The Ultimate Summer Bucket List

Make this the best summer ever with these fun summer bucket list ideas. There are tons of fun ideas to add to your summer bucket list and free printable summer bucket list you can print and create with your own summer ideas!

Fun Summer Bucket List Activity

One of our annual family traditions is making a summer bucket list of things we want to do during the summer. We typically get something fun for dinner and sit down and write down everything the kids want to do and experience during the summer.

We’ve been doing this for years and every year we add some new bucket list ideas and bring back a bunch of the old ones! Ours includes things specific to Kansas City and our local area and a bunch of generic ones – that’s the best part of it, you can make it your own!

And I’ve made two free printable summer bucket lists you can use to get started! Once you’ve read through the list of summer ideas, make sure to keep reading to see how you can make your own!

Everyone’s bucket list can be a little different, but these summer bucket list ideas should hopefully be enough to get you started with creating your own summer checklist! There are tons of fun things to choose from!

1. Go on a bike ride
2. Build a fort
3. Do a cartwheel
4. Roll down a hill. Even better if you do it with new friends!
5. Bury your toes in the sand (preferably somewhere like Daytona Beach).
6. Spend a day reading. You could use these fun reading activities to make a whole day out of it!
7. Fly a kite
8. Build a sandcastle or an entire kingdom of sandcastles
9. Go to a drive-in movie theater
10. Eat a hot dog straight from the grill
11. Have a water fight
12. Play one of these outdoor water games or one of these water balloon games (I recommend the ultimate water balloon game)
13. Have a watermelon seed spitting contest
14. Have a family board game tournament
15. Go to a carnival
16. Listen to an outdoor concert
17. Go to a water park and try out a new water slide on a hot day
18. Do a cannonball
19. Play in the sprinklers
20. Watch a fireworks show
21. Sit in a hammock
22. Buy something at a garage sale (aka a yard sale)
23. Create your own lemonade stand (guests will love this strawberry lemonade).
24. Eat a snow cone
25. Go to some sort of festival
26. Watch an outdoor movie
27. Bake cookies or rice krispy treats and give them to someone else with these treat tags
28. Make root beer floats or Shirley temple floats
29. Watch a movie on the big screen or if your bank account allows, rent an inflatable movie screen! Or go to a free outdoor movie!
30. Go to a local farmer’s market (it’s a great time to try out some fresh fruit)
31. Get a temporary tattoo
32. Make homemade popsicles like these ocean blue ones with gummy sharks inside
33. Watch early morning cartoons
34. Snuggle in bed during a summer thunderstorm
35. Have an indoor campout or if the  weather cooperates, go camping and play these camping games
36. Play kickball, even better if it’s slip n slide kickball!
37. Swim in a lake
38. Get books to read at the local library. You could even do a book club! Or a book retreat!
39. Make homemade pizza
40. Catch fireflies
41. Watch a sunset
42. Go on a picnic and do a picnic scavenger hunt
43. Go on a road trip (and take these roadtrip games with you!)
44. Learn something new
45. Make something explode
46. Go to an amusement park
47. Dance it out
48. Eat a funnel cake
49. Volunteer somewhere like a local charity or do random acts of kindness at home
50. Paint something. You could even have an entire painting party.
51. Make one of these easy summer crafts – there are tons of summer craft projects to choose from like painting ladybugs.
52. Jump in puddles
53. Make and play a backyard game
54. Eat breakfast for dinner. These egg muffins or mini pancakes are always great!
55. Go on a staycation
56. Collect seashells
57. Go ice blocking
58. Stay up past midnight
59. Pick berries (then use them for this strawberry poke cake!)
60. Eat ice cream before it melts
61. Make s’mores or s’mores bars if you don’t have access to a fire. Don’t forget the graham crackers!
62. Have a water balloon fight
63. Play beach ball volleyball
64. Plant flowers
65. Eat corn on the cob
66. Travel somewhere you’ve never been
67. Go to a local museum
68. Find a dinosaur (maybe on this dinosaur hunt)
69. Spend a day barefoot
70. Lay on grass and look at the stars
71. Drink ice cold lemonade
72. Have a family slumber party (this is one of my favorite things)
73. Swing on the swings
74. Go to a baseball game
75. Do a flip a coin day where the coin determines where you go
76. Send a postcard
77. Go to a fair
78. Go to summer camp or use these summer camp themes to have camp at home!
79. Go hiking, even better if it’s a new trail
80. Run a race
81. Take summer pictures
82. Make homemade ice cream
83. Relax in a lazy river
84. Ride a roller coaster
85. Order pizza at the pool (or make a summer charcuterie board, still at the pool)
86. Go fishing
87. Play frisbee
88. Drink a tropical drink
89. Go to a splash pad
90. Sleep in
91. Take sunflower selfies
92. Float in a pool (then play one of these fun pool games)
93. Wave a flag
94. Try 12 flavors of ice cream! You could do something homemade like this birthday cake ice cream or try out all new local places!
95. Have a backyard BBQ
96. Go see a show. Or you could even do a movie marathon at home or an outdoor movie night!
97. Find a double rainbow
98. Play until the daylight is gone
99. Play hopscotch outside
100. Celebrate Christmas in July (I recommend these Christmas games!)
101. Make something tie-dye
102. Eat fresh pineapple (or turn it into pineapple bread)
103. Read a book by the pool, even if it’s just an inflatable pool in your backyard
104. Do a service project or random acts of kindness
105. Send letters to friends
106. Go geocaching
107. Blow bubbles
108. Explore the great outdoors
109. Make paper airplanes and have a flying competition
110. Create a time capsule
111. Create pictures out of sidewalk chalk
112. Try new foods to see which one’s the best
113. Paint a rock collection
114. Go to a science center or just do a science experiment at home
115. Eat something from a food truck (I love food trucks!)
116. Go to a zoo or wildlife sanctuary to see animals you’ve never seen before
117. Pick out new places to try each week (so skip the nearby park and try out a new one instead)
118. Visit a National or State Park
119. Stay up late playing night games like Ghosts in the Graveyard or Flashlight Tag
120. Make up silly skits and perform them for friends

