Let’s Go Hydro Aqua Park, Northern Ireland

Let’s Go Hydro in Northern Ireland is a water based multi activity center. There is a giant inflatable water park, kayaking, Paddle boards and Wakeboarding activities available. There are also glamping pods, BBQ huts, a pizza restaurant and beaches with deck chairs and hammocks. Some days there are events, a drive in cinema and scary viewings of Jaws on the big screen whilst floating on the lake!

You can book the activities separately or you can buy a day pass to try everything. We tried out the inflatable aqua park today.

As you have to book a time slot in advance for Let’s Go Hydro, we looked at the weather forecast and chose a sunny day at 10am. It turned out to be cloudy and pretty cold today but it was ok because we were provided with wetsuits and the water in the lake didn’t actually seem that cold. Let’s Go Hydro is open even in the snow.

When we arrived at 9.30, we headed straight to the entrance where they looked up our booking and gave us wristbands for our time slot. We were then directed down the hill to the big marquee where we collected our wetsuits and went to the changing rooms to change. Despite the wetsuit being clearly labelled “Front”  two of us managed to put them on backwards and on my second try I also put mine on inside out! 

Once we were ready we headed straight over to get out life jackets and listen to the safety brief.

The aqua park is split into 4 parts and you spend 15 minutes on each so each group of people is let on to the first one and then when the whistle blows you swim to the next section. An hour total is plenty long enough as, near to the end of our time we were getting pretty tired. There is also a small version for younger children. 

The aquapark is essentially a floating obstacle course with many opportunities to fall in the water. The floating platforms are pretty slippy and I think I spent as much time falling on my belly as I did on my feet. We climbed, bounced, and laughed our way around all the obstacles. Everyone had a great time.

There are giant slides and jumping platforms in the third section of the park which we missed. I was wearing glasses and didn’t fancy losing them in the deep water and the kids weren’t keen either so we swam around watching other people jump in while we waited for our turn on the 4th section. It was at this point the wrist strap on my Go-Pro broke and I lost it to the bottom of the lake. 

When we got out we went back to the changing rooms and returned our wetsuits to be disinfected for later guests. 

The whole park looked amazing and the aqua park was awesome, we had a great time!

Let’s Go Hydro inflatable aqua park with an autistic child?

You need to be able to swim to go on the aqua park but you are provided with life vests. 

If your child loves to climb and slide and they love water then this park is great.

We opted for the first session of the day as it was less booked up than later. The amount of people on the inflatables are limited but it did feel crowded at times. We just tried to take the least busy routes round the inflatables but there were times we needed to wait for other people to finish an obstacle before we could get on.

The big slides and jumps in the third section have one entrance so there is a lot of queueing in the water to get on them. If you don’t want to do them you end up waiting in the deep water.

There are beach areas around the park so if your child likes playing in the sand they are able to.

There are toilets and refreshment facilities.

There is a need to wear a paper wristband but you can wear your child’s for them.

There is a slope rather than steps available for pushchairs and wheelchairs to get down to the lake from the entrance however it isn’t paved making it quite difficult to push back up. We had a wheelchair with us so opted to walk round the lake past the wake boarding and through the glamping site to get back up. This took longer but was paved and less steep so it was an easier route. 

The lifeguards have boats to row anyone in who has had enough or gets injured.

The area where you get your wetsuits and changing rooms got quite crowded. I did notice there were beach hut type changing rooms on the beach that no-one was using. In order to get a wetsuit though you need to show your wristband at the wetsuit collection window.

There is an obvious need for supervision at all times, the site is huge with water activities everywhere.

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