Friendly staff are a welcome change, learn to swim is great and the pools are warm and clean all…read moreyear round. Great coffee and extras such as the gym. Highly recommended.

Cooling down during the hot summer day can sometimes prove quite difficult, however one good way of…read moregetting this task done is to head over to the Langlands Pool. At Langlands they have a full 50 meter Olympic size pool that is cordoned off with lanes providing place to do laps or to just laze around in the water without getting into any ones way. The pool is also in expensive so any one can go down as it costs just $4.60 for an entire day. If you are a student or have a concession card the price goes down to only $4. If you plan to go and get in some exercise and do a few laps of the pool I would suggest going before school closes for the day because after that it can get quite busy and the lanes do get taken up quite quickly. This is the same story during the weekend because they cater quite well for families and provide a play area and water slide for the kids. You can become a member and get swimming lessons too if that takes your fancy. The pool is open from 5 am till 7 pm during the week and from 6 am to 6 pm during the weekend. If you would like to make this a yearlong activity fear not because the pool is cooled or heated according to the season and temperature.

Excellent heated pool. The aquatic center also has a shower and a smaller training pool for newer…read moreswimmers. People and staff are extremely friendly and most of the swimmers are also friendly and respectful. For new people, here are some of the "unofficial rules" that I didn't really know about and I learned the hard way: 1. Slower swimmers stay on the right side lane. I got dirty looks for swimming slow in the middle lanes. 2. Always swim on your left lane. 3. Rinse off in the shower before entering the pool. Also the pool is saline water so your skin doesn't turn into a raisin after swimming for hours.

Destroyed by the floods of 2011, the UQ pool is yet to return to its former glory, but the…read moreconstructions look to be taking shape nicely, with the pool relatively unchanged and a nice new club house nearing completion. Prior to the floods, the UQ pool was a popular place for those wishing to get their exercise in the water after a day at uni and for the lazier breed of student, like myself, who just enjoyed a paddle. During my college days, my friends and I would wander across campus with towels over our shoulders to take a dip in the pool and lay on the grassy slope for some sun and people-watching. Revised entry prices and opening hours are yet to be announced for the new aquatic complex, but one of the great things about the pool before the floods was that entry for UQ students was nice and cheap. Hopefully, it will stay that way, as entry to regular town pools is too pricey for my liking.

A sweet, family-oriented pool with kids' laughter and antics abound on the Summer weekends. I come…read morethen and also mornings for lap swimming. Usually one to a lane. Pool comfortAbly heated, and good shade and sun mix. Grassy area for sun baking. Sweet times.

The mercury cracks 30 degrees and the only answer was to loll in water under the guise of swimming…read morelaps. Arrive at pool around 10am and quickly realise it is prime time for mothers and their children - poolside play dates - and an active aqua aerobics class. As far as pools go, Ithaca is isn't bad by any stretch and was re-tiled last season. It served a grand purpose for what I like to call black-line-following meditation. I guess my only "gripe" was that this is far more a family pool than a grab-your-goggles-and-swimming-cap kind of pool at this time of day.

As far as I'm concerned this is the best public pool in Brisbane, which you would expect given that…read moreit was built for the 1982 Commonwealth Games. There's an Olympic sized pool, a diving pool with some boards accessible to the public (usually just a springboard), a 25 metre heated lap pool and a kids pool. The kid's pool is not very big but it's entertaining enough and there are waterslides. It's all indoor so there's no need to worry about whether everyone's sufficiently sun screened or swim shirted up. On top of all this it's not as crowded as a lot of the other lap pools, I suppose because of it's slightly out of the way location. If you're a swimmer, and you somehow don't know about this place, it's time to check it out. Opening times and availability are subject to change so have a look at their website before you get the kids too excited and are forced to feed them guilt-ridden ice cream.

There's nothing really exciting about this pool, other than there's water in it and it's clean. And…read moreit's in the Valley. Aside from that it feels relatively industrial and grey. The facade is quite iconic but behind it the original pool appears to have been demolished and replaced with some sort of 1970s concrete box. I like swimming and will swim anywhere, including here, and if it's exercise then it's a good place to do laps. There just doesn't seem to be a great deal of atmosphere. What is a nice day is shopping and eating in the Valley followed up by a late afternoon swim here at the pool. That is a nice adventure. Anyway, not bad, but nothing to get too excited by. Note: Pool actually opens at 5.30am Monday to Saturday, despite hours listed above.

By Matthew Cornell Chermside Aquatic Centre turned out to be…read morea handy, cost effective alternative to the big theme parks and all that goes with them ( ie cost, road trip, finding a park, finding food, finding shade.... Need I go on?). We had a lovely afternoon here today. My son is 16 and probably on the upper limit of fitting in to the queues for slides and wet activities, but for kids between 5 and 16 I'd say this place is a hit. There were tent loads of groups on the back lawn today and plenty of shade still for me to sit and doze. Staff were reasonably friendly but there was a high emphasis on safety. Plenty of attentive lifeguards and slide supervisors, only one person permitted on the slides at any time and the cafe stocked hot food and the usual assortment of cold and icy refreshments. A cost effective afternoon. Marked down for lack of parking. My score is 4 out of 5.

As well as boring old pool and swim school, the Chermside Aquatic Centre has the northside's own…read moremini water park that will provide endless weekends of fun for the whole family over the summer months. With four big water slides and four little ones with a splash pool for the smaller fish, it's sure to mean quiet nights for mums and dads when the kids are in bed early too! There are plenty of shaded areas to camp out on and a cafe inside to provide the caffeine hits necessary to listen to shrieking children. Entry is very reasonable considering how much entertainment can be had, at $9 for kids and $13 for adults. Great way to spend a sunny Sunday!