The 6 Best Swimming Holes in Louisiana

Lake End Park is Morgan City's own developed swimming hole, a municipal park and campground on the shore of Lake Palourde in the Atchafalaya Basin, with a maintained sandy beach built for swimming, sunbathing, and doing not much at all. Cypress and live oak shade, a marina, and the Carillon Tower at adjoining Brownell Memorial Park give it real south Louisiana character.

It is open lake shoreline, not a pool, and there is no lifeguard, so the park is upfront that you swim at your own risk. For families willing to keep watch, the easy sandy entry makes it a convenient close-to-town lake to swim in.

Fontainebleau Beach puts a sandy, officially designated swim beach on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, inside a state park built on Bernard de Marigny's old 19th-century sugar plantation, with the 1829 mill ruins still standing. Alongside the beach, a seasonal water playground gives young kids a shallow, controlled place to splash.

Worth knowing before you go: Pontchartrain is a huge brackish estuary rather than a freshwater lake to swim in, and the state health department issues periodic bacteria advisories for this beach, especially after rain. On a clean-reading day, though, you get lake swimming, a fishing pier, trails, and the 31-mile Tammany Trace all in one $3 park.

Earl G. Williamson Park is a 40-acre parish park on the Louisiana shore of Caddo Lake, and it holds one of the few developed swim access points on a lake that mostly is not known for swimming beaches. There is a designated swim beach near the boat ramp and fishing pier, and campers do use it, one reported making good use of the swim beach in June, though another described the beach itself as old and unmaintained.

Set your expectations accordingly: Caddo Lake has a soft, muddy bottom and murky water, so this swimming hole is more about cooling off on a hot day than clear-water swimming. Day use is free, the park is open 6am to 9pm, and most campsites come with lake views if you decide to stay over.

Lake Charles Beach Picnic Area is the spot locals know as North Beach, an urban swimming hole on the shore of Lake Charles just off I-10, about two miles from downtown. Billed as the only inland white-sand beach in Louisiana, it earns its keep on pure convenience: man-made white sand along the lake's edge, shade trees, and calm water minutes from the highway.

The swimming is easygoing by design. This is wave-free, current-free inland lake water suited to casual wading and family swims rather than serious open-water workouts, and the tourism board markets it exactly that way. Volleyball nets and pickleball courts round out the day when you dry off.

White Sands Lake Day Beach takes a natural spring-fed lake in rural Washington Parish and wraps it in a resort-style package: an imported white sand beach, inflatable water slides, floating mats, and a roped-off swim zone kept separate from the paddling area. It is a privately owned, admission-based swimming hole between Franklinton, Covington, and Bogalusa.

The water is fresh spring water, mostly clear with a brownish tint over the sandy bottom depending on who you ask and how recently it rained, and you can see bottom in the shallows before it drops off deeper. It leans heavily family: life jackets are mandatory for kids under 12 and anyone who is not a strong swimmer, with rentals on site.

North Beach is billed as the only inland white-sand beach in Louisiana, a small public swimming hole on the shore of Lake Charles that has been the community's go-to swim and gathering spot since at least the 1970s. It sits just off I-10 near downtown, so getting there is about as easy as it gets.

The water is calm, freshwater lake swimming, not Gulf surf, which suits the casual, family-oriented crowd this beach has always drawn. Development is minimal: imported white sand, a grassy area with shade trees next to the lot, and the lake. It also doubles as a favorite viewing spot for Fourth of July fireworks.