Wave Island, Provence France [Photo courtesy of https://www.francebleu.fr]

Discover the best water parks to visit in 2024 in the Languedoc and South France. The South of France is regarded as having some of the best waterparks in Europe. You have a choice of 15 different water parks to choose from in Languedoc, Provence and the Cote d'Azur. If you are coming to the South of France in summer 2024 and you want some ideas about how to keep your kids and grandchildren amused, here is our guide to the water parks in Southern France.

Six of the water parks in Southern France are run by Aqualand (which seems to specialise in teenagers). But there are some smaller parks which are good alternatives for smaller children. Also, if you are looking for something different, there are now some unusual water based activity centres in South France which use zip lines and water jumps to provide a different experience.

Aquasplash is the newest waterpark in Southern France, which is part of the huge Marineland Aquapark facility in Antibes near Nice. Parc Aquaviva is based on a lake near Carcassonne and provides a great day out, especially if you combine it with the nearby Teleski centre. The Paradise Aventure activity parks in Argeles-sur-Mer near Perpignan, get some of the best reviews from extreme sports fanatics, especially the Canyoning centre and the Extreme Activity centre.

Best water parks in France 

Here is our list of the best water parks in South France to visit during summer 2024. Our kids have ordered them according to their preferences (which mainly involve parks with rides that can scare the living daylights out of their Dad!). We have also researched each park and got feedback from some of our rental customers who have taken their kids to these water parks.

The one common theme running through the feedback and the park reviews is don't just rock up at these water parks on a whim. Plan your trip and book everything online before hand. Some of the parks offer a discount if you pre-book through their websites. So not only is it cheaper, but you will avoid 30-40 mins of queueing. Also, don't just book the tickets, research all the extras like lockers, cool boxes, sun beds, etc:; because hiring all of these things on the day, will also involve a long queue.

I would also say to look at the weather. You would think that if it is a cloudy day, the water parks will be less busy - but trust me - this is not always the case and a lot of people will have the same idea as you. I think that there is a happy medium here. You are going to be queueing a lot during the day waiting for the rides. So you don't want to be wet and there is a cold breeze blowing. But equally, you don't want to be standing there in 40°C heat and there is no shade.

Finally, you need to really plan your day. You need to think that each ride is costing you €3.50 euros. So if your entry ticket is around €35.00 euros, then you need to be getting at least 10 good rides in. By the time you get into the park and settled, it will be 11.00 am. So you have 7 hours of available time. So you need to be hitting one good ride every 45 mins at a minimum and I would say every 30 mins to have a really good time. So you need to queue for the best rides when they are least busy. So as soo as you get in you need to head for the best ride and then look at the lunch time slots and late afternoon evening. In between you can fill up with the not so popular rides.

1. Aqualand Frejus water park in France

We visited the Aqualand park in Frejus two summers ago. The boys favourite rides were the Niagra - a 25m high straight long chute that propels you down in 2 seconds; the King Cobra - absolutely terrifying, a pitch black ride that seems to last for ever and takes you spinning and turning down; and the Black hole - a massive flume. But all of these slides do attract massive queues. There is a clutch of good slides which don't get too busy (Anaconda, Colour Splash and Blue Mountain). The wave machine pool is very good and the toddler pools are safe and entertaining. If you kids are under 1.10m tall, then there isn't a great deal of rides for them to go on (so you may be better off at the Aquasplash or Speedwater parks). 

Aqualand is not cheap, but the rides are good and you can easily spend all day here. Aqualand operate some of the best water parks in South of France. If you intend to go more than once, then purchasing the 2 day pass works out a lot cheaper. You can use this at any point during the summer. Another tip is to buy your tickets the day before (in the afternoon when it is not busy). That way you can then wonder straight, rather than queueing up for tickets with everybody else. I would also advise you to arrive at 10.00 am on the dot to make sure that you can get a good place to sit, plus you will probably have the park to yourselves for the first 30 mins as everybody else is stuck in the ticket queues.

Aqualand Frejus

Address: Camp de l'abbé, 83600 Fréjus, France.
Phone: +33 04 94 51 82 51

Website: Aqualand Frejus

2. Aqualand Cap d'Agde South France

The Aqualand water park in the beach resort of Cap d'Agde in the Languedoc region of Southern France, was the first water park built in France. The water park first opened its doors in 1983 and is located on a dedicated island in the centre of Cap d'Agde (Île des Loisirs). Forty years later, in 2023, the water park attracted over 200,000 annual visitors (which is pretty impressive considering it is only open for 12 weeks during the summer season).

