Reasons to Visit an Indoor Water Park {image]

Water parks are perfect for amusement and recreation for each member of the family:fathers can play a little with the kids and then settle down and loosen up while having a cup of tea and reading his magazine; mommy can put on some sunscreen and take a sunbath, while the kids decide to go on all slides they can see, and Grandma watches over all of them. During summertime, this is quite a delightful pastime, but what can we do when it’s too cold to stay out of the house and get a tan? The answer is easy: try an indoor water park!

Indoor water parks were first made in Canada, in the 80’s, and in a few years they went through a big boost of popularity, first in the United States, and then in Europe. The Canadian World Waterpark (as it was called), was built in a big shopping mall in the town of Edmonton, and it became quite famous. Why? Probably because there are lots of rainy days annually in this place, and it is a city very far from any beach: the Pacific Ocean is 1600 km away, and Hudson Bay is 1350 kilometers away (even if there is no sand at Hudson Bay).

That’s why the indoor water park in the city of Edmonton was an excellent flash of inspiration, and people started coming in large numbers…and they still do now. They go crazy for the fast slides, the indoor river (they created a “lazy river” which is fun, I must say), the 3+ family rides, the tube slides , and everything else a good indoor water park is made out of.

And, if you want to see which are the really great indoor water parks, remember that there are numerous conditions that have the place meet the standards: a good one must have no less than 2 tube slides, two body slides, one river (regardless if it’s slow or “angry” torrent), one youngsters play area with everything they need (geysers, slides, sand etc), one wave pool and other things.

Nowadays, the European community, you can go to tens, maybe hundreds of very good indoor aquatic parks. In Germany, for instance, in Stralsund, they created one of the most incredible water parks of them all: the Hansedom Water Park. It is not only indoor, it also includes open gardens and parks, making it quite appealing to visitors from around the continent. Besides the requirements I showed you in the last paragraph, the Stralsund Water Park has many more features, like saunas, restaurants, fitness clubs, and much more. In German such a park is called “freizeit park”, which translates to “leisure park”.

Other very interesting aqua parks exist in Italy, Holland and the UK, but we’ll leave that story for another time. Nothing is better than spending a few days at a “freizeit park”, believe you me. Too bad we can’t go there each weekend, but hey – what can we do… However, should you one day make the decision to go to such a park with your family, remember to watch your children closely, as sometimes these slides and rivers can be dangerous.

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