Salt Ayre Leisure Centre

Positive experience: The play area is brilliant and the cafe too. However, high up on the soft play areas, it is plain to see that it is extremely dusty. Could do with some cleaning, as not so hygienic, especially if there are people eating right underneath the large blue and yellow plastic oarts

Negative experience: Dec 30, 2025 around 4:30PM the girl operator/front desk is so rude over the phone and whispered that I am stupid when she's about to hang up.

Fantastic experience: Lovely run Leisure centre, the staff made me feel really welcome.

Fantastic experience: Salt Ayre provides a wide range of activities for all abilities and ages . Theres an excellent swimming pools that doubles up for three different forms of water fitness classes. Lorraine and Chantelle are excellent trainers who provide demonstration , clear guidance formative assessment and excellent developmental feedback.

Fantastic experience: Great for all.

Fantastic experience: Excellent leisure centre something for everyone

Fantastic experience: Grandkids love the soft play area. We travel just over 1 hour by car and been several times so that is testimony alone. Cafe is a great place, friendly staff, really good food at value for money prices.

Negative experience: Enjoyed the energy soft play area yesterday so would have be a 4 rating. Asked about the climbing area at that time and was told opening times for the next day but they failed to mention you had to pre book due to the holidays. Paid for taxi to and from just to be told it was fully booked. Very unhappy children and parents. Only visiting for the day and fully booked all day so no alternative times possible. They should have mentioned pre booking it when we asked. Not a good luck for a establishment ran by the Lancaster City Council. An expensive morning for nothing.

Fantastic experience: My first time visiting today , staff were great even sorted me out with a locker as I didn’t have a pound . I will definitely be using the pool again thank you

Fantastic experience: i love this place this teaches me how to swim my favourite place to go and swim

Positive experience: Still generally okay. But the swimming pool rules annoy me. No diving in at all, even in the deep end, and swimming underwater is discouraged. If these rules were intended to promote enjoyment, they are seriously misguided.

Negative experience: I often visit with my children at weekends, but for the second time I’ve had to listen to inappropriate language from the kitchen, including badmouthing other members of the team!! It’s rude, unprofessional, and embarrassing — especially in a family café where children are present. A lovely setting, but the lack of basic manners really lets it down…

Fantastic experience: Aqua Zumba with Naomi on a Tuesday and Thursday are the best classes i have ever been to, lot's of singing, dancing and keeping fit and having fun. Would highly recommend these classes

Fantastic experience: Fantastic Leisure Centre with lots of different options for keeping fit and for fun. Clean and staff very knowledgeable and helpful. There is a cafe for refreshments. The members fee is very reasonable.

Negative experience: Fix your hair driers at the swimming pool or allow public to bring their own.

Fantastic experience: Lovely swim. Not too crowded.

Positive experience: Excellent facilities and reasonably priced guest memberships - recommended.

Fantastic experience: Great place for a swim.

Positive experience: I visited this gym three times using the pay-as-you-go option (£11.80 per session), which I found quite expensive for what’s essentially a standard gym visit. The gym itself is well-equipped, clean, and the machines are in good condition. However, every visit was during peak times, and the weight area was consistently overcrowded. Many users occupied machines for long periods while on their phones, making it difficult to complete a proper workout. I’d strongly recommend going early in the morning or around 2 PM for a quieter experience. Staff at reception were friendly and helpful throughout. Overall, I’m giving 4 stars due to the busyness during peak hours and the high PAYG cost. I wouldn’t recommend the PAYG option unless you’re visiting off-peak

Fantastic experience: Visit here often with my 2 children, we use the swimming, indoor & outdoor play areas. All runs very well and is nice and clean. Today my son tripped and fell outside and had a few nasty grazes on him. A lovely lady called Lucy helped with great care and professionalism whilst administering first aid and patching his wounds. Thank you Lucy.

Fantastic experience: What a great place! We booked the climbing wall for our two children (10 &5). We hadn't visited before, and travelled from Preston. I was really impressed with the whole set up, the leisure centre is spotless throughout and all the staff were super friendly and helpful. We used the cafe whilst we were there and the soft play area. Would definitely book again. The free car park is a great bonus too!