Aqualand has a water park located right in the heart of Cap d'Agde, close to Plage Richelieu.

This particular water park has two of the highest water slides in Europe - the Tornado and the Ooomerang. The water park is spread over 4 hectares and comprises 20 different.

When we took our boys here, our favourite rides were the Niagra - absolutely terrifying, a straight slide that takes you down from about 50m to zero in about 2 seconds!; and the Colarado - you sit in a long rubber canoe and your whizzed round in the dark before descending like a bullet down the slide. Don't bother with the Congo River - unless you have young kids or you're a bit of a girl.

You also get a nice view over Cap d'Agde from on top of the rides. The wave machine pool is very good and the toddler pools are safe and entertaining. There was not too much to go on if you were under 1.10m. If you do have small children, you might be better visiting La Grande Bleu in Grande Motte, as I doubt they will get their money's worth here.

Despite all the queueing we had a good day out. It is not something I want to do every day, but it is good fun nonetheless. It certainly brings out the big kid in you. The ticket prices for Aqualand Cap d'Agde are €32 euros for Adults & Teenagers (over 11 years) and €25 euros for children (4 to 11 years).

Aqualand Cap d'Agde

Address: Avenue des Isles d'Amérique, 34300 Cap d'Agde, France.
Phone: +33 04 67 26 85 94

Website: Aqualand Cap d'Agde

3. Aquasplash water park France

Aquasplash Antibes, France [Photo courtesy of https://www.aquasplash.fr/]

Aquasplash is part of the Marineland aquapark facility in Antibes, close to Nice. This complex includes a sea aquarium, kids adventure theme park, golf course and a water park. This park does have some long flumes, but overall it seems to cater for a younger age group of kids (6-14 years). There is the usual lazy river, wave pool and big slides involving dingy boats and donuts (Spaceboat and Side Winder).

The main attraction seems to be the Draguero, which is a 12m high water slide - but to be honest, if your kids are teenagers they will probably find this a bit tame. They also have a height limit of 1.4m on this slide, which will rule out any kids under 12. The Rainbow Canyon is a 12.5m high flume ride, which has one tube covered and the other transparent. Finally, the Spaceboat involves a twisting 3 loop flume at the top (in total darkness) before you exit into a giant 14-metre diameter funnel, where you keep spinning rounds until with the help of friction, you slide inexorably towards the centre of the giant funnel. You then slide down another flume into the pool below.

The Aquasplash water park is located just off the A8 Autoroute on the outskirts of Antibes, close to Biot. It is a short 10 minute drive from Nice (or you can catch the train to Biot train station). The park opens from the middle of June to the first week of September. The ticket price is €32.90 euros for adults & teenagers (over 13 years) and €26.90 for kids (although they do provide a family ticket and a nice touch where you get 50% off if you go on your birthday). However, they do offer a great deal if you pre-book and buy your tickets through their website. The adult and child prices are reduced to just €21.90 euros (which I think is great deal).

Aquasplash Water Park Antibes

Address: 306 Avenue Mozart, 06600 Antibes, France

Phone: (+33) 04 93 33 49 49

Website: Aquasplash water park Antibes

4. Parc Aquaviva water park + Teleski - Carcassonne

A visit to either the Park Aquaviva water park or the Teleski centre in Carcassonne, South France makes a great family day out. Both these water activity parks are situated on Lac de la Cavayère, a man-made lake close to the Medieval city of Carcassone in Southern France. You can pack the kids off to the lake for the day, and you can go off and enjoy some shopping and a good lunch in Carcassonne (see 10 best restaurants in Carcassonne). The when the kids are finished, you can all visit the amazing Carcassonne Castle and grab an evening pizza at one of the restaurants inside the castle walls.

Teleski offers 6 different types of activities: water ski lift, paddle boarding, wakeboarding, mono-ski, wake-skating and kneeboard.

Wake-skating is apparently the hardest activity at Teleski. This is where you ride on a wakeboard which has a non-slip surface (wearing water shoes to give you grip) and you hold a water ski type handle. The handle is attached to the overhead zip line, which then pulls you around the course. At a professional level, wake-skaters have their own set of tricks which are derived from wakeboarding and skateboarding and involve both jumps and turns on the water.

