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.
Volair Huyton (Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park)
- Cost
- Junior swim £4.40, adult £6.40, under-5s free
- Ages
- 0 to 15
- Where
- Liverpool, Merseyside
- Weather
- Works in the rain
- Booking
- Check the pool timetable, public swims are turn up and go
Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park on Longview Drive is the borough's flagship centre. The pool opens at 6.30am on weekdays and stays open until 10pm Monday to Thursday and 9pm on Fridays, but at weekends it only runs from 9am to 1.45pm, so a Saturday swim is a morning job. The swimming programme is split sensibly: public swimming for everyone, parent and toddler for the small ones, lane swimming for people who want to count lengths, adult-only for people who want quiet, and aquafit for people who want neither.
Pricing is straightforward and cheap. Under-5s go free all year. A junior is £4.40 and an adult £6.40, and Passport to Leisure concession rates take an adult down to £3.90 and a junior to £2.70. Children under 8 must be with a responsible adult aged 16 or over, at no more than two children per adult, which is standard and still catches people who turn up with three children and one adult.
Halewood's pool closed on 10 August for about ten weeks of refurbishment, so if that was your plan, come here instead, and expect company into the autumn.
What it costs: Volair pay as you go swim: adult £6.40 standard or £3.90 Passport to Leisure concession; junior £4.40 or £2.70; over 60s £4.40 or £2.70; under 5s free. A Junior Swim Membership for ages 5 to 11 is £16.50 a month for unlimited public and family swims. A family swim for two adults and two juniors is £18.
Know before you go
- Under-5s swim free all year. For a child who swims every week, the £16.50 a month Junior Swim Membership (ages 5 to 11) can work out cheaper than paying per swim.
- Volair Halewood's pool shut from 10 August 2026 for roughly ten weeks of refurbishment, so expect Huyton to be busier than usual into late October. Volair does not say how deep the pool is or whether there is a learner pool here, so check the timetable for what is on when.
Worth knowing: Under-8s must be with a responsible adult aged 16 or over, no more than two children per adult.
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