Canberra has a public swimming pool in every town centre – but which are the best? How expensive are they? What extra family features do they offer? And perhaps most importantly – can mum or dad get a coffee there?!

We’ve just test-run all of the major Canberra swimming pool centres to help you compare them and work out which ones are the best to take your children to – and keep them (and you!) occupied and entertained!

So, without further ado, here are the Let’s Go Mum! top 5 Canberra swimming pools picks for families!

1. Big Splash Water Park, Macquarie

The Big Splash Water Park is located at Macquarie, and is a great fun water slide pool and park. It offers a full size 50 metre swimming pool plus a good-sized baby and toddler pool adjoining. In addition to these pools, there is also a fun water-play toddler pool area, and a entertaining bigger-kid pool – Splash Island – with small water slides and more water-play features.

But the real big guns here are the six major water slides of varying speeds and difficulty, from the very slow to the super-fast. To ride the water slides there is extra cost to the standard entry fee.

As if the water slides aren’t enough to keep everyone busy, they also have an inflatable floating bouncy castle which they did actually have up on the day we visited, on the main pool (unlike all of the other Canberra swimming pools on the days we visited!), which they packed away at 3pm.

This centre is suited to picnics – there is a nice grassy shaded area located in the centre of the pools, plus there is a large food canteen, and good change and shower rooms available.

This centre is a great choice for families of babies and toddlers, as under 2yos are free, and the toddler pool is lots of fun and included in the general admission price. Families with older children will also love this water park, however as it does cost extra for the water slides it can get quite expensive if you are visiting regularly – therefore, this pool may work out better just for special occasions.

Big Splash Admission Prices

All-inclusive slides and swimming pools: Adult (over 12yo)  $27, Child (over 1100mm height) $27
Splash Island (see our photos above) – Children (over 2yrs and under 1100mm height) $12
Pool admission only – Adult $8, Child $7
Under 2yo free

More info and all current prices can be found at the Big Splash Water Park website here

Google Map location – Click here for directions to Big Splash Water Park

2. Civic Swimming Pool

Run by the YMCA, this old favourite city-centre public swimming pool, or Canberra Olympic Pool as it is officially known, is located right in the Civic city centre and has a 50 metre indoor pool and very deep 25 metre outdoor pool with a twist – it has diving boards! There is a high-diving platform with three levels (the top level is closed), plus two pool-level spring diving boards at the other end of the pool – all which kids and adults can access (there are some age limits for safety for different dive heights). This is something different and fun-fun-fun for older kids who can swim.

For those littlies that can’t swim, they also offer a large, completely shaded outdoor little-kids pool (not heated). This family pool is suitable for babies, toddlers and children.

A small canteen is on site for ice cream, and there are (rather dated but serviceable) change and shower rooms. There are expansive lawns surrounding the pools too, great for picnics – but watch out for bindies!

This pool offers great value for lots of fun for families.

Admission Prices:
$6 Standard, $4.40 Concession
Family – 2 adults and 2 children – $17.00
Family – 2 adults and 3 children – $20.00

More info and all current prices can be found at the Canberra Olympic Pool website here

Google Map location – Click here for directions to Canberra Olympic Pool

3. Gungahlin Leisure Centre

Run by the YMCA, the Gungahlin Leisure Centre is an indoor structure which offers a full-size 50 metre swimming pool, two heated, good sized-family pools plus a heated fun water play area with sprinklers, water-guns and dumping buckets. They do apparently offer an inflatable fun climbing pool float, but it wasn’t up when we were there. The Gungahlin Leisure Centre is a fairly new structure so everything, including the change and shower rooms, are modern and new. This centre also boasts a proper café with a coffee machine – tick!

Admission Prices:
$6 Standard, $4.40 Concession
Family – 2 adults and 2 children – $17.00
Family – 2 adults and 3 children – $20.00

More info and all current prices can be found at the Gungahlin Leisure Centre website here

Google Map location – Click here for directions to Gungahlin Leisure Centre

4. CISAC, Belconnen

The Canberra International Sports and Aquatic Centre (CISAC) is a large indoor complex located in Belconnen town centre. There is a full size 50 metre swimming pool, 25 metre heated swimming pool and large heated family pool – perfect for babies and toddlers. Adjoining the family pool is another slightly deeper, round pool with a mushroom water fountain – good fun for small children.

This swimming pool centre is a fun option for families – that is, when all their play equipment is available. CISAC has a fun, heated indoor water slide suitable for all ages. There is an inflatable bouncy float on site, however it wasn’t up the day we visited, due to staff shortages. CISAC also has a permanent outdoor bouncy pillow, which was deflated on the day of our visit.

There is a nice poolside café with coffee machine and hot food, and a dive and swim shop. When everything is in service, this is a really great family pool – however the day we visited was not that day.

Admission prices: $6 Standard, $4.90 Concession, $4.50 Child – extra charges apply for the indoor slide and bouncy on-pool float – the bouncy pillow is free.

More info and all current prices can be found at the CISAC Belconnen website here

Google Map location – Click here for directions to CISAC Belconnen

5. Lakeside Leisure Centre, Tuggeranong

The Lakeside Leisure Centre is run by the YMCA and is located in the Tuggeranong Town Centre. This is a large and modern indoor structure offering a full-sized 50 metre swimming pool with a half-way divider, plus good-sized family pools next to it. They apparently have a fun bouncy pool float available (which wasn’t up when we were there) to provide extra holiday fun for the kids who can swim.

