Start planning your ultimate South Carolina adventure with a free copy of the 2024 Vacation Guide. Request your free copy, view the guide online or download a PDF version below.
Indoor Trampoline Parks Offer High-Flying Fun for the Whole Family
Marie McAden
A former staffer with The Miami Herald, Marie moved to SC in 1992. She is passionate about the outdoors, and enjoys exploring the state’s many natural treasures from the Lowcountry to the Upstate.
At Columbia's trampoline parks, you can jump from a ledge onto a trampoline and bounce into a giant foam pit.
Remember how much fun it was to bounce on your bed when you were a kid? South Carolina trampoline parks have taken the gravity-defying thrill to new heights - and it's not just the younger set that's flipping over the extreme sport craze.
Adults have found they can get a better workout jumping than jogging. An hour on a trampoline burns the same amount of calories as running 4 miles an hour but with less stress on the joints because the pad of the trampoline absorbs 80 percent of the shock.
Trampoline parks have become so popular, they're springing up all over South Carolina in vacation destinations like Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Columbia and Greenville. While jumping is the main event, most of the indoor entertainment centers also offer other action-packed activities, including trampoline dodge ball, obstacle courses, aerial silks and even a flying trapeze.
At the end of each of these six trampoline runs is an inclined trampoline wall jumpers can use to perform flips.
The main attraction at the parks is a giant open area of connected trampolines with trampoline ramps at one end. Jumpers can bounce off the angled walls to perform flips and other tricks.
If you really want to get airborne, try the launch pad lanes where you can jump from a ledge onto a trampoline and propel yourself into a huge pit filled with foam blocks.
On the dodgeball court, you can join a pick-up game of the old playground favorite played on trampolines. There's also a slam dunk basketball zone where you can practice your best LeBron James imitation.
Columbia trampoline parks feature a number of activities, including tightropes and aerial silks that hang over a large foam pit.
Many of the parks offer additional activities focused on the circus arts, including tightropes and Cirque du Soleil-style aerial silks strung over foam pits.
But it's the flying trapeze that draws all the wannabe circus stars and thrill seekers. In this activity, you jump off a high platform, swing through the air and drop into a foam pit.
Most also have obstacle courses with challenges of varying degrees of difficulty. Inspired by the television show, "American Ninja Warrior," the obstacles include unstable bridges, rope nets, a rock wall and a spinning log.
To ensure the safety of the youngest jumpers, some trampoline parks offer a kiddie court exclusively for children no more than 40 inches tall.
Inspired by the American Ninja Warrior competition, this obstacle course includes 15 different challenges.
Want to visit a trampoline park on your next South Carolina vacation? Try one of these:
A former staffer with The Miami Herald, Marie moved to SC in 1992. She is passionate about the outdoors, and enjoys exploring the state’s many natural treasures from the Lowcountry to the Upstate.