Fantastic experience: Really good food Really nice staff and it's just amazing

Fantastic experience: Excellent all round, from the facilities to the staff. New favourite place. Grace from the Gym Team introduced me to the gym and took me through my induction today: an important first step for me, I wanted to make sure I felt safe and supported as I took my first steps back into training after years of neglecting my fitness and taking it for granted. The reception team couldn't have been more friendly, welcoming and efficient. Any nerves I might've had settled quickly as a consequence. The machines have moved on a lot since I last saw the inside of a gym! Really impressed by the quality and the range of equipment on offer. Grace was enthusiastic, patient with my questions (I had plenty), informative and knowledgeable. It was important to me to feel like I was being properly listened to and that any concerns I had were addressed thoroughly. I have a long journey ahead, intend on taking it slow and steady and am prepared for building new habits: training as I will be will a low-level knee injury, it means a lot to know there are qualified, experienced PTs like Grace and the team on hand to support me when I need them. The first of many high quality gym sessions under my belt today. Looking forward very much to the next visit. Thanks everyone.

Fantastic experience: I signed up here specifically for Body Combat classes as I loved the idea of them and Jaimee who leads the class is remarkable! She’s so motivating and doesn’t stop! Highly recommend if you want to get fit and toned

Negative experience: Not good plans, and timings. Not giving trial for week it’s direct to contract 12 or 6month. It’s not good for one to check if it suitable or not. Most of staff is aggressive in nature not cooperative. Not well communicated.

Fantastic experience: Lovely centre nice staff car park a bit confusing

Fantastic experience: THIS PLACE IS VERY VERY CLEAN AND SPOTLESS! The cleaners do an amazing job and should get a promotion and more money for their fantastic work!

Positive experience: Went to the free swim at the open weekend thing. Staff not particularly friendly or helpful on reception. Not told where to go for the pool etc. Slide you need to shuffle down. Extremely busy. We planned to sign up for the family for monthly swim pass. But decided against it.

Fantastic experience: Very Nice !! Smart!! Friendly!! Reasonable Prices!!

Negative experience: Would not recommend- the gym it’s self is over crowded. After signing up and being bound to a year long contract I was advised “not to even bother coming after 5pm”. Which for many working people the evening is a common time to attend the gym. Had I been given that information prior to signing up I would not have made such a commitment. Unhygienic facilities in the pool and changing rooms. They will entice members with incentives when recruiting for memberships then revoke these without notification. Plenty of better alternatives gyms in the area.

Fantastic experience: Staff friendly and helpful cafe prices very good food ok nice swimming pool

Fantastic experience: Walking into changing room and locker area the floor is dirty when walking with bare feet not good . The pool could be warmer It's a tad on the cold side.

Fantastic experience: I have just become a member and I can not wish for better staff, they are very friendly staff

Positive experience: The Salt Ayre Leisure Centre is extremely good. I was very happy with everything. The first thing that was impressed by was the climbing facilities. They were very safe and very well built. They were fun to do and were kid friendly. It was the average Climbing place with very nice courses. The staff were good at their job but one of them wouldn’t unclip the harnesses from the rope type thing that helped you to get down but he eventually started helping so I was really impressed with everything at the climbing place. The next thing is the swimming facilities. The pool was very nice and the changing rooms were clean unlike most so well done. But the slide was the only draw back. It was closed for just shy of 20 minutes. But the slide was extremely slow and dirty. Ten last thing I did at salt Ayre was eat. The food was good and I ordered some loaded fries. The bacon and cheese was very good and affordable. The snacks were £1 and drinks were something like £1.30 so very affordable. So on the whole I will probably visit again.

Positive experience: Went swimming today the pool was warmer then usual the showers where really cold tho few of the lockers where playing up keys getting jammed took us while to open them hairdryer is crap takes ages to dry your hair old hairdryers where better or they maybe should have plugs so you can bring your own hair dryer and straigners I think changeing area could do with some updating as been the same since I used to come as a kid.

