World Museum, Liverpool
Five floors, free, and it covers three things small children reliably love: giant dinosaurs, an aquarium and a space gallery. The best wet-weather day within half an hour.
Liverpool Aquatics Centre
- Cost
- Adults £4.60, juniors £2.30, under-8s free
- Ages
- 0 to 14
- Where
- Liverpool, Merseyside
- Weather
- Works in the rain
- Booking
- No need to book for public and adult swim sessions
The 50m tank converts into 25m deep and 25m shallow via a moveable floor. Alongside it sits a 20m pool kept at 30 degrees, three degrees warmer than the big one, and that is the difference between a nice hour and a shivering child. Depths run 0.9m to 1.5m in the small pool, so a confident seven-year-old can stand in most of it.
The money is unusually good. Under-8s swim free, a junior is £2.30 and an adult £4.60, so a parent with two small children pays £4.60 all in. A family swim covering two adults and three children is £10. You need a free Lifestyles online account to book anything, but public and adult swim sessions are turn-up-and-go within the published hours.
Plan around the weekend hours, which are short: the centre runs 8am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday, against 6.15am to 10pm on most weekdays (Wednesday opens at 9.30am and Friday closes at 9.30pm). Public swims move between pools, with a Sunday split between the 20m pool first thing and the shallow half of the big pool from late morning, so check the timetable on the centre page the morning you go.
What it costs: Swim: adult £4.60, junior £2.30, adult and senior concessions £2.30. Children under 8 swim free. Family swim £10.00 for two adults and three children, up to six people with extra charges per person. Prices published by Liverpool City Council Lifestyles. You need a free Lifestyles online account to book activities.
Know before you go
- There are no flumes, no wave machine and no inflatables on a normal public session. This is a fifty metre competition tank with a small warm pool beside it. Promise a slide somewhere else.
- Check the timetable on the centre page the morning you go. Public swims switch between the warm 20m pool and the shallow half of the 50m pool depending on the time and day, and the warm pool is the one you want with small children.
- The ratios are enforced: one adult in the water per child under 4, and one adult per two children aged 4 to 7. Three under-8s and one parent will not get in.
Worth knowing: Strict ratios: one adult per child under 4, one adult per two children aged 4 to 7.
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