{"id":387720,"date":"2025-08-31T20:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T20:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387720\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T20:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T20:00:03","slug":"i-went-to-a-lido-near-bristol-and-it-felt-very-mediterranean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387720\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I went to a lido near Bristol and it felt very Mediterranean’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is worth a visit\"Estel<\/p>\n

Estel is a Content Editor for Bristol Live. She joined Bristol Live in December 2019 after working at WalesOnline. She was a finalist at the 2019’s Regional Press Awards as well as the 2019’s and 2020’s Wales Media Awards. Born in Barcelona, Estel loves the countryside, yoga and a good bath.<\/p>\n

The lido in Pontypridd has several pools<\/p>\n

Outdoor pools were a big part of my summers as a child and, while my son is being raised in the UK rather than Barcelona, I am also keen for him to have those same fond memories I have by the water.<\/p>\n

From the lido in Street<\/a> to the one in Cirencester<\/a>, and from the one in Bristol<\/a> to the one in Portishead<\/a>, I am making my way around them. While I think it is high time Bristol a public lido<\/a>, in the meantime I am enjoying day trips exploring the area.<\/p>\n

When I saw the Bank Holiday Monday was set to be a sunny day, I took the chance to visit a new one: the lido in Pontypridd<\/a>, in South Wales, about an hour’s drive from Bristol.<\/p>\n

This was my second attempt at visiting the lido, having tried to do a last-minute booking a few weeks ago. So, this time, I booked a few days beforehand when I saw the weather forecast – and still by this point all I could get was a 9am slot.<\/p>\n

However, having a toddler, I knew we would have been up for a couple of hours at least by the time it was time to leave.<\/p>\n

One of the pools had an inflatable course<\/p>\n

And I was right; we were ready to go at 8am and embarked on our straight-forward, familiar journey into Wales down the M4. Upon arrival, I parked on a nearby street (for free) and then we just walked over to the park inside which the lido is located.<\/p>\n

Compared to other outdoor pools I have been to in the UK, the one in Pontypridd is on the bigger side; there is a shallow pool for children, a small pool and a bigger pool. On the day we visited, there was an inflatable course in the small pool which, sadly, my nearly three-year-old was too scared to check out.<\/p>\n

There were also some small plastic boats that children could ride on – these were a hit – and a hamster ball-like thing that was popular among older children. Despite it being early on the day, and not that warm yet, we didn’t get cold until it was time to get out as the pool itself is heated at 28C.<\/p>\n

I was also surprised by how busy the pool was that early on the day – but I guess plenty of other parents agree with me parenting is normally easier outside the house. It is also worth saying this is an affordable lido to visit, with an adult ticket being \u00a33.50 and children under 7 going in for free.<\/p>\n

There is a huge playground next to it<\/p>\n

In my opinion, the only downside is that the sessions are limited to 75 minutes, which felt about right for a toddler but I imagine would feel like not enough time with older children.<\/p>\n

Right next to the lido there is a huge playground, where you could easily spend a day in. There is a sandpit, zip-wire and several play areas, among others.<\/p>\n

There is also a coffee shop serving your usuals including hot drinks, sandwiches, ice-creams and cakes, among others. We, of course, made a couple of trips there.<\/p>\n

Sadly, we had to head back to Bristol about 1pm due to other commitments – but I have no doubt we will be back soon. It all felt very lovely and Mediterranean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is worth a visit Estel is a Content Editor for Bristol Live. She joined Bristol Live in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,15125,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-387720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-things-to-do-in-bristol","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115125159899860648","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}