Lifestyles Woolton is a small old fashioned swimming pool that is quite dated by the looks of the…read morebuilding. However, everything is still fully functional and has the basic requirements of any other pool you will find in Liverpool. It does have its advantages compared to other pools because it is located in a quiet little village on the outskirts of the city; this makes it hardly noticeable therefore it is usually empty so you will tend to have the whole pool to yourself. And yes, that means no rowdy kids or unwanted splashes in the face! By observation, the facilities are kept well maintained and the building's heritage kept in good condition. I don't think any locals would actually like to see it knocked down as it would be the end of an era for the baths. If you're a frequent swimmer, this is a pleasant place to come plus they have a swimming timetable for school use, public and women's only time if you want to avoid any interruptions.

Woolton Village's swimming baths is old. Very old. One of the oldest in the country, just like the…read morevillage. Liverpudlian Olympian Stephen Parry learnt to ply his trade here and it's probably not changed much since. Certainly, it's not changed much since my school days, oh so many years ago. On first appearances, then, you may think it's showing its age. To be sure, it's not like the newfangled private places. No gym, jacuzzi or sauna here. Just a 17 metre pool with changing rooms and baskets for your clothes, which get lined up along the poolside. Of a morning, between eight and nine, it can be really busy. If you're doing backstroke you run the risk of swimming head first into someone. And the water can be a fair few degrees hotter than a lukewarm cup of coffee, not exactly inspiring you to do 100 lengths before breakfast - you'll come out sweating! But the place has undeniable character. The quaintest baths you will ever come across, I'm pretty sure, in keeping with the rest of this lovely village. If you happen to live in the Woolton area this Lifestyles is a lovable convenience, and I happen to know it's been featured in at least one book on sports history by a local academic.

This leisure centre boasts an olympic sized 50m swimming pool, and a 20m swimming pool - this can…read morebe particularly handy around 4pm when the kids come in after school as they considerately split the adults and children. The centre also has a huge fitness centre, tennis courts, 5-a-side pitches, grass football pitches, athletics track, and resides inside The Mystery Park. Overall, it's pretty good value for money, the facilities are very clean and the staff are pleasant enough. What is the first thing most people want after a hard work out or swim? Usually something to eat and drink. So I suppose the only way they could improve is provide a cafe/restaurant instead of just your typical vending machines.

Wavertree Sports Park is a great new complex which brings you a whole range of sporting, exercise…read moreand leisure facilities. Lifestyles offer a range of membership schemes or pay and play options, which allows you to use the facilities. The first time I went, I made use of their 50 metre swimming pool though it's not as big as it sounds. There is a smaller pool section which is split up and more for beginners and younger children. At times, they will aisle the swimming lanes making it free from interruptions, which is always good whenever you have wild ones splashing around! It does depend on the time of day you go. Obviously at less peak times such as early morning, it's a lot calmer. If swimming is not your sport, the site does boast a tennis centre, sports hall and athletics park too. The techno-gym is also popular with locals. If anybody has used the gym, I would like to know what puts the techno into techno-gym! As a whole, this is a decent sports centre, very modern and well maintained. I would recommend it to anyone, as it's one of the classier Lifestyle centres in Liverpool.

Excellent facilities and everyone is friendly. I've packed on a solid 23lbs of muscle but the…read morehardest things to lift arent weights but our feelings. The gym helps me cope with my divorce. Often I cry at the squat rack so if you see me just give me a moment please. I often tell friends when I turn up to coffee with my eyes swollen and red that someone urinated in the pool again but they know I've been crying again.

As part of Liverpool Council's Lifestyles range of sports centres and gyms, you can see the money…read moreand effort that has been put into this place to bring it into the 21st Century and make it an integral part of the community. The centre has been here for nearly 30 years and was greatly underused except for the many football parties I went to as a kid! Now the gyms are kitted out with state of the art gear, there are regular fitness classes for all levels in the sports hall, two decent sized astro-turfs can be found at the front - and if they are not being used by the local kids they seem to attract a lot of 5-a-side - and a good size pool with sauna and steam room. I can't really knock the place because it is well cheap and is obviously doing a very good job at placing itself at the heart of the Garston community, however, this also measn that the place can be very busy at peak times and it is often very hard to judge when it will not be full of kids! The pool always seems to have school groups or out of hours swimming clubs. While this commendable they also seem to find their way into the gym and will often hang around - or off - much of the equipment! But there is a waterslide!

