Ainsdale Beach
One of three Sefton beaches with RNLI lifeguards in summer, with Formby and Southport, and the one where you can still drive onto the sand until the car park shuts for winter on 30 September. Backed by the Ainsdale dunes.
North West England
Water & swimming in the North West
Splash pads, lakes, beaches, aquariums and pools. Bring a towel and a change of clothes.
50 places10 free
A coastline the rest of the country tends to forget about, plus the indoor options for when the actual sea is out of the question.
Crosby Beach has Antony Gormley's hundred iron men standing out in the tide and costs nothing but the car park. New Brighton and the marine lake at West Kirby are both free and both better than their reputations suggest. Sandcastle at Blackpool is the indoor waterpark, warm all year, which counts for a lot here. Sea Life at Blackpool and Blue Planet at Ellesmere Port are the wet-day fallbacks. Fell Foot on Windermere is National Trust and one of the few places a child can get properly into a lake with a jetty and a cafe behind them. Check the tide before Crosby: the statues are only interesting when they are half submerged, and the sand out towards them is softer than it looks.
Parks & outdoorsSoft play & indoor playFarms & animalsAdventure & ridesWater & swimmingMuseums & science
Every option
Anderton Boat Lift
A Victorian lift built to hoist canal boats fifty feet between the Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal. The lift itself is closed for repairs through 2026, with reopening planned for the 2027 season, but the free visitor centre, the play area and hour-long river cruises from its foot are all running.
Blackpool Beach
Seven miles of sand with the famous stretch between the piers: donkeys, deckchairs, and RNLI lifeguards all summer. Free, obviously, and still the best-value thing in town.
Crosby Beach
A hundred cast-iron men stare out to sea along nearly two miles of sand: Antony Gormley's Another Place, and the strangest, most memorable free afternoon on this coast. Sand, statues, ships from the port gliding past.
Fell Foot
A National Trust lakeshore park at Windermere's quiet southern tip: grassy banks straight into the water, paddling, boat hire from April to October and an adventure playground. The easiest safe lake-swim spot for families.
New Brighton Seafront
Beach, marine lake and Fort Perch Rock at the river mouth, with the Liverpool skyline across the water. Sandcastles when the tide allows, chips on the front to finish.
Sandy Lane Park and Aqua Park
Chester's free riverside splash park: ten spray features on the bank of the Dee, open April to August, with a play area that stays open all year. Toilets close in winter and the car park takes about 40 cars.
Southport Beach
Miles of flat sand at the mouth of the Ribble estuary, walkable from the station and the Marine Lake attractions. The pier is shut and the on-beach car park is closed, so treat it as a big sandpit with a view rather than a traditional seaside strip.
St Annes Beach and Pier
Blackpool's seaside without Blackpool's volume: a huge flat beach, a Victorian pier with arcades, donkeys in summer and a paddling pool by the bandstand. The cheap day out on the Fylde coast.
West Kirby Marine Lake & Beach
A mile-long flat promenade loop around a giant saltwater lake on the Dee estuary, with dinghies and paddleboards for hire from the council-run watersports centre and a sandy beach alongside. Free unless you get on the water.
Barrow Park Leisure Centre
Barrow's main pool has a proper leisure pool beside the 25m lanes, with a wave machine, a water slide and a Pirate Cove water play area. Pay as you go, no membership needed.
Bewsey & Dallam Community Hub
One pool, a gym and a library on Longshaw Street, ten minutes from Warrington town centre. Nobody pretends there is a flume, but a child swims for £3.50, the same rate as the big LiveWire hubs.
Bootle Leisure Centre
There is a flume, and it is the only pool in this part of Sefton with one. Alongside it, a 25 metre main pool with a moveable floor, so the depth changes to suit the session.
Brio Northgate
It comes down to the slide. Two pools, one of them a warmer training pool, and a water slide, five minutes' walk from the Chester city walls. The wet weather backup for a day in the city.
