Perfect summer days out for the whole family (especially when they involve water!)

Being a parent for 19 years, there’s not a lot I haven’t done in London and its surrounding areas to keep my brood occupied.

And golden retriever that I am, as soon as the sun comes out, I like to seek out swimming and paddling holes to cool off in the hot days.

For me, this often means an open water swim. I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by swimming spots, such as Middle Dock, Canary Wharf, see my review here, West Lake Resevoir (which just happens to be near the Castle Climbing Centre, so we can do a family day out there) and London Fields Lido – (fine if you go super early, but tends to be heaving to the point of uncomfortable on any slightly sunny day).

In general, the leisure centres are overcrowded, hot and a bit shabby – even the new ones – see my google review on the almost brand new Brittania centre. There are just not enough decent indoor swimming venues near London – the beachfront leisure centres of my 80s childhood, with their flumes, wave machines and slushie machines – are largely absent from inner London, and the ones outside it are gradually being decommissioned and replaced with substandard basic alternatives. But, then, who wants to swim inside on a sunny day anyway?

Oasis sports centre in Holborn offers a small outdoor pool and roof terrace atop a 60s block of flats. It’s a perfectly acceptable little pool and indeed served as an oasis during the hot summers of the 20 teens when I worked locally and needed somewhere to spend my lunch hours (doing yoga on the roof) and if feels less busy these days, especially compared to the sardine-esque bodies crammed onto the terrace of London Fields Lido on a sunny midweek day now we’re all “working” from home.

My heart sunk when Lana recently demanded a visit to a waterpark, because I have long exhausted all options for water fun locally, and the thought of trekking to the verrucery and rusted environs of the Waterfront Leisure Centre in sunny Woolwich filled me with abject horror (please enlighten me, Better, if this place has been updated recently – I sincerely doubt it).

So imagine my absolute joy on discovering this absolute gem, just 45 minutes away in my home county of Kent, near Rochester, which had come to me by targeted Facebook advert the previous day.

The pictures looked good, but I really wasn’t sure what to expect as we drive into my slightly beleaguered home country, with its chalk cliffs and chavvy reputation, but suffice it to say, on a beautiful warm day, I was delighted by what I found.

St Andrew’s Lake has it all: watersports, open water swimming, pedalos, a beach, a wellness centre with sauna and hot tubs, and inflatable fun for all ages – for a price.

St Andrew’s Lake, Halling, Rochester

Naturally I wanted to swim, but I felt like they slightly ripped my eyes out by charging £30 for an induction – granted the chalk pit lake is 40 metres deep – and they did fit me in, but once in, the water was so lovely, one grade below drinking water and soft and turquoise – I felt as buoyant as a tumble dryer sheet and my skin felt amazing when I got out. Lana, Tom and Ava (who rarely deigns to accompany us anywhere these days) were all booked onto the big inflatable course – it’s a 20 metre swim out in life vests and the course looks amazing, but on a hot day it was busy and Tom said there was quite a bit of moaning and a lot of hard work from six year old Lana, who was only just tall enough to go on the adult one, and to be fair, was probably quite scared. In hindsight, it might have made more sense for her to do the bouncy castle style splash and play, but she’s at that in between age where she wants to challenge herself, but not too much, and this was quite a challenging set up. Ava loved it – they all caught the sun – don’t forget sunscreen as we did – they charge a lot to sell you some if you forget.

I, on the other hand, spent a well deserved break in the wellness centre following my swim – this was about £30 for an hour and a half, which I actually think is a bargain – it’s nicely done – a lovely big sauna, and nice wood fired bubble tubs, plus a cool water lagoon for dipping, and beach style sun loungers and hammocks – a wonderful place to relax. Pricey enough to keep out the riff raff, but let in the well-honed local gym bunnies, there was plenty of eye candy too. Alas, I couldn’t indulge the full hour and a half because the aquasplash session was only 50 minutes long, so after an hour of unwinding, I met up with the rest of the family, who were looking a little pink and exhausted, for rather nice wood fired pizzas and the drive home – a much more pleasant prospect now the Silverlink tunnel has unclogged the Blackwall. In all, a pleasant day out but we were out of pocket by at least £150… it was worth it, but a bargain it is not.

By contrast, we had a rather wonderful, *almost* free day out in Kensington recently (the schools had shut for Eid) so we took advantage of going somewhere that ordinarily would be crowded on a sunny weekend. We’ve been to the Diana Memorial fountain before, but this time it was blissfully chilled (except for the weird lady smoking on the side of the pool). It’s an infinity shaped paddling pool, not unlike a lazy river, but only ankle deep in places, but enough to excite puppyish Lana, and get my own tail wagging.

Sadly though, a trip to the once charming Serpentine Lido was spoiled by it being brought under the ‘Better’ umbrella – where swimmers once had access to the roof terrace with a paddling pool, grassy sunbathing area and a terrace bar, now, access is restricted to a stony walk across to a weedy section of lake with dubious water quality – I used to love it – now, not so much.

This followed a wonderfully unruffled trip to the Diana Memorial playground at the opposite end of the park – be prepared to walk (scoot/cycle) if you want to head here. It’s well worth it, but likely to be busy on weekends and holidays so arrive early. I don’t need to describe it – the pictures do it justice – a Peter Pan-esque children’s paradise that costs nothing but a little piece of your soul.

Thank you for keeping this place going – it’s what Diana would have wanted.

There is a little water play area, but nothing like the one in our own Victoria Park, East London – although this one, only open from May half term throughout the summer holidays, is like most council-run facilities, better than nothing. Only partially updated from the 50s concrete monstrosity, it’s good enough for little ones but gets overrun by big kids with water guns on hot holidays – so use at your peril – Jonah broke his collar bone here several years ago.

We are lucky to have so many water locations near us, I really mustn’t complain – although I like to complain to Tower Hamlets council often about the growing disrepair of our park, at least we live near the canal, and lakes and ponds surrounding us and a HOT TUB in our garden. It really could be worse.

A garden spa bath (cum table) is this season’s small garden essential must-have