You can make your summer bucket list however you want – just write it out on a piece of paper, make one with post-it notes, or even do something like my boredom buster jar where you put things in a jar and pick them out as you go! If you want something more structured, I’ve created two different printables you can use to get started.

Printable Summer Bucket List

I’ve created a summer bucket list you can use to get started with that has all sorts of fun summer ideas like playing water games to catching fireflies. There’s a filled out version of this bucket list AND a blank one you can use to create your own.

Summer Bucket List You Can Color

Or if you want a blank slate, I’ve also created a blank black and white summer bucket list that’s designed to be used as a summer activity – print it out as a large engineering print (at any local office store), color it in, and decorate! Make it yours, whatever that looks like to you. This is the one my kids created for us this year – you can see the size of it in the pictures at the bottom of this post!

I gave them crayons and a couple of sets of summer stickers to let them decorate, and it was maybe the most fun we’ve ever had making our family bucket list!

If you’ve never made a bucket list before, they’re so much fun because they’re all about what YOU want to do!

A lot of people have bucket lists full of items they want to do sometime in their life. Maybe a travel bucket list of places they want to travel or a seasonal bucket list (like this Christmas bucket list or this fall bucket list) of things they want to do during a specific season. It’s basically a list of things you want to accomplish within a set amount of time.

Summer Bucket List FAQs

Enter your first name and email address in the form below to get the printable free download PDF. You will receive a link to download the PDF to your email within minutes. Print on card stock and you’re on your way.

If you can’t see the form below, click here to get to the form to enter your info. If you’d prefer to not provide your email address, you can get a copy in my shop here.

You’ll receive a copy to your email shortly after that includes a 4-page PDF:

• The regular summer bucket list
• The blank summer bucket list (small one)
• The black and white color it in bucket list

If you need some more fun things to do this summer, try out these fun activities!

• Summer bingo – free printable summer themed bingo game, great for any summer party!
• Outdoor games – the best collection of backyard games, yard games, and outdoor games!
• Summer party ideas – tons of great ideas to beat the heat while entertaining this summer!
• Summer chore chart – printable chore charts for the summer that includes chores and reward ideas!
• Games with balls – fun games to play with balls, perfect for outdoor fun this summer!