Mid Suffolk Leisure Centre

Negative experience: Lots of things that don't make sense here ginormous gym with 100 unused treadmills/fixed bikes but only 1 smith machine and only 2 squat racks got quoted a membership, wanted to go ahead with it a week later during black friday and their "black friday deal" is more than i got quoted without a deal a week ago. they're now refusing to honour my quoted amount from 1 week ago, surely a quote is valid more than a week? cannot get a cheaper membership that doesn't include swimming or classes, they insist you pay a larger price for all 3 even if you just want gym only, very bizarre badminton pricing is insane, 2 miles down the road in Stowupland it is literally less than half the price and they actually have heating in their hall unlike here would advise never touching the food here, pricing is also insane on that gym has good atmosphere, nice mix of casual and serious lifters without any crazy judgement etc, nice vibe parking is bonkers and council need to address the on-street stupidity by some, not really the centres fault on that one

Fantastic experience: I joined mid Suffolk leisure Centre two years ago solely for swimming, but since then I’m now going to aqua aerobics , Pilates, and using the gym. I love every minute using These facilities. I have met lovely people to whom are my friends now. I could not imagine my life been any different. I thoroughly recommend to join and come and have fun like I do. I have an over 65 membership. Young parents with families use the baby pools & it’s such fun seeing all ages enjoying the facilities. Do come & join well worth the money so much to do or pay as you go.

Fantastic experience: Excellent facilities, close, convenient, great value, enjoy.

Positive experience: Ami a higieniat illeti néhány dolgot megjegyzek.Furdozes elott ,sajnos senki nem zuhanyozik le.Mar többször láttam utcai cipővel a medenceterben sétálni.Miert nem használnak cipovedot?Így az sem csoda,hogy a medence alja piszkos,amit néha illene kiszivni. A két zuhanyfulkebe kellene egy-egy akasztot tenni.Volt egy ülőke, azt is leszereltek. A vizek hőmérséklete 29-30 fok között lehet.

Negative experience: I joined for a year last November mainly to use the pool as I can’t swim in my garage! The lane swimming is a nightmare! Slow people in the medium lane forcing medium swimmers (like myself) into the fast lane. Today I (a woman of 66) was subjected to physical & verbal abuse by a much younger male swimmer & the two male managers in attendance told me to calm down when I complained! I felt vulnerable & scared. They are not enforcing their lane etiquette which is printed on signs around the pool! Despite numerous conversations with many managers (including the centre manager), the situation has not improved & I will not be renewing my membership! Edit After cancelling my membership & getting a refund (I had to escalate to third tier management) I got a message asking me to rejoin! They can’t even spell properly *you’re* invited not your!!!!

Fantastic experience: Great place to swim and chill at, all ages are welcome.

Negative experience: Great centre, but the website or the app physically do not allow you to book anything, you choose your activity and then it ask you to login which takes you back to the start and you have to login again, it's simply not possible to book which is disappointing and frustrating

Positive experience: Plenty of choices of classes and swim sessions. Plenty of parking and easy to find. The swim changing area is clean, just a little tired in places.

Positive experience: A reasonably equipped gym. Although some machines you’d expect to see are missing. Bizarrely it has a swimming pool and a Salon. But no Sauna or steam room.

Negative experience: Rang today just to ask if I could use the showers.As we are staying at VW show in Stowmarket with no showers. I offered to pay for swimming (but not swim) as my wife and I only wanted to shower. Sally on reception said I couldn’t as swimming was fully booked. I give up ! Some people make life so difficult just for the sake of it !!!!

Negative experience: Not a member. Thought I wanted to be. Have just spent 25 minutes trying to talk to someone on the phone and got no answer and they hung up on me 4 times! I was interested before in becoming a member but not anymore. I will take my money elsewhere.

Negative experience: Its school holidays, so as a treat I brought my 3 children over to go swimming & soft play. What a shambles, arrived at 11.15 to be told pool will be shut at 12. So I pay for swimming come out at 12 get dressed thought go to the café to find hardly anything to feed the kids & the prices ridiculous. So then went to go soft play & shuts at half 12 then opens at 1 o clock. Really has ruined our day of a treat.

