Dinosaur Trail at Bents
A prehistoric trail winding through a garden centre, with interactive bits along the way. Under-2s free, and there's a café and indoor shelter if the weather turns.
Orford Jubilee Neighbourhood Hub
Warrington, Cheshire
Orford Jubilee is the big one, a hub and not a leisure centre, with two pools, a library, a sports hall, all weather pitches and a Subway under one roof on Jubilee Way. The pool that matters for families is the smaller teaching pool, shallow enough that a three year old can stand up. That is where LiveWire put the Family Fun and Rings and Rafts sessions.
The pricing is straightforward and published. Junior swim for two to fifteens is £3.40, under twos are £1.15, an adult is £6.90, an adult with one child is £9.00. Those rates work across all six LiveWire centres, so if Orford is full you can take the same ticket price to Woolston, Birchwood or Bewsey and Dallam. Broomfields is the exception at the moment, because its pool is closed.
It opens at 6am on weekdays and runs to 10pm. Weekends are 7.30am to 6pm, a long way short of what people assume. Under eights need an adult in the water with them, so one parent with three small children needs another adult or a plan.
Know before you go
- The session name matters more than the centre. Rings and Rafts and Family Fun run in the teaching pool and are the ones for toddlers. Aqua Splash is a junior public swim, and under 8s still need an adult in the water.
- Weekend closing is 6pm against a weekday 10pm, so a late Sunday swim is not a thing here. The library is in the same building, and twenty minutes of picking books afterwards buys you the time to get everybody dry without a scene in the changing village.
Worth knowing: Children under 8 must be accompanied in the water by a parent or guardian.
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