Family Day Out in Spain: Aquopolis, Torrevieja

Back in June this year, Glen, Bridget and I spent a week in Spain on the La Marina Urbanisation, not far from Alicante. A lovely, laid back family get away, which coincided with us finding out I was expecting again – perfect timing.

Most of our days were spent enjoying our own private pool for the week, we also spent a leisurely day on the beach at Guardamar del Segura well as a visit to Santa Pola and the buzzing marina there, but one of our favourite days there was spent at the waterpark in nearby Torrevieja – Aquopolis.

Bridget was, at the time, 21 months, and I had researched potential family days out for during our stay and we were worried she might have been too young to enjoy a waterpark – we thought wrong.

Aquopolis is a great family attraction with something for all the age groups and all preferences of activity levels. In previous years, I would have likely been found on the lazy river floating around in a giant donut inflatable, whilst Glen would have taken his time on the more daring of slides. However with an active toddler on our hands our day was slightly different.

Aimed specifically at toddlers and young children under eight, the Charmed Lake area is a shallow area adorned with a fun little house, castle, trees and dragons – all with small, but perfectly formed and fabulously fun little slides for little ones to enjoy. We literally spent hours here with Bridget enjoying the repetition of time spent coming down the various slides and under waterfalls. Great fun. 

Water park fun

The Charmed Lake, Aquopolis

Aquopolis, Torrevieja

A slightly faster paced area was the Mini Park – aimed at children under 1.4 metres, it was again in shallow waters but contained a huge water castle complete with slides, water pistols, showers and jets of water, a spinning high tub of water for children to excitedly run underneath – uncertain of whether it would get them or not plus mini flume slides, to gear up the younger children for some of the more adventurous slides around Aquopolis. Again, Bridget really enjoyed experimenting with the water and playing with some of the older children here. She was less confident in this section, but with her Daddy (Glen) by her side, she really did have tons of fun. 

The Mini Zig Zag slides, proved incredibly popular – Bridget had to be accompanied by Daddy, and we visited on a day when it was over 90 degrees and there was a huge hill to climb each time, but each time she came off she called ‘more, more’ with lots of laughter, and Glen wasn’t able to refuse. It was adorable to watch – wonderful memories for us too. 

The Mini Zig Zag at Aqopolis, Torrevieja

If you are visiting with older children who want something a little more action-packed, Aquopolis has all the trappings of the classic waterpark, the Kamikaze style slides, speed slides, a black hole flume, a boomerang and water rapids plus loads more that we didn’t get to explore with our little toddler.

The park is priced at around 25.00 per adult and under 3’s were free so this was a good value day out for us. Sun beds are positioned all around the park and in view of the attractions if you want to relax while the children run wild, and there are a few fast food outlets on site. We only indulged in the ice cream as we visited for an afternoon, after Bridget had had her daily nap.

Aquopolis is a great family water park that has something for everything and we would definitely return if we were in that part of Spain. As well as encouraging safe water-play and promoting swimming as a fun activity - it's a great place to spend much needed family quality time together.

Family Fun at The Park

Sometimes it's the simple things, and on Sunday afternoon, Glen, Bridget and I spent a couple of hours at the local park which was super fun.

With only water for Bridget, who's now 19 months, and bread for the ducks to carry; it was a really relaxed, enjoyable afternoon and cost us absolutely nothing.

Bridget has a swing and a slide in our garden so you'd think the novelty of these on the playground might have run thin - not so. She was delighted to run between the various slides and climbing frames and insisted on either me or Glen joining her for a few of them, which had us laughing all the more - Mummy and Daddy bottoms are not made for infant playgrounds!

Slide fun

Just loves to climb

Too much fun on the swings

Again and again, Bridget climbed the frame
and came down the slide giggling the whole time. A joy for her and a joy for us to watch.

A few other children were enjoying the playground and one happened to be sporting a Peppa Pig t-shirt, which instantly made her a firm friend for Bridget.

After an hour at the playground we went in search of the ducks, with Bridget doing her hand motion and saying 'quack quack'. After recently visiting Old MacDonald's Farm and London Zoo in the petting area, Bridget was holding her hand out with the bread on it, hoping they might peck it off of her hand, which they obviously didn't - cue more laughs for me and Glen. 

Loving the daisies

We had a good old run around in the park too and pointed at different things along the way. The toddler age is an important one for learning and we try to teach her as much as we can whilst out and about - she knows what the likes of the sky, grass, trees and flowers are from our garden and books but it was nice for her to recognise them and show us. She picked a couple of daisies and was oohing away in awe.

She also absolutely loves all animals and excitedly chased birds all round the park and we tried to point out the different ones. We saw a few dogs too and a couple of squirrels so she was in her element.

We have a cherry blossom in our garden, but a very mature one at the park had some low hanging branches, which absolutely fascinated Bridget, and she loved shaking them and seeing the blossom scatter over herself and the ground. 

On Daddy's shoulder's

Loving the cherry blossom

Family fun

We love to get out and do things at the weekend, but I often hear people lamenting they 'can't afford' to have fun with their family. I disagree as there are thousands of free parks around the country and an off-the-cuff afternoon like ours just proves what fun can be had without spending a penny. You could pack a picnic in the summer and make a day of it and some parks even have lidos or splash pools to add more to the adventure.

Some of my favourite parks in Essex and East London:

1. Victoria Park - fond childhood memories of the huge slides, zip wire and splash pools
2. Bedford's Park - sprawling woods to explore close to our home, at a high vantage point offering views right across London, plus the added bonus of seeing some reindeer and other wildlife
3. Valentine's Park - fairly local to us and with a huge adventure playground and a boating lake