Yeah, good very fun insanely expensive though an absolute rip-off but I had a really good time so…read moreI'll give it four stars

When I was a kid this was like the coolest thing you could ever do for a birthday party. Three…read morepools, rapids, loads of flumes, a pirate ship, a raining cloud, snakes that shoot you with water, palm trees...I know! How awesome is that! As a kid this experience is totally a 5 star, pee in the pool with excitement experience, there is a little cafe where you can have chips and fizzy pop with your friends after hours of fun in the pool. As an adult, it holds all the excitement but doesn't quite deliver. We are grown-ups after all and a big plastic snake is only believable up to a point. It's worth it if you really like flumes though as they are pretty fast. I was call in advance first as sometimes they don't have enough staff to have them all open at once.

This school deserves 5 stars for calibre and effectiveness of teaching. I have watched my…read moredaughter's swimming come along steadily, with no fear or anxiety, from confident but lacking much skill, to now, with the sort of graceful stroke we all dream of but most of us never achieve even with years of lessons. Honestly - I had years of lessons and was a lifeguard throughout my youth and her stroke is far smoother than mine! The only slight down side is that the facilities at Astley Cooper could be better. The water quality is fine, but the changing rooms are grotty. And it would be nice if the pool was larger. Still, it is difficult for independent swim schools to find suitable pools for hire, and the calibre of teaching, small class size, and obvious enjoyment my daughter gets out of her swimming lessons (who'd have thought!) far outweighs this small downside.

Can you keep a secret guys?? Not many people seem to have noticed it yet, but a year and a half…read moreafter the Olympics there's some exciting stuff going on in Stratford again... Yep living near the Park is paying off nicely at the moment - my new local council swimming pool is none other than the Aquatics Centre! It's been open to the public for the last few weeks and I have to say it's a pretty special venue - I still get tingles every time I walk in. It's £4.50 per swim session for an adult and there's an easy peasy online system to book in advance. There are 2 full size pools inside - the Competition Pool for the hardcore swimmers and the Training Pool where they separate the lengths into two 25m sections. Personally I found a 50m pool to be ridiculously long in real life (my superwoman stamina is a err work in progress) so I tend to do laps in the 25m lanes. You choose a pool and a start time online but it's pretty lax once you're in, and you can stay as long as you like. The water is a nice slightly warm temperature and it's usually a uniform 1.2m depth all the way along (though somehow they can change the depth of different sections - the mind boggles!). It's not all lanes - there are also sections of the pool roped off for 'fun' as well as swimming lessons. Also saw signs for a total wipeout stylee 'Splash Time' for kiddies at weekends that sounded like great fun if anyone wants to lend me a child?! The reason it misses a 5th star is that the changing rooms and shower facilities are just not that great. It's spacious yes and there are plenty of cubicles, hairdryers and lockers, but the layout is a little confusing (quite a wander from the lockers to the female showers), they seem to have too many staff/cleaners milling around not doing much, and the showers themselves seem temperamental and need you to wave a hand past every 3 seconds. Is this how Michael Phelps showered?! (*pauses to enjoy the mental picture*) Ahem. Yeah I expected better. So remember to bring your own towel+toiletries, a plastic bag for your wet cozzie (I haven't spotted a drying machine yet) and a £1 coin for the lockers. And please only tell your special friends - the nicest thing at the moment is that it isn't too busy on weeknights! See you there :)

The swimming pool itself is great, most of the time quiet, you can choose your line depending on…read morehow fast you want to swim so that you don't get disturb by other people while swimming. The changing space however is really poor for this kind of aquatics centre - you can really tell you're just meant to come, quickly change, swim and leave. There are few showers and they are quite temperamental. The lockers and cubicles are just not that comfortable to use. So it's a very good pool, but come there for exercise only and not hoping for a full spa experience!

This was the first new pool we visited this summer as part of our annual search for the best pools…read morein reach of London. Not sure how we heard of it but it came recommended so we jumped on a train to Bedford from St. Pancras and 36 minutes later were stepping out into blazing sunshine. Perfect day for a swim. We found the bus station and a bus that would drop us out of town to the pool. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere with a large Tesco next door and just one bus an hour. The pool itself is housed in a striking pyramid shaped building with various ponds and water features dotted around. No slides snaking outside which was a little disconcerting as that what we were coming for. Inside we found a great family fun pool with two slides reached from a central tower. The 55 metre 'yellow screamer' and the 45 metre red turbo 'flume of doom'. The red one is the quicker of the two and a solid slide - the yellow version a bit tame for us now. At the bottom of the slides they have a digital display that flashes up your speed and how long it took you to go down the slide - a nice touch I thought and not a feature I have seen anywhere else. The slides aren't the reason to visit though....there are much better options available elsewhere. This pool has a lazy river that snakes in a circle oustside the pool. In the summer months they open a door way and you can swim out into the sunshine and boy was it hot! We had struck lucky...water jets propel you round the route and yes it was busy but not uncomfortably so. Inside the rest of the pool is typical beach style so perfect for little ones. They have a separate quiet pool with bubble beds. Main pool has a decent wave machine, various jacuzzi pools, jet pool and a couple of swim round the island rapid streams. Really good mix of mushroom showers and underwater jets propelling you around. This is a well designed pool with plenty to do over a couple of hours. This is really great pool for under 10s that are confident swimmers - worth the journey - if the sun is out we will definitely be back. Decent changing rooms and showers. There is a cafe which is less great but fine for picking up a post swim slush puppy - I would avoid the coffee. We took a picnic and found a shady spot under some trees outside.