The Water skiing is ideal for beginners (from age 7) and involves the zip line with a system of two pylons controlled by an instructor. The instructor is able to control the speed of the zip line and give you advice on how to get to a standing position to start the skiing.

The Teleski centre is open from the Easter holidays to the last weekend of September from 11.00 to 20.00 every day. There is also a very good restaurant at the Teleski, with a large outdoor terrace where you can watch everyone on the lake.

The Parc Aquaviva water park is also based at Lac de la Cavayère, a man-made lake close to the city of Carcassonne in the Languedoc region of South France. Lac de la Cavayère was created in the 1980's following a series of damaging forest fires in the area and the need to create a water supply readily accessible by the regions Fire Planes. The lake covers 18 hectares and was created by damming 3 small creeks. In recent years, the lake has become known as Carcassonne Plage, on account of the large sandy beach and the shallow supervised swimming area.

Parc Aquaviva is like a giant inflatable obstacle course featuring 300m2 of floating platforms, giant water slides, climbing walls, giant inflatables and bouncy castle areas. The water park is open from June to August, 7 days a week from 11.00 to 19.00. The entry price is €12.00 euros for 1 hour, €16.00 euros for 2 hours and €22.00 euros for a day pass. You can add on access to the Water Jump for +€5.00 euros. Children under 10 need to be accompanied by an adult (or be present in the water), but children over 10 can be unaccompanied. 

Teleski Carcassonne

Address: Base de loisirs Raymond Chésa, route de Baja, 11000 Carcassonne, France.
Phone: +33 06 38 56 72 62

Website: Teleski Carcassonne

Parc Aquaviva water park

Address: Lac de la Cavayère - Base de loisirs Raymond Chésa, 11000 Carcassonne

Phone: +33 07 81 91 49 12

Website: Parc Aquaviva Carcassonne

5. Aqualand water park St Cyprien South France

There is another Aqualand water park in Languedoc run by Aqualand. This one is located in the beach resort of St Cyprien, close to Perpignan. The park is open from 15 June to 8 September each year. The entry price ranges from 26€-28€ for adults and 19.50€-21.50€ for children. A family ticket can be bought for €85. Purchasing the the fast-pass is definitely worth the money because this water park can get very busy in the summer. The pass allows you to skip to the front of the queues to collect rings to go on the slides.

As with all Aqualand water parks, there are plenty of grasses area set aside for picnics and lockers are readily available (so you don't have to carry everything around with you). This park features the main Aqualand attractions, such as the Niagra, the Snake Canyon, the Twister which features a 20 metre descent, Total-Zebra and the The Wave - a giant wing shaped ride where you slide up and down from side to side. The Anaconda is a twin water slide where your kids can race each other down to the pool at the bottom. Big Bob is a fast, twisting flume ride and the Black Hole is a ride where you largely twist down the slide in pitch darkness. The Space Navigator is a mixture of open slides and enclosed for the lower stretch.

Aqualand Saint-Cyprien will be open from 19 June to 8 September 2024 and ticket prices will be €32 euros for Adults & Teenagers (over 11 years) and €25 euros for children (4 to 11 years).

Aqualand Saint Cyprien

Address: Avenue des Champs de Neptune, 66750 Saint-Cyprien, France

Phone: +33 04 68 21 49 49

Website: Aqualand Saint Cyprien

6. Paradise Aventure - Argelès sur Mer near Perpignan

Argelès sur Mer is a popular beach resort on the Mediterranean coast, in Southern France, close to Perpignan. Argelès is situated in a long sweeping bay that looks out onto the Pyrenees mountains and down the coast to Spain. The Spanish border is just 15 lkms away.

The Paradise Aventure is located on the outskirts of Argeles-sur-Mer has developed a reputation as one of the best extreme water sports centres in the South of France. But Paradise Activity is really 6 adventure parks in one: 

The Canyon Park is situated in a disused quarry where you can jump off cliffs into 14 different clear water plunge pools. The jumps vary from 3 meters to 7 meters in height. The park also provides for an Abseiling route under the waterfalls, a Climbing net and Rope Ladder, a 100 meter zipline ends with you plunging into a water pool and a guided tour through an Underground river

There is also an Extreme Sports centre which features, among other things, a 30 metre high tower which you can abseil down (or jump using a specially designed Flight Line), 150m Tyrolene zip wire which drops you into another plunge pool, an Air Bag jump - which basically involves you launching yourself off the tower 8 metres up and you land on a cushioned air bag. This is mainly aimed at older kids.

