foot Family Entertainment Center full of "dry" activities like mini bowling and an arcade. Yet the most impressive part of Kalahari is the 100,000 square foot Indoor Waterpark (Pennsylvania's largest!)
I have to admit that I had never been to a Waterpark before and up until last year would have been skeptical (because my kids were at the time just learning to swim), but Kalahari has exciting water activities for every age and ability! There's Tiko's Watering Hole for toddler to Kindergarten with 'water' swings, slides, and a miniature lazy river. In any other place the toddler playground would be enough, but Kalahari also has the Splashdown Safari which is a gigantic playground full of twisty fun water slides and sprinklers and net crawls for kids and adults of all ages!
Being usually a bit timid around roller coasters, my husband and I surprised ourselves by trying the Wild Wildebeest - a wild raft ride that makes you face "zero -g oscillations" as you sweep up a wall! We even tried the Zimbabwe Sipper, which is a pipe-style "flume" ride reaching speeds of 40 miles per hour. While many of the roller coasters are for pre-teen, older kids (and crazy middle-aged adults), Kalhari also has some "family" style coasters. The "Anaconda" was the highlight for our kids and allowed us to ride in pairs with our 6 and 8 year-old.
The Waterpark is full of other surprises like a water basketball park, a swim-up Bar for adults, whirlpool spas, body boarding on the Flowrider and our real family favorite "The Lazy River" (after our daring adventures on the water roller coasters I think my husband was ready to spend a whole day going round the river on tubes, which circled the entire premises and was propelled as if by magic by some constant, invisible force)! The biggest Kalahari surprise still awaits - what is to be added to Kalahari Resort Poconos as there are plans for expansion (which they call Phase 2) and it will make Kalahari the largest Water Park in the U.S.A! The kids are still thanking us and hugging us for taking them too Kalahari Resort & Conventions (I have to leverage this to get the homework done...)
Kalahari is open year-round and you could make a great Daycation or overnight. If you stay for one overnight you get to use the Water Park both days. They also have bargain pricing if you arrive past 4PM. Prices range from $29 - $59 depending on the season and the time of day. Please contact Kalahari Resorts Poconos for more details and tell them you heard about it on Macaroni Kid Summit Short Hills SOMA!
Kalahari Resorts Poconos
250 Kalahari Blvd
Pocono Manor, PA 18348
877-525-2427
Photo Courtesy of Kalahari
*This is a sponsored article, but all the opinions are truly my own.
