This hair-raising water park is so close to London and boasts a handful of exhilarating slides, a pirate ship, an erupting volcano, and even an adults-only spa for anyone who could do without the madness (entrance to the spa does include access to the waterslides, mind you).
The slides range from gentle and toddler-friendly to properly adrenaline-charged: there’s Aqua Splash, which young children can ride with an adult; the Cannon, which will fling you out like a ball from a cannon in the hope that you will beat the fastest time of the day; the Storm Chaser, which will rock you from side to side like a ship in choppy water; Poseidon’s Peril, a slide that will send you twirling and whirling through rings of light and take a photo of you as you ride; and Maelstrom, which will trick you into thinking it’s a calm and relaxing ride, before hurling you through a cascade of chaos in the second half. A few slides are customisable too, meaning you can choose colour and sound combinations as you whizz down the chutes.
All slides lead to the leisure pool, where there’s plenty more fun to be had. Within the pool, you’ll find rapids, a lazy river, a bubble pool, an erupting volcano, and a pirate ship, where imaginations can really run wild. There’s also a dedicated area for the really little ones, with mini slides and ‘drench buckets’.
The swimming pool is kept rather toastily between 29℃ and 31℃, and there are varying depths – starting at 0.15m in the Little Coral’s Toddler Pool and rising to 1.35m. On the edge of the pool, you’ll also find a beach hut for drinks and snacks to fuel all that swimming and sliding.
For the grown-ups, there’s also the calming Coral Spa – the antithesis of the water park it shares a roof with. Inside this adults-only space, you’ll find three saunas, a steam room, and a spa pool with no slides in sight. If you did fancy a little go on the Cannon though, there’s no judgement – in fact, use of the pool and slides is included with any spa ticket.
Sessions at Coral Reef Waterworld last for 1.5 hours and should be booked online in advance of your visit. It’s around an hour’s drive from London, or a 1.5 hour train journey from Clapham Junction, followed by a bus.