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?