Fantastic experience: its a great leisure centre , the swimming area and pools are always clean and loads of floats for kids to use. Kids partys are real value for money, Lovely Staff, Really nice relaxed Gym, lots of equipment and space, good music on as well .

Positive experience: Great pool. Great having two lanes if you want to do some serious distance

Fantastic experience: Is a good place the kids really like going and the staff are nice

Fantastic experience: Very good for kids and adults extremely good pool good food and the pool is heated unlike other pools so you can stay in it for a long time

Fantastic experience: Soft play area fabulous, clean and well maintained. Staff are so lovely too.

Negative experience: I'm very disappointed with the way Salt Ayre has turned out after many years of using them. It's way to over populated!! People queue up in the morning from 5:45am in fear they won't get to use the equipment in the gym. If you don't get there very early, you'll miss out on what you want to use. This means you have two options: 1) Rush upstairs to use the equipment before someone else does 2) Miss out because the gym is too full once you want to use something else In the evening it is absolutely packed with groups who stand around the machines. There should be a limit on how many people they can accept into the gym because it's ruined the experience for long term customers an I'm not the only customer who feels this way. I'm not wasting any more money to rush around like an idiot on something i can barely get any benefit from. This needs to be assessed before more people leave.

Negative experience: Unfortunately only has mixed changing room, so we've joined Lancaster Sport Centre which is inclusive of everyone, has womens, men's and a mixed changing room. Really not inclusive of muslim or Jewish women who are unable to use mixed changing room either.

Negative experience: Took our Grandchildren, to be honest they enjoyed it. The Lifeguards were totally useless!! Talking to each other playing on their phones. They would have been better to have watched people in the water!! Maybe would be better to get better Lifeguards??

Positive experience: Gets too crowded in swimming so can't really swim much or move around loads even now so when the Floats are out also slide is rarely open

Negative experience: Only been for a kids party so can’t comment on the rest. The soft play was quite rough with some kids picking on others and being very rough. The party they don’t make much effort just leave you to it and serve the food. Other places we’ve been to make a bit of a fuss and song and dance etc. The food was served before all the kids got down from the soft play and some ended up without any and other kids had their plates piled high and wasted most of it.

Positive experience: Excellent health and fitness spa with private members area which I would give a higher rating. However I have rated salt Ayre down because the changing area for the pool is often not clean. The pool is not that big. Also for a council run sports centre it is very expensive at £60 a month. Where my dad lives it is £30 with facilities that are far superior and much larger pool.

Fantastic experience: Great cafe, good food. I was contemplating joined the gum, but the main road to the building is horrendous.

Positive experience: Children's outdoor play park.. good but broken rubber matting needs attention.. children throwing it

Fantastic experience: Many car parkings, plenty of activities and large well-equiped gym

Negative experience: I wouldn't recommend the pool, cleanliness is the issue , If they had a decent cleaning team or regular cleaning / checks it would be okay changing rooms were filthy considering it wasn't particularly busy.

Fantastic experience: 100 % a great place, helpful staff, smart and efficient. Cafe on site excellent service. Pool immaculate, clean and tidy. Cleaner even polishing doors and glass inserts. Keep it up I will be back next time I'm in The area. Best wishes and regards From Ian.

Fantastic experience: Great atmosphere, very welcoming and friendly. Classes are really good and the spa is fab.

Fantastic experience: Excellent leisure centre facilities, I use the adult lane swimming regularly which is great value for money.

Fantastic experience: It was my son's Birthday today and would just like to say thank you to the young girl who organised everything for us. It was great to arrive and be made to feel relaxed, offered drinks and well looked after! Great service and definitely one of the best indoor play areas

Fantastic experience: 1st time visit. Very impressed. Kids kept busy all afternoon. In the great swimming pool, then had a delicious lunch in the spotless cafe and then a play in the play area afterwards. Had some different equipment they hadn't seen before. Prices where very good. Definately coming back from Preston. Come on Preston give us a centre like this.