There is a Tree-Climbing centre featuring 19 different courses to cater for all ages and levels. The highlight of the centre is a 100 meter fast zip line.

The Golf Centre features two 18 hole crazy golf courses, set within a large Mediterranean park. It sounds a bit tame, but if you think of your usual crazy-golf course on steroids, then that is what you will experience here. It is primarily aimed at younger kids.

The Water Jump park is as it is is described. Think of a 6 storey high Ski Jump which is designed as a water slide into a lake and you have the Water Jump Park. Plus if you add into the mix your usual band of teenage nutters in safety hats, all egging each other on, you can imagine the sort of experience. 

Finally, there is an Adventure course aimed at 5 to 9 years old. It is basically an obstacle course containing climbing nets, suspended rope courses, climbing walls and ball pits. The children are timed to complete the course.
You will find all of the parks (except the Golf Centre), next to the Luna Park on the outskirts of Argeles sur Mer in the direction of St Cyprien. The Golf centre is located next to Plage Nord in Argeles sur Mer. For more information about all the parks, please visit Paradise Aventure Parks. The parks are open from February until November. The parks are just open from 14.00 to 18.00 during the low season (February, March, September and October). During April to early July, the parks are open from 10.00 to 19.00. During high season (July & August) the parks are open from 10.00 to 20.00.

The daily ticket prices vary according to which park you visit. The Canyon Park is the most expensive

Adult (12 years +) : 33 €
Child (8 to 11 years) : 29 € 
Family (1 adult and 1 child) : 58 €

Paradise Aventure Argelès sur Mer

Address: Espace de Loisirs, 7 Impasse Copernic, 66700 Argelès-sur-Mer, France

Phone: +33 04 68 95 41 66

Website: Paradise Adventure

7. Teleski St Jean Pla de Courts near Perpignan

Teleski Wakepark [Photo courtesy of Laurent Lacombe]

Teleski - is a water sports centre located near to Perpignan at St Jean Pla de Courts. It offers 4 different activities including wake-boarding on a zip wire, water skiing, water skating (I suppose the nearest equivalent is snowboarding on water) and Water jumping. There is an excellent website for the centre (in multiple languages) at Teleski.

The centre offers a Discovery introductory package at 27 € (29 € July and August) where you can try out individual activities. The prices for individual activities range from €30 - €42 for a half day pass.

Teleski St Jean Pla de Courts

Address: Chemin du Mas Chambon, 66490 Saint-Jean-Pla-de-Corts, France.

Phone: +33 (0) 6 67 83 56 62

Website: Teleski Perpignan

8. Sainte-Maxime Aqualand South France water park

In addition to the Frejus Aqualand water park, there is also another Aqualand, in Sainte-Maxime, just up the road. I have no idea which is the better park (Aqualand seem to have similar rides at their parks), but when we looked it up on the internet, Frejus seemed to have more rides and looked a bigger park.

I would also imagine that the Sainte-Maxime water park will get busier than the one in Frejus on account of all the camp sites and holiday resorts in Sainte-Maxime. 

The Sainte-Maxime Aqualand water park does provide some good family tickets (€83 for 2 adults and 2 kids). The water park is located towards the northern edge of Sainte-Maxime and provides some nice views of the hills and down to the coast. The park opens from the 24 June until the 30 August each year and the 2024 ticket prices are €32 euros for Adults & Teenagers (over 11 years) and €25 euros for children (4 to 11 years).. 

Aqualand Saint-Maxime

Address: Les Bosquettes, 83120 Sainte-Maxime, France.
Phone: +33 04 94 55 54 54
Website: Aqualand Saint-Maxime

9. Wave Island Provence

The Wave at Waveisland [Photo courtesy of https://www.francebleu.fr]

Wave Island was formerly know as Splashworld Provence. It shows how long we have been in France because we took our boys to this park when it was still called Splashworld (and it was pretty tame). Splashworld closed in 2015 and the refurbished water park opened in 2017. The park is a bit different than the Aqualand water parks, in that although it still has the thrill-seeking rides, it also has a lot of attractions aimed at a younger age group of children. 

