Playgrounds with boat rentals near Allentown, PA

Beltzville State Park

The closest big-water day out to Allentown, about half an hour up the turnpike extension. The 949-acre lake is the only one on this list with no horsepower cap, so the boat rental west of the beach hands out kayaks and paddleboats alongside a reservable pontoon, and the water can get busy with ski boats on a hot Saturday. The playground sits between Picnic Pavilion Four and the 525-foot sand beach, which is the whole appeal for families: park once, and the swings, the sand and the boat cove are all within sight of each other. There is no camping here, so it is strictly a day trip.

Nockamixon State Park

The biggest rental fleet anywhere near Allentown: the concession on Lake Nockamixon puts out canoes, kayaks, rowboats, paddleboats, paddleboards, small motorboats and pontoons, so a group that cannot agree on one kind of boat can still go out together. Swimming happens at the park pool, not in the lake, and the pool is the family draw in its own right with two waterslides and a shallow end with fountains. The playground is beside that pool complex, on a spur off the main bike trail. Worth knowing before you drive: the pool charges admission and keeps a short weekends-only shoulder season at each end of summer.

Green Lane Park

Montgomery County's largest park, and one of the few on this list with two children's playgrounds rather than one. The rental concession at the Hill Road Day Use Area is privately run and unusually well stocked for a county park: canoes, kayaks, standup paddleboards, paddleboats and small electric fishing boats from roughly May through September, plus guided pontoon tours on a limited basis. Everything on the water is electric or paddle powered, so the reservoir stays quiet. The catch for a hot-day family trip is that there is no swimming beach here, and the reservoir itself is a drinking-water supply with a boat registration and quarantine regime for private craft, which is exactly why renting is the easy way in.

Mauch Chunk Lake Park

A Carbon County park outside Jim Thorpe where the beach, the play equipment and the boat rental all sit within a few minutes' walk of each other, which is the practical case for bringing small children. The rental at Boat Launch A puts out canoes, kayaks, rowboats and paddleboats and also sells live bait; the lake is closed to gas engines, so it stays calm. It is the one park here that guards its swimming area, with lifeguards on duty during posted beach hours, and the one that charges admission in summer: a few dollars a head for Carbon County residents and noticeably more for everyone else. Lifeguard staffing has forced short-notice beach closures, so it is worth a phone call before a long drive.

Peace Valley Park

Bucks County's 1,500-acre park around Lake Galena, with its own boat rental renting rowboats, canoes, pedal boats and single or double kayaks by the day. The county lists playgrounds among the park's features, and the Peace Valley Nature Center at the northeast end of the lake adds more than fifteen miles of trails, so it suits a family that wants a paddle and a walk rather than a beach day. Bucks County publishes less detail about this park than the state does about its own, which is why several columns here are blank: the county page does not state the lake's size, its motor rules or whether swimming is allowed.

Tobyhanna State Park

A Pocono plateau park where the playground is right by the swimming beach, so the two things a kid wants are in one place. The rental runs daily from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, weather permitting, and covers rowboats, kayaks, paddleboats, canoes and electric motor boats. At 170 acres the lake is small enough to paddle a good part of in an afternoon and, being electric only, quiet the whole time. It is about an hour from Allentown, which makes it a longer drive than Beltzville for a similar day, but the campground means you can turn it into a weekend.

Locust Lake State Park

A camping park first and a day-trip park second, and the distinction matters here: its three playgrounds are inside the camping areas rather than beside the beach. The camp store doubles as the boat rental and puts out canoes, kayaks, paddle boards, pedal boats and rowboats with or without a motor, on a 52-acre lake that is the smallest on this list and correspondingly calm. Day-use parking is genuinely limited, and the park warns beachgoers to expect a walk of about half a mile from the visitor lot with everything they are carrying. If that sounds like a lot with a toddler, sister park Tuscarora up the road has an easier beach.

French Creek State Park

The largest park on this list by a wide margin, billed by the state as the biggest unbroken block of forest between Washington and New York. Boat rentals run out of the Hopewell Lake pool complex, daily between Memorial Day and Labor Day and on weekends in May and September, and the playground is right there next to the Hopewell Day Use Pavilion. Swimming is at the guarded pool only: both lakes are closed to swimmers. It is the furthest south of the ten, roughly an hour and change from Allentown, so it is a full day rather than an afternoon.

Marsh Creek State Park

A sailing lake more than a swimming one: 535 acres in the Chester County hills with prevailing winds the state park itself advertises, and the rental at the East Launch is the only one here that rents sailboats and runs lake tours through the summer. Rowboats, canoes, kayaks and paddleboards are the rest of the fleet, with weekend rentals sometimes offered in spring and autumn if the weather holds. The children's playground sits by the pool complex and picnic area, and swimming is pool-only, in an L-shaped guarded pool with a sprayground. It is the longest drive on this list from Allentown.

Promised Land State Park

Two lakes, two sand beaches and the most generous rental hours here: the concession runs daily from the Saturday before Memorial Day through Labor Day, plus the two weekends either side of that, by the hour or the day. Rowboats, canoes, one- and two-person kayaks and paddleboats are the fleet, and electric motors can be rented separately, with boats staged at Pickerel Point and Lower Lake as well as the main beach. The playground is in the Day Use Picnic Area a short walk from the beach and the boat rental, alongside a sand volleyball court and a basketball hoop. There are no lifeguards at either beach, and at 1,800 feet on the Pocono plateau the water stays cold well into the season.