New $10.5 Million Water Park is Louisiana’s Perfect Day Trip

The calendar pages have officially flipped over into April. That means the mindset of many in Louisiana will slowly shift from Mardi Gras to Easter and from wintertime to spring and summer travel. Naturally, when we leave our homes in Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Monroe, we are looking to go someplace that's fun and someplace that's different.

If we are bringing the kids then we want there to be the kinds of activities they can do with minimal supervision and still wear themselves totally out so they sleep well in a small hotel room or in the car on the way home.

When it comes to filling the bill for keeping kids busy, wearing them out, and having help in the "watching over " them department you can't be a waterpark. In fact, many of the larger casino resort hotels have found that in order to attract players they have to attract families. One way to attract families is to provide splash pads, lazy rivers, dump buckets, and all the other bells and whistles of a wet and wild good time.

One of the latest entries in the battle for your waterlogged money is a place called Splashdown at Serengeti Springs. It's the waterpark that is attached to the Hattiesburg, Mississippi Zoo.

The facility includes the Blue Rapid Run, The Feather Flight, The Reptile Racers, the Peacock Plunge, the Serengeti Swirl, the Water Cannons, and the big Dump Buckets. So there are a lot of ways to get wet.

Day passes as well as multi-day and season passes are available and the facility does have a complete snack and concession area. And one other important note, the Hattiesburg Zoo has just received accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. So, you know their operation is well run for both human guests and animal residents.

And for a family that is attempting to make the most of their summer fun and keep their budget intact, Hattiesburg and Serengeti Springs isn't a bad idea. The park is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The cost of daily passes is well below what you'd expect to pay in Orlando. The cost of hotels around Hattiesburg is quite a bit less too.

Just watch how you're driving, when you're driving there and back.