Wave Island is set in a park of 5 hectares and offers around 20 different rides, including the longest lazy river in Europe. The main attraction at Wave Island is The Wave, which is the the largest surf simulator in the world. The Wave has a specially designed wave machine and returning wall, which can produce waves up to 3.50 meters high. You are able to both bodyboard on the big wave and flow-board on the separate Flow-rider (where water is pumped up and over the surface to create the effect of a stationary wave which you can then perform tricks and turns on the specially designed flow boards). The Wave also runs privately pre-booked sessions after 16.00 each day, where you can get special coaching.

Other attractions at Wave Island include Le Tube, which involves a drop of 20 metres in a transparent tube. The ride is 93 meters long and is the latest attraction to be installed at Wave Island. Le Géant is apparently the highest free fall slide in Europe. The slide is 33 meters high and you can reach a maximum speed of 80 km/h as you hurtle down. There are two water roller-coaster type attractions, the Rapid Canyon, which can be ridden in pairs and reaches speeds of up to 40 kms and the Happy Rafting, which you descend by yourself and can reach speeds of 28 kms.

​La Cascade de Manéa, is an 8 lane water slide which is 17 meters high and 110 meters in length and The Rocket, is an 18 metres high free fall slide where you can reach a maximum speed of 60 kms. For the less adventurous, there is the Infernal Spheres, which is a flume where you pass through a number of spheres 5 meters in diameter, each of which has its own light and sound effects; and the Tortuga, an open-air flume which has a slower descent in a rubber donut.

Wave Island is located in beautiful countryside close to Avignon. It is situated just outside the village of Monteux, which is on the road between Avignon  and Carpentras. The park is open between mid-June and the first weekend of September. Up until mid-July, it is only open at weekends. From 19 July to 31 August 2024, it is open every day from 10.00am to 19.00. The entry price is based on height, rather than age. This is because certain rides are restricted for children above 1m20. For adults and children above 1m20, the entry price is €31.90 euros, for children below 1m20 the price is €23.00 euros. Children under 4 years are free.

Wave Island Provence

Address: 663 Impasse de la Traverse du Ventoux, 84170 Monteux

Phone: +33 04 88 84 72 17

Website: Wave Island Provence

10. Aqualand Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mer

The largest Aqualand Water Park in South France, is located in the beach resort of Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, in between Marseille and Toulon. Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer is a popular resort, especially with French families, It has some beautiful beaches (such as Les Lecques) and the Mediterranean here is turquoise in colour and crystal clear.

The water park offers more 14 main rides and also has the staple features of a giant wave pool and lazy river. The main attraction is the Flying Boat, which is the largest toboggan in Europe. The Wave is also very popular and features a 'U'-shaped wall of water which you attack in a 2 person rubber Donut. Other rides include the Cobra, which is a giant twisting flume with 4 different tubes running side by side, which are partly open; and the Boomerang, where you are propelled out of an enclosed flume up a giant wall of water. The Twister Racer is a 4 lane water slide where you can race against your friends. If you get board of this, then you can try the 6 lane Crazy Racer.

Aqualand Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer welcomes over 200,000 visitors each year and the water park will be open from 19 June to 8 September 2024. The ticket prices will be €32 euros for Adults & Teenagers (over 11 years) and €25 euros for children (4 to 11 years). In addition to this, you can also purchase a VIP pass for an additional €20 or €30 euros which provides express access to many of the popular rides.

Aqualand Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mer

Address: ZAC des Pradeaux, 83270 Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer
Phone: +33 04 94 32 08 32
Website: Aqualand Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer

Where to next . . . ?

I hope that this article has provided you with some good ideas about the best water parks in South France to visit during 2024. If you are planning a trip to the South of France this summer, then we have a range of articles which provide advice on the best things to do and see in the Languedoc, Provence and the Cote d'Azur. We live in the South of France all year around and we absolutely love being here. We are always out and about visiting new villa rental properties and researching tourism articles about the South of France. Keep searching for the best holidays in the South of France:

Go Languedoc provides holiday accommodation and tourism information about the South of France - covering Cote d'Azur, Provence and the Languedoc. If you would like some more detailed information or if you have any questions about finding accommodation for your visit, then just drop us a quick message and we will come straight back to you. I wish you a wonderful stay in the South of France. Contact Iain by Email.