Fun swimming pool in Newquay
There are leaflets for this place everywhere you go in Cornwall, but to be honest, I’m not entirely sure it’s a tourist attraction. There’s a 25m swimming pool for the lane swimming, and next to that there’s the fun pool. I have to say, it’s nice and big, and shallow all the way along, so it’s comfortable to just sit at the side of the pool and let the kids get on with it; and while I was there, there was plenty of room.
However, as it is marketed as a tourist attraction, I imagine the place is packed on a rainy day in the summer holidays and the locals aren’t too pleased!
It’s a wiggly shaped pool – which the kids love for just not being rectangular; and a fountain, a waterfall, several small slides, a 60m helter-skelter type water flume, and a shorter one coming out of a hippo’s mouth for the smaller kids. There’s also a couple of plastic hippos in the water to climb on and a very shallow end for the tiny tots to splash around.
It’s a very nice pool actually, and at £13 for a family ticket, it’s about average for this sort of pool.
I do however, have one MAJOR complaint: Under fives must be accompanied on a 1 child to 1 adult basis. I get SO CROSS at swimming pools that enforce this ridiculous rule! Perhaps I’ll have a rant about it on my rants page. It is just so stupid.
Also – the changing rooms need completely knocking down and starting again. I haven’t been to a swimming pool with separate male and female changing in years! And then when I went in (saying farewell to my husband (so it’s ok for a mum to struggle with 2 kids in a changing room alone, but needs a Dad (or someone else) in the water to do the fun bit?)) the tiny row of cubicles were full up so we got changed in the baby-feeding cubicle (so it’s ok to expect us to get naked in front of each other in a communal changing area, but not to breast feed a baby??). I haven’t used a communal swimming changing room since primary school!! And the cubicles had curtains! AND you go past the showers and toilets to get to the lockers which were back outside the changing room. Can you imagine trying to carry all that stuff – kids’ coats and shoes and bags? And then afterwards, carry it all back, all wet and freezing cold. It’s no wonder my daughter’s knickers fell on the floor and got too wet to put back on (costing us and extra £3.50 for a new pack on knickers in Mothercare afterwards). Then, you realise you have to leave all the bags unattended if you want to have a shower!
So, if you’re on holiday in Newquay, I’d only recommend going there if there really isn’t anything else to do.