Positive experience: Impossible to get hold of - UPDATE: I used the online portal to log a query and someone got back to me the same day and was able to help

Fantastic experience: This Leisure Centre offers a variety of different facilities such as tutoring, gym, swimming, athletics, and play world and dance classes for all ages. The Tutoring is run by Community School and offers tutoring to those wanting to improve their school grades. The Leisure Centre swimming is big and spacious and offer swimming lessons which you can join clubs from. After swimming you can grab some refreshments and a meal from the cafe while looking at the swimming pool. At front of Leisure Centre you can purchase warm popcorn, sweet or salty and swim suits and swim gear for all ages. Highly recommend :)

Negative experience: Enjoy using the gym and squash courts but had the same rude receptionist on phone and in person multiple times.

Fantastic experience: Immaculately clean, lovely staff who are friendly but professional, inclusive and affordable. An excellent local leisure centre - wish I had restarted visiting sooner….

Positive experience: To be honest I've only used soft play here and the cafe so not best placed to comment on sports facilities

Fantastic experience: Best place for small babies and infants in the indoor play area.

Negative experience: I was left feeling very unhappy after calling up to book a swimming session. Sally - the receptionist was very rude and impatient throughout the phone call.

Fantastic experience: Great centre and facilities. Easy to book once you've downloaded the App. Gym has loads of area and lots of help to get started.

Fantastic experience: I love it here I go nearly every weekend definitely recommend

Negative experience: Poorly managed swimming lessons. My daughter massively regressed. Manager told me they know my child better then I do and pool Manager didn't believe me when I said my daughter needed her goggles on because they were prescription.

Fantastic experience: Great sports centre, clean, good facilities and staff always helpful. Parking is always an issue.

Negative experience: Parking was awful, people just parking anywhere on the grass in spaces that aren't spaces! Sort it out guys!!

Fantastic experience: My little boy is going for swimming lessons every Thursday at 18.15 and his swimming instructor is just fabulous we started lessons in August 2022 it's 30 min a week only, but still worth it, today I saw my little boy proper swimming cannot believe in such a progress I thought it will never happen highly recommend swimming lessons with them

Positive experience: Great soft play area for kids, cafe very expensive, little wonder most parents take drinks and biscuits with them

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, great relaxed atmosphere

Fantastic experience: Absolutely love this place. Great climbing wall with a good range of grades. 4 new auto belays just added, something for all abilities....

Negative experience: Went to playworld with the children and was absolutely disgusted at the price of things in there canteen we paid 95p for a Nestlé breakaway and you could buy a pack of 6 in Asda for £1 I can't believe that they are allowed to charge such prices I spent £100 in playworld today and this is all we got for our money absolutely disgusting

Fantastic experience: Okay, so this Leisure Centre maybe lacking in some facilities - mainly in the pool area (sauna / steam room) compared to other EveryOne Active centres, BUT it 100% makes up for it with not only a brand new, fantastic gym area, but also with the super helpful, super friendly, always happy staff. They must choose carefully who they employ at this centre, because I’ve been a regular visitor for years and have never received anything but wonderful customer service. No problem is too big or too small. They are all polite and friendly, and I feel incredibly comfortable going to use the facilities. ☺️

Fantastic experience: Always very helpful friendly staff

Fantastic experience: Wonderful experience every time.

Negative experience: I went to eat at the leisure centre today after a lovely swim. However, I was sadly let down by the food standards that were presented to me. The toastie was soggy and only toasted on side. I was surprised when I looked at the receipt at that awful toastie cost me £4.50. This is definitely not good value for your money. The chicken nuggets were over cooked and they were hard as a rock. The chips were edible but a tad bit dry. I would also like to see happier staff behind the till because I found one of the staff members quite rude and abrupt. I will not be spending my money here again.

Fantastic experience: Cafe has wonderful staff. Gym and swimming pool are of a high standard, although some more showers in the mens gym changing room wouldn’t be a bad idea!

Fantastic experience: Friday morning at Active Antz with my granddaughter, its a great activity for little ones, the theme is changed at the beginning of the new school term, lots to do & Sally And Di are Great.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic afternoon climbing with frienda. And many thanks to Cláudio for helping, supporting, encouraging and being such a nice guy.

Fantastic experience: Great staff, good booking system, nice facilities.

Fantastic experience: Took the kids to karate.

Fantastic experience: Very impressive set-up. Lots of equipment and a pool

Fantastic experience: Great swimming pool, clean facilities and friendly staff.

