Alpamare is a large indoor water park south of Zürich. It has about a dozen water slides, a wave pool, and a heated outdoor pool surrounded by a no-so-lazy river. For small children (under 6), it has a paddling pool, splash pad and small slides. For adults, they have a wellness area with sauna, steam bath, and massage treatments.

The wave pool was our favorite part, because the waves actually break and you can body surf, unlike other wave pools that just bounce you around. We also liked the river rafting slides with innertubes and usually spend most of our time here.

The “lazy” river is so powerful and quite deep that I was worried that whole time that my kids would drown, even with arm floaties. At times I had a hard time holding on to my kids and standing upright. The river flows at different speeds at different times, so see what works for your kids.

On the downside, we don’t like that they don’t have a picnic area and the restaurant food is pretty basic. We try to plan our day so we don’t have to eat there. This place is extremely popular, especially during the school holidays, so the lines can get quite long.

Website: www.alpamare.ch Location: Gwattstrasse 12 Pfäffikon SZ / From Zürich 30 mins by car, 40 mins by train Open: Mon-Thu 10:00 – 21:00 / Fri-Sat 10:00 – 22:00 / Sun 10:00 – 21:00

Definitely buy tickets in advance online, which also lets you skip some of the line. Sometimes you can get coupons and discounts from SBB Railaway, Migros and other vendors, so definitely look for those during the year.