David Lloyd's is the best gym money can buy. The facilities are second to none across all David…read moreLloyd's across the country and this one is no different. I could rattle through the facilities but I won't. What I will say is that they include 12 tennis courts, 6 inside and 6 outside as well as two large swimming pools, one inside one outside. Every time I set foot inside this gym I feel like a kid in a candy store. There is so much to do and it's so spacious it is a perfect environment to workout. However it is very pricey, and from experience it is notoriously difficult to cancel your membership. The amount of money you pay on a monthly basis you'd have to practically live there to get your money back. Verdict I'd say this is a quality gym, but overpriced!!!

OK, first things first, David Lloyd is a very, very expensive gym. Over £100 per month for our…read morefamily!!! BUT, the gym section is as good as I have ever seen. The tennis courts look great (but I haven't tried them yet). The changing rooms are spotlessly clean. The pool is large and rarely busy and there is an outside pool. The real advantage is that there are plenty of activities for our three-year old son and a friendly creche available several days per week.

Not at all impressed by our visit to Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park today. We took our 5 month…read moreold baby but will not be returning. When we paid we were asked if we had brought a padlock - puzzled, I replied no, why? Apparently now you need to bring a padlock if you want to be able to use a locker in the changing rooms. If not, you have to come out of the changing rooms in your sopping wet swimming stuff, juggling baby, to retrieve your things from the lockers in the main foyer. In addition, the keys for the lockers in the foyer do not have any wristbands on, so what you're meant to do with them is beyond us; we were told we could hand them to the lifeguard but seeing as we couldn't find the same lifeguard twice we thought that adding searching for them to get our key when we left wasn't really something we wanted to be doing, so we opted to tie the key onto my partners swim shorts. I asked if there was a safe place we could leave the pram and was told we could leave it in the cleaning cupboard. Grateful that the young lady was trying to be helpful but surely a new facility such as this should have something better than a cleaning cupboard for people to leave prams? In the end we couldn't find the young lady again to ask her to put the pram in the cupboard so we had to leave it in our view in the changing rooms at the side of the pool. Normally we wouldn't be bothered about it being in our view but seeing as they already seem to have had some sort of security issue with the lockers (the only reason we can think of for them asking people to bring their own padlocks), we didn't want to leave it to chance. Prams are expensive. Scallies are the reason we can't have nice things folks! In the changing rooms it took us a little while to figure out where the baby change facilities were. They are inside some changing cubicles but not very obvious (especially if all are being currently used and you can't see inside). It's quite a squeeze inside, especially with pram and two adults. The changing table itself was disgusting, it looked like it hadn't had a good clean since the place opened. The pool itself was good, much improved on the disgusting old Huyton Leisure, but we didn't get much time in there - we got in at 12:10 and at 12:30 we were told it was closing and we had to get out! Nobody at the front desk had informed us of this when we arrived, so all the effort we had gone to to get out with the baby, get all three of us changed and into the pool felt like a massive waste of time. Really not impressed. We were given a refund, but only once we could find the receipt; so make sure you keep your receipt people, you may not be impressed, and at £4 a swim that's not what you would expect!

Europa Pools is one of the most exciting places that you can visit on a regular basis when you 're…read morea young child! We used to go every week with our school for swimming lessons followed by a free swim session in which we could enjoy all the features that the baths has! They have three amazing water flumes which are great fun for children, the different coloured flumes relate to the varying speeds in which you'll shoot down them! They also have a wave pool which is great fun as the waves get switched on and off about once every 15 minutes. The wave pool was particularly scary for me when I was a youngster as I wasn't a particularly strong swimmer! Then they have the boring but, a full sized swimming pool for those that want to do lengths rather than play on the flumes or the waves! I guess it's a good area for adults to go though whilst you're having fun.

This is a large, multi pool swimming baths with a tropical theme! There are two leisure pools, one…read morewith a wave machine, the other decorated with jaccuzi area and fountains. There is also a swimmers pool (which is a bit colder!) This is not always available for public use as it is used for competitions. Other attractions include two water slides (a bit of a climb to get to) two jaccuzzi pools, and a baby/ toddler area. Also on site are a gym and fitness suites, party area and a cafe serving hot and cold snacks. Great fun to visit with a group of friends!