Fantastic experience: Excellent yoga class.

Negative experience: Completely inflexible with their Soft Play session times, even during quiet off-peak times. Can't arrive at 10am and stay til 12pm without paying for two sessions. Weren't even willing to have a conversation. Shame

Positive experience: Newly refurbished gym with plenty of room

Fantastic experience: Great leisure centre with a new gym, swimming pool and huge soft play zone. Very clean. Friendly and helpful staff.

Fantastic experience: I have so many amazing memories coming here when I was younger, because of how cheap it was I constantly came. Genuinely an amazing place

Fantastic experience: Amazing friendly staff lovely pool.cant wait to go again

Negative experience: Half the changing cubicles have broken latches for swimming. They do not monitor swimming lanes for speed. They have 2 slow lanes at the minute with one fast one. Lots of people in the medium lane who cannot do a length in the required 30 to 45 seconds. Serious lack of investment in the swimming side of the leisure centre. Stowmarket has grown house wise by at least 100 percent in the last 20 years. When the schools open. The pool will restrict the lane swimming. Add the swim school. The minority are looked after. Put 4 lanes instead of 3 into the pool. Make sure access is good for lane swimming. Sport for everyone!

Fantastic experience: We go most weeks to Forever Fit. A good fun fitness class for older people. Everyone at centre friendly and helpful. A really good place.

Fantastic experience: Very good, coping with Covid. Safe

Fantastic experience: I run classes here for just under 1 year in the bar room. The staff were very accommodating and helpful.

Positive experience: All well organised for family swimming. Pre booking helped. No queues with allotted time kept things moving. All good.

Fantastic experience: Brilliant facilities love the new gym

Fantastic experience: It's not much to look at on the outside. However, it's a good size centre with pool, recently improved gym, various studios, courts and climbing centre. What makes it the best, is the people. Always friendly, always happy to help and not in a false corporate way. Highly recommended and especially the climbing centre.

Negative experience: Is this leisure centre exempt from covid and the rules? Hardly anyone wears a face covering and people regularly go against the one way system. Very disappointing.

Positive experience: Brilliant new gym facilities, as COVID safe as can be, with readily available sanitising sprays and hand sanitiser. Easy to book time slots and very good PTs, Aidan McMahon being both professional and personal in approach has been a great help in my goals. As an ex-employee (2016-17) I can also say that the staff training for lifeguards is of a very high quality and it is a brilliant job for young and enthusiastic individuals. My only negative point is that the staff are all very much underpaid for the work they do... do not believe 'competitive salary' on the advertisements.

Fantastic experience: Well managed, enjoyable stress-free swim.

Positive experience: The one way systems for swimming is odd as it forces you to walk passed many more people than you would need to if your were just able to take the direct route out of the building and I see no reason why if there is room you aren't able to stay in the cafe area as there was only 1 person in the whole place, but still saying you are only able to wait if you have children under 8. I'm fine with giving priority to parents with children under 8, just not able to see the point of not making any use of the space at all. Early days yes so hope this setup will be looked at again

Fantastic experience: The refurbishment is coming along great

Negative experience: Don't answer phone been on hold for 30 mins

Negative experience: All in all I would give it a 5 star but because the pools are so cold I'm only giving 1 star after 5mins of being in the baby pool my children's lips were blue and they were freezing, all the adults and children were saying how cold it is, and for a baby pool its just not right

Fantastic experience: At the start of july i took my daughter and 8 of her friends (all over 10) swimming and on to the inflatables for her birthday. I thought it was going to be a nightmare but the team of lifeguards where very well drilled and made it a absoulte pleasure they aloud the kids to have fun while keeping them well under control. Keep up the good work guys we will definatly be back soon.

Negative experience: Had parties here before and spend several days a week here as both daughters swim for club but let down as parents today very unorganised and disappointed. We will not be booking any further parties here.

Negative experience: Really don't like leaving these bad reviews but Will never be back to this place again! They regularly close the pool with no notice bar a poster at the front door, they have a website but can't seem to give you an inclination of events on it. 5 times we have been here now with our 2 year old daughter and only once we have been able to attend the actual pool. Only finding this out once we have made the journey up. Shouldn't have to phone a place like this everytime before to check if they are open as advertised. Today the latest it's not till we have driven up there, got our daughter all excited for a swim only to find once we get in there that a big Gala thing is happening... Nothing about it on there website. A joke. Upset child for 45 minutes after. Their soft play area is over priced, very often over crowded, heated up to the point of uncomfortable, dirty areas with no healthy food options for kids. So far we have used it due to the location but me and my family really won't be back here, will travel to Bury or Ipswich instead, no leisure about this place.

