Plan a fun fall break getaway in Southern Indiana! Whether your family prefers animal encounters, history lessons, outdoor adventures, or indoor water parks, we’ve got you covered!
Wilstem Wildlife Park
Wilstem Wildlife Park located near Paoli is packed full of incredible up close and personal animal encounters! Hang out with kangaroos and sloths, give an elephant a bath, feed a giraffe, or check out the drive-thru safari. Plus primate and otter encounters, ziplining, and horseback riding! This 1,100-acre ranch has includes cabins available to rent so you can stay on site at this beautiful location and take advantage of everything the park has to offer.
Big Splash Adventure
At Big Splash Adventure in French Lick, the fun doesn’t stop even when summer is over! This fully enclosed water park is 40,000 square feet of fun including slides, splash pads, lagoons, and a lazy river! Visitors can also enjoy laser tag, mini golf, and even a virtual reality experience. The water park has an attached hotel and restaurants, making it a one-stop shop for a family trip this fall.
Explore Indiana’s First City
Do you have a fourth grader learning about Indiana history or maybe just a history buff in the family? They’ll love a trip to Vincennes, Indiana’s oldest city! Founded in 1732, Vincennes predates the American Revolution and is packed full of historic places to explore. Can’t-miss sites include Vincennes State Historic Sites, Grouseland – William Henry Harrison Mansion and Museum, George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, and the Indiana Military Museum.
Caves and Capitols in Corydon
Plan a fall break adventure at Indiana Caverns, the longest cave in the state! Take a guided tour on a boat on an underground river, floating past incredible cave formations, Ice Age bones and fossils, and a 40-foot underground waterfall! For above ground fun, check out the Bat Chaser attraction which combines zip lining with a steel rail coaster, and The Plunge which drops participants on 50 foot plummet! Younger kids will love the goats at Pygmy Playground and gemstone mining at the Peccary Mining Sluice.
Nearby, you’ll find charming town of Corydon, Indiana. This small town was the first state capital of Indiana. Stop by Corydon Capitol State Historic Site for a look at how Indiana’s statehood began. Just across the street, you’ll find the Harrison County Discovery Center. This interactive museum is a hit with kids and features tons of hands-on history and science exhibits.
Discover Lincoln’s Boyhood Home
Abraham Lincoln lived in Southern Indiana from the age of 7 to the age of 21. Visit Lincoln State Park and Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City to explore the places that impacted Lincoln during his formative years and molded him into the man who would become our greatest president. History aside, these wooded parks are beautiful places for a fall hike! In nearby Rockport, you can tour 13 Lincoln-era buildings at Lincoln Pioneer Village & Museum.
Family Fun in Evansville
Evansville is full of family fun, making it a perfect spot for a fall break adventure! Hand feed giraffes and penguins at Mesker Park Zoo, explore three stories of interactive exhibits at the Koch Family Children’s Museum of Evansville, let the kids run wild at the 21,000 square foot playground known as Mickey’s Kingdom, visit the incredible domed planetarium at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science, and check out the 5-acre Nature Playscape at Wesselman Woods (the largest urban old growth forest in the US)!
Ohio River’s Most Unique Spots to Explore
Along the Ohio River in Clark County, you’ll find two of Southern Indiana’s most unique outdoor places to explore. Inside Charlestown State Park in Charlestown, you can hike through the ruins of an amusement park that has been abandoned since the 1930s. Rose Island was once a flourishing destination, and now visitors can explore the ruins on their own or with guided hike.
In Clarksville, you can hike on 390-million-year-old fossil beds at Falls of the Ohio State Park. Over 300 species of fossils have been identified at the Falls including coral beds and sea creatures that lived when this part of the continent was under a shallow sea. The site’s 3,000 square foot Interpretive Center features immersive exhibits of Southern Indiana’s history throughout the ages.
Spring Mill State Park
For stunning fall foliage, a beautiful historic inn, and a restored pioneer village, look no further than Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana! They are always hosting fun family events in the fall, so be sure to check their calendar. And don’t miss the park’s Grissom Memorial Museum which honors the life of Mitchell, Indiana native Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. You’ll get a close up look at incredible space program artifacts including the spacecraft Grissom piloted!
