7 Best Swimming Pools In Dorset

Not necessarily, but read what people were unhappy about before you decide. Pools attract complaints about the fabric of the building far more than about the swimming, so a middling score often means dated changing rooms rather than anything that would spoil an hour's splashing with a five-year-old. If the alternative involves a much longer journey, the lower-rated pool nearer home is frequently the better call.

The half hour before and the half hour after. Getting three children changed in one cubicle, finding the lockers want a coin nobody has, discovering the session you wanted is full of lessons — that is where a good idea unravels. Ring ahead about session times and locker arrangements, take spare change and more towels than seems reasonable, and the swimming part almost always looks after itself.

Ask each site what shallow water it holds rather than judging by the name. Jurassic Fun Centre hints at something beyond a rectangle of lanes, and graduated depth or a separate learner area transforms a session for a child who cannot yet swim. Check too whether floats and armbands are handed out or whether you supply your own, since that policy differs from one centre to the next.

Almost certainly not. Blandford Leisure Centre carries an outdoor flag with no indoor one in our data, and for a leisure centre that is much likelier to be a slip in the record than a description. We would rather point it out than let you pack for an open-air swim. Check with the centre first, and treat the flags on that single entry as unreliable rather than informative.