There is a canteen, and change room facilities are large and modern. This swimming centre is a good option for south-side families on a hot summers day.

Admission Prices:
$6 Standard, $4.40 Concession
Family – 2 adults and 2 children – $17.00
Family – 2 adults and 3 children – $20.00

More info and all current prices can be found at the Lakeside Leisure Centre website here

Google Map location – Click here for directions to the Lakeside Leisure Centre

Of course there are other great local swimming pools around the ACT, such as the outdoor Dickson Pool (honourable mention), and there are many beautiful natural swimming holes too, however we have chosen the largest swimming pool centres in this review to keep the comparison simple.

We hope our Canberra Swimming Pool guide helps you to choose the swimming pool option which entertains your family the best – and that won’t break the family budget! Have fun cooling off in Canberra!

Have you visited any of these Canberra swimming pools? Perhaps you have another family favourite swimming spot elsewhere in the ACT/Queanbeyan region? We’d love to know! Tell us about it in the comments below…

This post is not sponsored and all opinions are our own. All prices are correct as at January 2017, but check supplied website links for any price changes.

The post The Top 5 Canberra Swimming Pools for Families appeared first on Let's go Mum.

With the rain coming down in buckets and school holiday boredom fast setting in, I decided to take the kids, Samantha (7), Brooke (9), to try out one of the new Trampoline arenas that are popping up all over the place lately.

Attached to the local Westfield Shopping Centre, the Canberra Sky Zone Trampoline Park is located in Belconnen ACT. The complex is consists of several different trampolining areas, the largest being an area made up of multiple, interlinked trampolines. Two similar but smaller areas are used for games such as Dodgeball, plus there are two bounce-and-dunk basketball lanes, a three-lane bounce into a foam pit area, and a pair of high-bounce performance trampolines.

Pricing was on-par for similar Trampoline fun parks – 1 hour jump time, including a pair of “Skyzone grip socks” cost $18 per child or adult. After that it was $10 per additional hour-long sessions.

They do offer kids parties with three party rooms on site, however they are in the upper-end price range starting at $30 per child, with a minimum of 10 children. This price does not include the cake, lolly bags or adult platters, which start at $60 to serve 10.

Being Trampolining Park newbies, we awaited our session with anticipation. Given the rain, and the fact that it was a Sunday, the place was jam-packed with people bouncing, flipping or racing about. Parents of any younger kids were either bouncing along with them, or taking advantage of the scattered seating.

Whilst first accompanying the my kids throughout the centre, I noticed groups of teens drifting from one area to another. On the trampolines they careered around the bouncing areas with little regard for the younger children. It was worrying to see uncoordinated younger children bouncing alongside powerful teenagers who were performing wild flips and ricocheting off the side-walls! My plan to relax a little was scuttled as I found myself shadowing the kids closely, keeping an anxious eye out at all times.

After sampling most of the bouncing areas on offer, the girls settled down to their chosen favourite – the high-bounce performance trampolines.

This high-bounce trampoline area appeared to be a particular teen hang-out, with boys bouncing up to sit on the surrounding walls, walking along the pads between the two occupied trampolines and generally presiding over the area. When deciding to bounce, they took the trampolines over, urging each other to more and more risky stunts whilst the younger kids, who also wanted to make use of the best trampolines, waited in line.

Our one hour session was drawing to a close, but the kids were still enthusiastic to bounce so I went and paid for another hour of bouncing for both girls. With the change of session, a replacement teen attendant arrived to supervise the high-bounce tramps and for some reason began to turn disappointed children away, stating that the area was for the teenage boys to use only. Meanwhile the teens sat up on the wall chatting away with two now-empty trampolines below them. Due to this sudden, seemingly nonsensical exclusion of younger children from the only area my kids had found really fun, they came away visibly upset and asking to leave. It was five minutes into the second hour I had just paid for – bang went $20!

On our way out, I stopped to express my concerns to management regarding the lack of safe facilities for younger children and tweens, and the apparent teenage domination of the venue. Management apologised and agreed that all of their equipment should be accessible to all ages. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case, and the way the centre was managed had soured our Sky Zone experience.

Exiting the Trampoline centre, I now found myself with two unhappy and unoccupied kids on my hands. Luckily there was a near-by fun centre to cheer the kids up and make up for the Sky Zone disappointment. All-in-all, it had turned out to be a very expensive day for me. Sky Zone had failed to live-up to the fun school holidays activity that it had promised to be.

Ever-undeterred, we will seek-out another Canberra Bounce house and see if we can’t find a more family-friendly trampolining centre to recommend to our Canberra readers and visitors, but unfortunately in the case of Sky Zone Belconnen, whilst this is a great teen activity, it’s perhaps not a great school holidays entertainment choice for the under-12 year-old children age range.

The parenting opinions expressed in this review are my own personal experiences and opinion only. Let’s go Mum was not paid or compensated in any way by Sky Zone Trampoline Parks for this review.

The post Sky Zone Trampoline Park – not so family-friendly appeared first on Let's go Mum.