Fantastic experience: Friendly, helpful staff. We booked to use the climbing wall. Climbing instructors very observant and quick to move kids on to their next climb so no wasted time waiting around. They also closed and opened the two bigger climbing activities to move kids through and maintain interest.

Fantastic experience: Went to an Aqua Zumba class here. What fun!! Punchy upbeat music, friendly coach. Deffinately will be going g again. Nice clean changing rooms.

Positive experience: Love the tranquil spa thermal journey! Usually have a swim first...sadly the pool was entirely given over to a giant inflatables session for half term .... typical school holidays! Kids before members! Thermal journey is very therapeutic but could do with a deep clean and basic routine maintenance bring carried out!

Positive experience: Very expensive, facilities are OK. Nothing special, there isn't loads of kit (could definitely do with more) but the stuff they have is good. Pool is decent with viewing area

Fantastic experience: Really friendly staff. Boys loved the xheight today, the 2 guys running it couldnt be more friendly and supportive. Plus bonus good coffee from the cafe.

Fantastic experience: Took a group of kids to the climbing walls, brilliant experience and the staff were great

Fantastic experience: I recently undertook a sponsored swim and all the staff ( including the receptionists, lifeguards and manager's) couldn't do enough for me. They were so accommodating, friendly, helpful and encouraging. Thank you so much. Susan.

Positive experience: I go every week and enjoy the swim but have recently seen a decline inspite of new showers and hair dryers. One of the dryers is quite often out of order. All the lockers are a disgrace and need renewing - half of them are broken or have bits broken off. One toilet door in the ladies has been broken for years. Both spinners for costumes have been removed and I believe not being replaced. Floors are not very clean either. But still they put the prices up. Disappointing. I complained last year about some men in showers shoving their hands down their trunks to wash their bits -not a pretty site- I was told by text that this would be looked into. I had hoped someone might put a sign up asking them to show respect for the fact that there are women in the showers too but nothing. So if I could go somewhere else to swim near by I probably would.

Fantastic experience: Excellent never seen a leisure centre in this country as good as this. Something for everybody well worth a trip.

Fantastic experience: Driendly staff, lots to do. Shame they do not have more healthy food. Most of it is a deep fried.

Positive experience: Nice enough place. Pick your times to go because it does get busy and loud when there are lots of children or instructor led sessions.

Fantastic experience: A fantastic facility that you would hardly know was there. A well laid out and diverse number of activities for all ages and abilities.

Fantastic experience: Myself and my partner went on The Spa Journey and enjoyed the sauna and steam rooms. It was a first class experience! Lovely and clean and a great relaxing positive atmosphere. Would very highly recommend. Did us both the power of good!

Fantastic experience: Great swim for myself and 3 kids. Bit busy but understandable during the summer holidays.

Positive experience: Soft play has always been good but the pool has been lacking for a while now. No crowd control over the holidays at all. Totally overcrowded, older kids jumping in at the shallow end on top of younger kids, jumping off the floats, non swimmers in the deep end, and not one life guard said anything while we were there. Baby pool was closed and I have never once seen the slides open. Not even a full length pool because the baby pool was up (even tho there were 2 lanes open for people to do lengths) they just left the baby pool up with no toys or anything in but left a sign up saying closed. Public session is meant to be in until 2:45 but at 2:30 they start hoofing everyone out. My most serious note to add tho is that every time we go to the pool it's absolutely freezing to the point of both me and my children's lips go blue. My 7 year old can't suffer more than half an hour in the pool because she gets too cold and her lips and fingures go blue so this time round we went into the hot tub thinking we will heat up a bit but it was even colder! I'm a wild swimmer so when I pay to go to an indoor pool, at the price it is now, I expect to be able to swim for more than half an hour because it's too cold! Shame really, it's a real let down, the play area has always been really good and the kids have enjoyed years playing there and we would like to be able to do both and make the day of it when we make the time to come.

Fantastic experience: A great all round leisure centre with excellent facilities. The range of classes is brilliant catering to all needs. The cafe has some good food options at a fair price. The immersive spin room is well equipped and provides a fantastic workout exposure. The gym has everything you need though it is smaller than your purpose gyms (like JD Gyms). The spa has a good variety of treatments too.