Very small old stryle baths. A favourite with schools - but needs upgrading.read more

Small old style baths, great for schools and for taking the kids! Very safe and good location!read more

I went a few years ago and to say I was scared of water rides the whole experience was incredibleread more

Waterworld 2000 is the best indoor water funpark in the UK. For a big kid like me, it's ideally…read moreplaced about 30 minutes drive away from Alton Towers and I've done a few fun trips to enjoy both attractions on one visit. Waterworld is located in Festival Park, a collection of leisure facilities just off the A500 ring road around Stoke-on-Trent. Fortunately, the dreadful roadworks on the A500 are gradually getting better. I aim to visit out of school holidays and so parking and overcroading hasn't been a problem but I can imagine the waterpark becoming very busy at peak periods. There is a big changing room - you'll need a 50p piece for the lockers (non refundable). There's an air of excitement as you smell the chlorine and hear the screams as you walk up the ramp to the waterpark area. There is a medium sized wavepool and a klaxon signals the start of the waves every 20 minutes. There is also another pool for swimming, splashing and which houses the assault course where you can try to get across the floasting islands. However, the multi-coloured flumes that snake round the park above your head are the main draw for me. There are a couple of twisty flumes where you can pick up quite a lot of speed if you lie down absolutely flat. There is a straight 4 lane slide where you can race your friends and family. I also enjoy the Space Bowl where a short slide ejects you into what looks like a giant toilet bowl, which you gradually circle and eventually plop out (or are flushed out) of the hole at the bottom into a pool! Nucleus was the first water-roller-coaster ride in the UK, where you ride a circuit on a raft and water jets propel you uphill as well as sliding downhill. Another great fun experience are the rapids where powereful water jets propel you round and round a loop - it's really hard to escape once you're in the vortex and there's a sense of camaradrie as swimmers help each other escape at the crucial point near the entrance to the ride. A great lesson on the power of water. There's a cafe serving some light meals and snacks. Near to Waterworld, you'll find other entertainment options including a Wedgewood outlet, cinema, bowling alley and some eating options.

I mainly go to the gym here and use to go swimming lessons when I was younger. All the staff are…read moresuper helpful in the gym and the swimming lessons were really fun when I was younger. Also in the gym people are super nice

Wrexham Waterworld has a lot of facilities packed into a relatively small building…read more It has one main pool, a 'baby' pool, and a toddler/younger pool. The swimming area also consists of a viewers seating area, a slide, and a 'rapids' area. Swimming lessons are also available, as well as options such as 'ladies only' night. Waterworld also has a fully-equipped gym with changing rooms and showering facilities. The gym currently uses the TechnoGym products, and all are in great condition. The gym isn't huge, but caters for everybody, and all staff are helpful and friendly. There is also a studio where exercise classes take place. Classes are very varied, from yoga to dance, and all instructors are friendly and helpful. Something to suit all tastes. When not exercising, Waterworld also have a cafe just inside at the reception area. This is a great local facility, and if the changing rooms were a little more loved, updated, cleaner, and tidier, I would have no hesitation to give Waterworld 5 out of 5.

Sometimes you desperately need a short sharp shock of smushed fruit after your swim. Restorative…read moreVitamin C and lovely stuff. I kind of didn't want to walk all the way over to Amber Café on my way to Petersfield, and I'd noticed the little café at the Aquatics Centre a few times. It seemed to offer way more healthy treats than the archetypal vending machines at the South Manchester leisure centres (hey, they have those too. Hello Nice 'n' Spicy Nik-Naks!), and there was proper coffee too, so I sauntered up to the counter all exhausted with my hair all soggy (I refuse on principle to use my 20ps for hairdryers that wouldn't make a jot of difference to my multilayered thick hair) and asked about their smoothies. They could indeed do them to take away, but they only had about three options available on the generous list which didn't bother me in the slightest. I went for... come on, how could I resist the name?... THE IMMUNISER. It sounds like some kind of *machine*! It incorporated strawberry, kiwi and pineapple, three of my absolute favourite fruits, and it was awesome. Just the right portion and only a little over £2, how can one complain? I'll definitely be using this as regularly as my morning fruit shoot before breakfast. Thanks, Manchester Sports and Leisure! Nom.

Have been coming here to the gym on and off for a while now…read more The gym is small and compact but as everything you need in it for a workout there is always an instructor avaliable if you need any help on how to use the machines there is air conditioning on all the time so you dont get to hot and at £5.20 pay as you go you can stay as long as you like. downstairs there are a couple of pools and you can start at a beginners course or you can go in the advanced side , they also do a ladies only night for those who wish to just be with the girls. next door to the gym is a keep fit class and down stairs is a cafe and drinks machines staff are always friendly and helpful.