Nelson Park — Attraction in Burlington

Only $5/person (yep!), 2024-total-renovation, clean, many teenage safety staff, huge waist-height swimming area, large "beach-slope" for easy access and brave-toddlers, decent splash park, over-water climbing wall, kid-size diving boards, chairs with shade, and a grass area for picnics so bring your own food and drinks. They don't sell food on site, unless you count the grumpy vending machines.

Lineups...! They get long during the summer vacation, so forget about lane-swimming for adults, its not that kind of pool when it gets hot outside. Lane-training has dedicated time-slots, although that too seems well organized and worth subscribing to.

A good time to visit can be before the sun is at peak-height, or just before 4pm when sunbathing gets less painful and some families leave to get fed. Typically the staff will let 30 to 50-people in at a time, after a pool safety-count (aka body count, if you are not politically correct), so don't be intimidated if the lobby looks like it is full of excited kids.

You can call ahead to get wait times, while you are on your way there. Tnen leave a spare kid in the lineup, so you can go get junk food from the nearby grocery mall, East of the pool. Although, most Canadians seem nervous about letting kids be independent before they are teenagers, so there's that. The world seemed a lot safer for our generation, except for World War 2 etc, but...

So wasn't happy when going to this park. It was totally fenced off and we found it was because it required membership fees to enter which were about $6 per person and no family plan. Everything, playground, splash pad, and pool were all blocked off so nothing was free. Although it looked very nice, with the availability if so many free and open playgrounds and splash pads this was very disappointing to us. It does seem to offer free periods if the website is checked but even with that the staff at the window seemed they'd rather be elsewhere and were so short with their answers that the whole experience was off putting and we chose to leave and...

What a great place for kids and parents! The big kids had a blast on the dirt bike Ramps while the little ones played on the playground. Then we went into the pool area to cool off. The splash pad has a playground also attached and a huge dumper bucket the kids, young and old, really enjoyed. The pool itself is heated and very comfortable, lots of deck space and food is allowed. My oldest ones were able to swim on their own and really enjoyed the spring boards and climbing wall in the deep end. Fantastic place! We need...