Fantastic experience: Great pool, slide and plenty of changing space. Other gym and sports facilities are available

Positive experience: Great leisure centre. We never went swimming. Went in soft play! Children loved it. Burnt off energy in there. Large soft play area. Up to 12years so that was good. Children also enjoyed different wall climbing activities including a task to do it blind folded!!! All harnessed!!! So perfectly safe. Nice café there . With good coffee and food. Staff very good . One to one ratio on climbing walls. Friendly and attentive. Parking. Also outside activities. Yes good place.

Fantastic experience: Took grandson to soft play area. He loved it. Will definitely return.

Fantastic experience: 1st time, I've been here. Being disabled I was pleasantly surprised at the facilities they had I will be coming here regularly now its nice and clean and they have everything you need.

Fantastic experience: A great gym! Facilities are in great condition, always cleaned and taken care of. Staff is absolutely lovely and there are many classes to choose from. I highly recommend this gym! It has motivated me going to the gym more frequently!

Fantastic experience: Great Centre, had all we needed for an excellent Mid Lancs Athletic event today.

Positive experience: Great swimming pool. The kids love it with all the floats out. The gym has a lot of machines and weights to workout. I would recommend joining

Positive experience: Brilliant range of facilities here, we mostly utilise the soft play, climbing wall and swimming. The swimming pool has one large 25m pool, smaller pool and there is a slide. The changing rooms at the swimming pool can be hit and miss with cleanliness though and therefore falling short of five stars.

Positive experience: Excellent facilities, staff friendly, they have classes to suit all levels and a good swimming pool too, changing rooms sometimes a bit grubby, otherwise it would have been 5*. Update 13/07/23 changing rooms are getting worse, more often than not very dirty floors, showers have been cold for 2 weeks now, it's not good.

Fantastic experience: Visited the Climbing Walls with my 10 yr old Son. 1hr for £10. Great value. Son loved it . The instructors were very interactive and encouraging. Overall excellent

Negative experience: Went at the weekend (9th July 2023) with my two young sons (5 & 3). It was not suitable for this age group. The pool was too cold, my 3 year old had blue lips within 5 minutes. We tried the jacuzzi in the hope of warming up but the air was even colder during the walk and the jacuzzi was no warmer. They actually had the doors to outside open so cold air was blowing in. My youngest clung to me for warmth for another 15 minutes before I decided to get him out while my mum stayed in with my eldest. The air was really cold in the pool area and changing room so we were looking forward to warming up in the shower but they were absolutely freezing and did not warm up. By this time my son was crying due to being so cold. I got him dressed as quick as possible whilst I could hear so many other children crying too. I put him in as many borrowed extra layers as we had and then had him in a hot car. It took over an hour for his lips to lose the blue colour amd his hands to feel warm again! I don't understand how they can think this is acceptable for small children, it's actually quite dangerous and would not take them again. The showers definitely did not get hot as after getting him dressed I did brave them and wash my hair, they were cold throughout, not even tepid. The pool itself seemed nice but they really need to sort out the temperature situation. A young baby could easily get hypothermia at this pool.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic, well run, friendly staff, a really clean exciting sport and leisure centre

Fantastic experience: Love going to the aqua zumba classes with Naomi and aqua fit with Tina. Great classes and group of ladies. Would definitely these classes ☆

Positive experience: Decent sized pool, but very overcrowded. Lots of floaties for kids to play with and a huge slide for bigger kids. There is a large inflatable obstacle for them to climb on too. No private showers. Music far too loud. Lots of life guards and good security on site. Play area outside too.

Positive experience: Excellent gym .classes free for members lovely pool nice cafe .staff are helpful .friendly .needs to sort out parking as cars are parked all over on double yellows .have had to ask why no lights on car park several times .very dark no salt when it's freezing and the exit entrance road is in a shocking state but apparently is the responsibility of the council and at weekends this road is crowded with Irish trucks parked on it last weekend there were 5 trucks parked here .as this is the only way in and out of the centre it is ridiculous that these trucks are allowed to park here they cause a obstruction when it is busy and only last week one of Asdas trucks was struggling to turn round because of the trucks parked where they shouldn't be

Fantastic experience: Great facilities! Gym and swimming pool can get a little busy.

