publication date: Sep 9, 2009
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author/source: Harvey Edgington
Le Touquet has been a fashionable resort since the roaring twenties when
London's smartest would arrive for the weekend. It also has a
casino, apparently the basis for Ian Fleming's
Casino Royal. The ambience and the
price reflect this
history.
So it was a bit of a
surprise to find on the beach
Aqualud, an aqua park. Studiously
ignored in terms of signage and marketing it is similar to
Splashdown in Poole. Indeed I am
willing to bet at least £1 that it's the same
architect.
Where it does fit in with
Le Touquet is that it is expensive: £17 each (including children over the designated height which our
average-sized eight year old met with ease) for four hours. We went for the
last four hours (3pm to 7pm) arguing rightly that the
crowds would
thin out towards the end of the day.
The
outside section has
two slides that are clearly
older and slightly rusting. But they do the job in terms of
thrills. There is also a
pool with a sort of
assault course which allows you to
play and fail at activities similar to TV's
Total Wipe-out. The
top rides are indoors including the
Back Hole which is a slide in the
pitch black bar a few flashing
lights. A cross between a
waterslide, ghost train and
migraine attack but enormously
good fun and popular. It unfortunately shares a
staircase with the other hit, the
Twister. This drops you 30ft into a
funnel and around the rim and through the hole all in
12 seconds. But you do have to
queue and as the Black Hole
requires a rubber ring then the staircase gets slow, hot and
crowded. There is also a shortage of
supervision so expect blatant
queue jumping and open flouting of
safety rules such as trying to
walk up the rapids. The
rapids being underrated but actually
as much fun as any other slides and available to the whole family as there are no
height restrictions.
There is an area to swim with a
wave machine and the very young are catered for with the
small playground style pools. And if you don't want a go at the slides there are
small areas where you can
chill out and sunbathe as well as the usual
fast food and a bar. But why would you do that for
£17?
