Photograph by Mark Ashman/courtesy of Great Wolf Lodge
The Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange is Las Vegas for kids, which is to say they will love it even if you don’t. For one thing, everything—except for the outdoor pool, a compact play area, and a hot tub—is inside. You could conceivably go days here without breathing fresh air, subsisting only on the overpriced food. And while the five water slides, the wave pool, the lazy river, and the gargantuan splash pad are obvious attractions, the operators know kids can’t have enough to do, and so there’s a ropes course, an arcade, a bowling alley, and even a digital scavenger hunt that will take them hours to complete. The waterpark—the 16th in the Great Wolf chain—opened in May, and when we visited in June, the staff was still getting its footing. But once your kids are scampering up the six or so flights to go down the water slides—including one that hurtles you down a 20-foot free fall from a collapsing floor—all annoyance is forgotten. There are no day passes, so to enjoy the park, you have to be a guest at the hotel, where rooms start at $200 (plus taxes) a night.