Fantastic experience: Went for the swimming, we liked as you could pay for a visit without being a member, had a great time, music was on too so really enjoyed, good price, only thing I'd say is it wasnt that warm and the toilets we're absolutely freezing, not great when you've just got out of the baths, haha the cafe food looked really nice, they also have an indoor & outdoor play area, great place to go especially if weather not great, friendly happy staff, very impressed would highly recommend a visit.

Positive experience: Overall we'd return to visit We often visit the cafe, Play center and swimming. The cafe has a fab selection of food and refreshments. The staff throughout the complex are very professional and helpful, although we have to include that on some visits we've been greeted and tended to by an uninterested staff member when arriving, but people all have bad days at times and not every welcome always needs a smile and some eye contact. The play center can get a little crowed but the children don't mind and as long as their having fun that's the main thing. The pool hasn't changed much over the years, we used to visit when we were younger and loved using the slide, we see it's not open much, but have never questioned why. The jacuzzi is cold but the main pool is warm. The children are allowed to help themselves to floats to play with which they love.. adds an extra aspect of fun. There is unfortunately one thing we have all found when we do on the odd occasion go swimming. The floors in the changing facilities in the pool on most of the visits are dirty. Understandably it's more than inevitable because of the heavy traffic of wet feet and shoes/trainers, But if someone could try and clean it periodically so that people don't have to walk through brown sludgy water on the floors after having a shower, it's rather displeasing.

Positive experience: Great indoor play area for children. My 4 and 2 year old grandchildren had a brilliant time. You don’t need to book in the week just turn up which was a bonus. Plenty of choice on the food menu but I do think with it being a health and fitness centre they could have served better quality sausage. Don’t know what was put on there plate but it was inedible ( shame )

Positive experience: Visited for athletics competition, not sure if track is owned by Leisure Centre but it certainly looked tired, bit of the poor relation in comparison to the rest of the centre. Pathways muddy, fencing broken, shot putt area needs weeding and cage circle was slippy as holding water. Did call into Leisure Centre to use the cafe which was a lovely area, staff friendly with decent choice of food and drinks.

Positive experience: My son attends two separate classes here, both are good value for money and the staff are always very helpful. Pool seems clean and well maintained and the gym is well equipped

Positive experience: We visited today to use soft play, the equipment in the baby area is very grubby and in desperate need of a thorough clean. The staff were lovely, helpful and friendly. We used the cafe, food was good.

Fantastic experience: Good place to take the family swimming, indoor soft play, rock climbing and much more. Well maintained

Positive experience: I have used Salt Ayre for 3 yrs now,staff are always friendly,quick access all day and very clean.

Negative experience: Would not recommend going to the spa called up to see if I could pay to go and use the sauna told them. I would be there in five minutes which I was then refused to let me in telling me they close at six when it was 5:20 pm after waste of my time, having a drive there to refuse me at the desk I explain to them that the lady who works at the reception told me to come down but they was just rude and not interested.

Fantastic experience: I've been going here 3 to 5 times a week since I joined in June and I love it. There are many class options to keep you interested with the bonus of using the gym or pool as well. The spin classes are my favourite as I love the video wall and the fantastic instructors make the whole experience even more enjoyable.

Positive experience: Great main pool however air temperature was cold, and the toddler pool was colder than the main pool, too cold really for our 2 year old.

Negative experience: Pool always good showers are not all working so u stand there and get even more cold needs abit of work if u ask me.

Negative experience: If I could give it no stars I would. After having payed £5 for my one year old I was expecting them to have a variety of things for my son to go play and climb on. No all there was was a tiny area not much to entertain him and he was too small to have a go at the rest of the soft play. They should be charging kids that can actually get use out of it, not from 1 years old.