Things to Do in Bloomington

Paradise Rental Boats carefully curates fleets of Yamaha, Bayliner, and Sun Tracker boats, so that sun-kissed riders can jet across the sparkling waters of Indiana’s Lake Monroe and Georgia’s Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona at their leisure. The company's vessels range from party barges and yachts—which hold groups of up to 26—to the smaller, two-person WaveRunner, whose highly responsive steering suits drivers trying to chase down and catch their fish dinner. Onboard radios and CD players let mariners groove to their favorite tunes, and the company also rents optional accessories for water sports, such as wakeboards, water skis, and artificial bait for licensed fishermen.

There are bears at Jellystone Park at Lake Monroe—two of them, to be precise. They hang around the flag pole each morning, loom during story time just before bed, pose for photos with children, and, almost always, dress in dapper neckties.

Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Jellystone’s resident ursine population, welcome families to campgrounds that lie under a canopy of trees near the shores of Lake Monroe. Rustically inclined campers can set up tents deep in the woods, and nearly 100 pull-through campsites offer electric, water, and sewer hookups. For camping with access to modern amenities, there are spacious cabins built to withstand the mightiest huffing and puffing from the mascots' cartoon enemies.

Pools, mini golf, and hiking trails fuel hours of family fun, which includes a snowball toss during Christmas in July and a pudding wrestling match during the Death by Chocolate weekend. [Located] 15 minutes south of Bloomington, the campground can form a launch pad for excursions to golf courses, wineries, and other cultural attractions near Indiana University Bloomington.

Sprawling over 500 acres, eXplore Brown County at Valley Branch Retreat entertains guests with a swath of old-fashioned adventure in the middle of Indiana. Fourteen ziplines, two sky bridges, and a rappelling tower offer a bird's-eye view of the scenic forest year-round. As zipliners soar back and forth above land and lake, guides lead tours of ATV riders on off-road explorations below. The rhythmic cough of paintball guns echo through the trees as teams compete for dominance on one of 10 scenario fields, some of which feature crashed planes. After a day of fun, visitors retire to the climate controlled cabins or open campgrounds for a night spent in the embrace of Mother Nature.

The Hunter family knows bees. At their family-owned and operated farm, they continue a more than 100-year-old tradition of producing honey and honey-related products. Managing several hundred hives across the state of Indiana, Hunter farms produce honey, beeswax, bee pollen, and propolis, which is used to make everything from beeswax soap and lip balm to honey hot-wing sauce and 32 different flavors of honey sticks.

Guided tours of the honey farm teach groups of all sizes and ages about the work of the honeybee, while forestry tours introduce tourists to the farm’s 65 acres of hardwood. The beehive tour lets guests shadow a beekeeper on the job while "Flight of the Bumblebee" plays on repeat in their heads. The Worker Special tour includes even more hands-on learning, teaching visitors how to roll their own beeswax candle and fill bear-shaped containers with honey.