Brio Northwich
The small pool runs at 30 degrees, which decides whether a three year old lasts forty minutes or eight. Two pools, a water slide and a jacuzzi, inside the Memorial Court in the middle of town.
ChesterBoat City Cruises
Half an hour on the Dee from The Groves, past Grosvenor Park and along the Meadows, for £4.50 a child and free under 5s. Exactly as long as a small child finds a boat interesting.
Crosby Leisure Centre
Two pools a hundred yards from the beach, the smaller one shallow enough for a child who is still learning. On Tuesdays the main pool gets Atlantis Splash, a full length inflatable obstacle course.
Darwen Leisure Centre: Total Splash Out and Total Tots
Darwen's council leisure centre has a giant pool inflatable with slides and obstacles for over-5s (£9.50 an hour) and Total Tots, a pay-and-play soft play for 0 to 5s at £3.50. Parking is free for three hours.
Ellesmere Port Sports Village
Ellesmere Port's biggest leisure centre: two pools, a cafe, parking on site, and a day that runs from half six in the morning until ten at night on weekdays. Under-threes swim for £2.
Europa Pools
The flumes and the wave machine are gone for good. What is left is Birkenhead's main council pool, 25 metres and kept at 28 degrees, plus a soft play area over three floors for nought to sixes.
Formby Pool
Formby kept the separate learner pool that most places quietly dropped: 12.5 metres, stepped access, a shallow end of 0.65 metres, which is the depth at which a two year old can stand up.
Great Sankey Neighbourhood Hub
No flume, no wave machine. Two pools in a building on the west side of Warrington that also holds a library, tennis courts and 3G pitches. It does have pool hoists and a dedicated accessible swim session, which is rarer than it should be.
Halton Leisure Centre
Pool, teaching pool, soft play, gym, sauna and a cafe in one building on Moor Lane, which means a swim and an hour of soft play without moving the car. One of the better wet weather answers in Halton.
Hyde Leisure Pool
Tameside's fun pool, with a wave machine, a wild water rapids ride, bubble beds and the Red Ripster slide. Only open for fun sessions on Thursday and Friday evenings and at weekends, and they sell out.
Keswick Launch on Derwentwater
Fifty minutes round Derwentwater on the launch, or use the ticket to hop off at a jetty and walk a stretch of shore. Rowing boats for hire until 1 November. Sailings thin out from 9 November and stop in December and January.
Lake District Coast Aquarium
Harbourside aquarium with over 75 displays, a seahorse and lobster hatchery and hourly feeding talks, plus crazy golf free with every ticket and a free pirate-ship playground out the back. Parking by the play area is free.
Lakes Aquarium
A small, well-done aquarium at the quiet end of Windermere with an underwater tunnel walk beneath the lake's own fish, plus otters and rays. Pairs naturally with the steam railway next door.
Liverpool Aquatics Centre
Liverpool put its serious pool at Wavertree Sports Park: an eight lane 50m tank, and alongside it a 20m pool kept at 30 degrees, which is the one you actually want with small children. Under-8s swim free.
Manchester Aquatics Centre
A Commonwealth-standard pool run as a public leisure centre, with a shallow family pool, a diving pool with a family splash area, an interactive splash pad and Aqua Splash inflatable sessions. Juniors £4.05 pay as you go, under-fives free.
Meadows Leisure Centre
A 25 metre five lane pool and a 12.5 metre learner pool in Maghull, with a changing village of family cubicles instead of a shared bench and a fight. The library is in the same building, so a swim and a book run is one stop.
Orford Jubilee Neighbourhood Hub
Warrington's biggest LiveWire hub, with two pools under one roof. The one that matters is the small teaching pool, shallow enough for a three year old to stand up in. There is a library and a Subway on site.
Pendle Wavelengths
Nelson's leisure pool under a pyramid roof, with a wave machine, a 130ft twisting slide and a new waterplay beach for little ones. A junior swim is £4.20 and a family of four £20.50, which is cheap for a wave pool.