I take my kids here and they love it. It is around fifiteen pounds for a family ticket, which is…read moregood value, as you can stay in as long as you like. it has two slides, a wave machine and a number of Lazy River type attractions, where you get pulled around by a current. My kids love the one which takes you outside in a loop, but be warned the current is quite strong, it can be hard to get out of the loop!! There is a large communal changing room which was clean. On the last occasion we went, I took them to the cafe afterwards. it served the usual kid stuff, chips and nuggets. it wasn't too expensive, I would say it was on a par with McDonalds. Good for a rainy day.

great place to swim and has plenty to do get fit also have…read moreMassage has been in northampton for at least 30 years great place to go enjoy

Really upmarket swimming pools here. The concept of comprehensive leisure activities offered here…read moreis second to none.

Great place for a swim. The only downside is the lack of parking and it gets busy by 10 AM…read moreespecially during Summer.

I am only reviewing the INDOORS section of the Hitchin pool. There is a large outdoor pool, which…read moremy cousins, who are resident Hitchin-ians, assure me is fabulous in sunny weather. Sadly, the outdoor pool is open only for limited months. I had watched the Olympics, and was freshly inspired by Michael Phelps and Co. to get in the pool and swim some laps. The Hitchin Swimming Centre is only a 10 minute walk from where I was living in Hitchin, so I was excited to check out the facility. I had e-mailed a gent that worked there about the different swimming activities, and was thrilled to learn that they had masters swimming AND water polo! YES! Upon arrival at the pool, I was totally ignored by the staff. Maybe it was the sweep of the gold medals by the Phelps and friends, maybe it was my CLEARLY gorgeous American beauty that through them off- I stood there like a bump on a log while the front desk lady talked on the phone. When I finally was granted permission to see the pool, I was horrified. I could feel the heat coming from the in-door lap lanes upon entering the locker room. I seriously do not know how anyone could do a workout in that water. When I burst out onto the pool deck, I realized I had also burst into a sweat. It must have been over 90 degrees- it was like an Arizona summer! I was immediately told I could not wear my flip flops on the pool deck- awesome, I would have a take home prize of foot fungus! I then called the master's coach several times, trying to coordinate a time to come and swim with the program. He called me back once, then silence. It was so "He's just not that into you." I will have to return in the summer, in disguise, and check out the outdoor pool- maybe I can wear socks on the deck....

These guys are great! I have always wanted to learn how to swim since early childhood, but never…read morehad the courage. My mother made an appointment without me knowing and I just had to go and try it out. Just a week after I was as happy and free as a dolphin in the water and I could swim quite well. Really friendly instructors and very understandable and encouraging behaviour. Thank you guys!

A great family day out…read more The Leisure centre offers several swimming pools; a family pool ( with wave machine), an olympic size pool and one with high diving boards. The centre also has a childrens activity area away from the pools and offer crafts and play time while parents wait. The Leisure centre is within Mote park which has a variety of playground equipment to keep the little ones entertained.

Maidstone Leisure Centre is just located outside the town centre in Mote Park, which is about 5…read moreminutes away. The Centre offers several swimming pools, a great family pool with a wave machine and log flume, a brilliant olympic size swimming pool and another with driving boards. If you don't fancy swimming, and have small children, then polar adventure is a great place to take the kids to play, with a large soft play area and ice hill slides. Its also a great place for kiddies birthday parties. The leisure centre also has a large multipupose sports hall a great gym facilities, and a health suite with sauna and spa. Great place for a family day out!

This was my regular gym from a few years ago The gym itself was lovely, great place to workout…read morelooks modern and clean. The only issue I had was with the staff at the main reception of the Venue, there was a few that seemed to be very unprofessional (giggling to each other when I would arrive to check in & making off putting glances) At this time I was pretty much a new & overweight must be said) member to the gym scene, so this was really off putting and made me feel very uncomfortable in returning.. after a few months I decided to leave my membership and go elsewhere. The staff in the gym itself are wonderful, extremely helpful & considerate. There is a wide range of equipment available for cardio and strength training which is great. I have not used the swimming pools but the view you get from the gym is great, looks like a great place to swim. Won't be returning though due to the bad experience with staff as the first impression you get of a place is in the hands of the reception, even though not all staff at reception were bad the impact of a few can have a major impact. Have found another gym company & am greatly enjoying it there.

This is not a bad swimming pool, but I suspect the casual/leisure swimmer may disagree. The primary…read morereason I like coming here is the water temperature, it is what many would probably consider cold but for serious swimming this is perfect. You really can go for it here without the overheating problems you get in some public pools where the temperature is just too high to be comfortable. The only problem really is that they have followed this concept through to the jacuzzi in the health suite, its barely warmer than the pool. Although I can't stand it when it's skin peelingly hot here it is just too cold, it needs to be hot enough to relax and sooth the tired muscles that have been worked in the gym or pool and this just doesn't do that. Other than that great, changing rooms are clean, if a little shabby in places. The staff seem reasonably pleasant and helpful and although I haven't used it the gym looks decent, it's on the first floor and looks out over the pool.