Fantastic experience: Excellent small bouldering wall, week set for people with some climbing experience, say V3 to v5 ability. There is roped climbing but I didn't try that.

Negative experience: Avoid the food here, I paid £2.90 for a plate of cheesy chips, and was given cold chips and ice cold cheese, after handing it back to be done properly they put them in the microwave.

Fantastic experience: Great day out in soft play

Positive experience: Good pool, great swimming lessons.

Fantastic experience: Good leisure centre. Always something going on for the kids.

Positive experience: Climbing was fab

Positive experience: Good fun for little brothers

Positive experience: Great facilities

Fantastic experience: I am disabled and in a wheelchair and find the facilities great and the staff also are very friendly and willing to help

Fantastic experience: A leisure centre that offers all sorts of keep fit activities from swimming to rock climbing

Positive experience: We just used the pools all were warm will go back again

Positive experience: Lovely child friendly place to take the grandchildren

Fantastic experience: Everything you need and more from a leisure centre.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic facilities.

Fantastic experience: Joined to try and get my fitness levels improved & help with some weight loss. Very friendly & welcoming staff. Pool is very good, Gym has a good level of variety in equipment.

Fantastic experience: Great

Fantastic experience: Good place to go

Fantastic experience: Have used the gym and swimming facilities and they're great. Staff are lovely too, very welcoming. Joined the gym as I have MS and wanted to get stronger and the staff were so understanding and accommodating and put me completely at ease. Would definitely recommend :)

Positive experience: I find the pool a little warm for lane swimming, but other than that the facilities are all okay and the staff are friendly and remember my name.

Fantastic experience: My children have swimming lessons here. The tutors are very good with the children. The kids love going which speaks volumes. There are poolside seats to watch the lessons. The showers are always well kept. There is a cafe too next to the pool with poolside windows. Lots of parking inc a good soft play area round the back.

Fantastic experience: Good!

Fantastic experience: Good place for adults and kids

Fantastic experience: Nice interactive and fun place

Fantastic experience: Great badminton courts!

Positive experience: Friendly and helpful staff,clean and a good cup of tea in cafe.

Negative experience: Swimming changing rooms are very dirty it needs more cleaning after every lesson session

Fantastic experience: Great place to learn to climb

Fantastic experience: Best soft play for our 3 y olds we've been to. Well priced

Positive experience: Friendly staff and helpful. Clean, especially toilets as it was the afternoon. Drinks and snacks available. Would recommend for children of all ages.

Fantastic experience: Good quality leisure centre. Large enough pool, good sized gym with ample facilities and equipment. Reasonable monthly price...

Fantastic experience: Bit crowded but great swimming lessons

Positive experience: Car park it's a nightmare especially if you have more kids(carseat/buggy) Bookings online not easy again as because more kids at a variety age( email notifications about cancelling my bookings), but most of the staff very lovely and helpful. Changing facility could be cleaner and more working locker.

Positive experience: I go swimming twice a week now at times that suit me, and while the service is good I find the staff a bit unfriendly at times and struggle to engage with the public.

Fantastic experience: Lovely clean swimming pool and very quiet - perfect for swimming :)

Positive experience: Great gym & pool. Prices fair.

Fantastic experience: Great place

Fantastic experience: Reception is always helpful no matter how busy they are. They always try to accommodate you and find a solution to fit the client good clean area and new equipment, Playworld is always available rainy days and good days too. The creche staff and activities are super for the little ones and also the activity camps for the children during holidays are well run and very entertaining.Swimming lessons are available and the instructor are very good and always motivate the childten. The pools are clean and the changing rooms are too. There are also two climbing walls and the instructors Dick and Yogy are very good at what they do and have helped my 8 y old to over one her issue with heights. Tony's hairdresser is also available and always able to fit u in for a hairdo and there is also the cafeteria where one can always get a decent cuppa while browsing the free internet WiFi. Always a positive experience for us.