The Sands Centre
Carlisle's rebuilt leisure centre: a 25m competition pool, a 20m teaching pool, Family Fun Swims with floats and toys, and three hours' free parking for swimmers.
Volair Huyton (Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park)
Knowsley's flagship leisure centre on Longview Drive in Huyton, with public swimming, parent and toddler sessions and lane swimming. The pool is open until 10pm Monday to Thursday and 9pm on Fridays, but only 9am to 1.45pm at weekends. Under-5s swim free.
West Kirby Concourse Leisure Centre
Pool, sports hall and the Bluebells cafe on Grange Road, five minutes from the marine lake, and the Wirral pool that kept swimming while others went in and out of maintenance closures in 2026.
Coniston Launch
Heated launches that run round Coniston Water all year, hop-on hop-off, past Wild Cat Island from Swallows and Amazons and Bluebird's old base. Quieter than Windermere, with Brantwood as an optional stop.
Dunes Splash World
Southport's indoor waterpark on the seafront: flumes, a wave machine, a lazy river and a proper toddler splash zone, all at 29 degrees. Open weekends year-round and daily in the Sefton holidays.
Formby Beach & Pinewoods
Huge sand dunes, a proper beach and red squirrels in the pinewoods behind it. The dunes alone will occupy them for an hour. Free entry if you have National Trust membership.
Liverpool Watersports Centre
A charity with a whole dock basin at Queens Dock to play with. Children from 8 can kayak, paddleboard or take out a swan pedalo in the middle of the city, and in the warmer months there is an inflatable aqua park as well.
Mersey Ferries River Explorer
The famous ferry across the Mersey run as a 50-minute sightseeing loop with commentary, and the honest truth is kids love the boat more than any museum. Hop off at Seacombe for Eureka! next door.
Sandcastle Waterpark
The UK's biggest indoor waterpark, kept at tropical temperature: proper toddler pools and mini slides at one end, big flumes at the other. Rainy-day Blackpool solved.
Sea Life Blackpool
A solid seafront aquarium with an ocean tunnel and rockpool sessions - the reliable wet-weather hour when the beach plan falls apart.
Sea Life Manchester
Ocean tunnel, rays, seahorses and rockpool touch sessions, sized for smaller legs - you can do the whole thing in a morning and pair it with Legoland next door.
Ullswater 'Steamers'
Heritage boats on Ullswater between Glenridding, Howtown and Pooley Bridge, running 363 days a year. A full lap is dear for a family; a single leg plus the lakeshore walk back is the better deal.
Wild Shore Delamere
A giant inflatable obstacle course floating on a Cheshire lake: 50 minutes of climbing, sliding and falling in. Brilliant for confident swimmers aged 6 and up, no use at all for anyone smaller.
Windermere Lake Cruises
England's biggest lake from the deck of a proper boat, on colour-coded routes from the 45-minute Islands cruise out of Bowness to the Yellow run down to Lakeside. Combo tickets pair it with the aquarium, the steam railway or the motor museum.
Blue Planet Aquarium
Sharks over a moving walkway tunnel, all under cover. A dependable answer to a washout forecast that still feels like a proper day out.
Church Walk Paddling Pool
An outdoor children's paddling pool in central Northwich, run by the town council and open mid April to September in good weather. Book a morning or afternoon session online; there's a play area and snack shop alongside.
Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre
Sefton's watersports centre on Crosby Marine Lake, with pay and play paddle sessions in season and the Gormley iron men on the beach over the road. More of a booked-session place than a turn-up attraction, so plan before you drive.
Ribby Hall Village
A holiday village at Wrea Green that lets day visitors in, which not everyone realises. The pull is the tropical leisure pool with slides and a toddler splash lagoon, bookable 24 hours ahead, plus soft play, an arcade, adventure golf and the Wild Discovery zoo on the same site.