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.
Ellesmere Port Sports Village
Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
The Sports Village on Stanney Lane is the largest leisure centre in Ellesmere Port: two pools, an eighty-station gym, a sports hall, three studios and an outdoor athletics track, run by Brio Leisure on behalf of Cheshire West. There is parking on site and a cafe. It opens at half six in the morning on weekdays and does not shut until ten.
Swimming is priced in two tiers. Without an Active Card it is £8.20 for an adult, £5.30 for a junior and £2 for an under-three, with a family of four at £21.70. With a card those drop to £7.20, £4.30, £1 and £18.70. The card is worth asking about at the desk if this is going to be a regular thing. And there is a set of sessions on the price list marked free for all ages, named Wet and Wild and Swim-a-Song, for which Brio publish the price but not the timetable, so the website will not tell you when they happen. A free family swim within half an hour of Warrington is not something to leave on the table, so make the phone call.
Know before you go
- The Active Card knocks about a pound off every ticket and £3 off a family of four, so if you are going more than twice it pays for itself. Ask at reception instead of paying the walk-up rate twice.
- Their published price list shows Wet and Wild and Swim-a-Song as free sessions, but Brio do not explain them on the centre page, so ring 0151 659 1010 and ask when they run. While you are on, note that nothing on Brio's own pages mentions flumes or a wave machine. Say that out loud before anyone builds it up in the car.
Looking for more water & swimming near Ellesmere Port?
Also in Ellesmere Port
National Waterways Museum
A real working dock kept as a museum: historic narrowboats, locks, indoor galleries, boat trips and a waterways playground. Under 6s free, and the annual pass costs less than two visits.
Whitby Park
Ellesmere Port's main park: two play areas, a skatepark, tennis courts, formal gardens and a fish pond, with Theatre Porto in the old hall. Free, with free parking off Stanney Lane.
Hooton Park Hangars
Three of the oldest surviving First World War hangars in the country, holding historic aircraft, vehicles, engines, a Chester tram, a printing museum and cockpits to sit in. Volunteer run, and open on set days only.
Rivacre Valley Local Nature Reserve
184 acres of wooded valley and brook a minute off junction 7 of the M53, and the traffic noise is gone two hundred metres in. Paths, picnic meadows, a permanent orienteering course, bluebells in spring.