The best places in the UK to cool off this weekend
The mercury is rising this week. From pools and beaches to museums and forests, here’s how to cool off
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Your support makes all the difference.Something strange is happening in the UK. It appears to be… hot.
Following May’s showers, a heatwave is expected to roll in across the UK this weekend, with temperatures set to reach nearly 30C.
It’s all thanks to high pressure from the Azores, a Portuguese-owned island group in the Atlantic. (Sunny weather is the only thing they’ll be bringing given Portugal has just been booted off the “green” list, meaning all future arrivals will need to quarantine for 10 days.)
London is expected to see the warmest weather, with highs close to 30C from Saturday until next Thursday.
The Independent’s travel desk has the best places to beat the heat this week.
London lidos
London in the summer is both the best (in my opinion) and the sweatiest place to be when the mercury tips 30 degrees. Luckily, then, there’s a network of open-air lidos across the capital to splash about in: from Parliament Hill or the Hampstead ponds in North London, to Brockwell and Tooting Bec lido, with its grassy picnic area, south of the river. (And while we’re on the river… you’ll have to swim way further west to find any stretches of the Thames worth dipping your feet into.) -Cathy Adams
Snow Centre, Hertfordshire
If you want to escape the heat so badly you’re seeking snow, then head for Hemel Hempstead, where the Snow Centre offers alpine conditions on the edge of the town. It has the largest indoor lesson slope in the UK and a 160m main slope, both of which are over 30 metres wide, this is the ideal place to perfect your ski or snowboard technique ahead of the winter season. In keeping with the frosty vibe, the centre also has an alpine-themed restaurant and bar. - Joanna Whitehead
Alton Towers waterpark, Staffordshire
Theme parks aren’t usually particularly cool places to spend time (a sweltering post-university trip to this Staffordshire theme park put this writer off for life), but that same Staffordshire theme park also has a mega water park that’s perfect in the heat. There is all the usual splashy fun for older kids (and adults): water coasters, high-speeds slides, lazy rivers and a dizzying array of flumes. -CA
Visit an art gallery, nationwide
Public service announcement: museums have air conditioning. Most museums and galleries across the UK opened again on 17 May with a cracking line-up to tempt back visitors. There’s the V&A in Dundee, which opened with Night Fever, looking at nightclub culture since the 1960s; the Tate Modern, which has Yayoi Kusama’s cult Infinity Mirrors exhibition that is the star of a million Instagrams; or the surreal sculptures by Heague Yang at Tate St Ives, currently star of the G7 meeting. -CA
Visit Delamere Forest, Cheshire
You’re almost guaranteed shade at Delamere Forest, the UK’s largest woodland area, between Chester and Manchester. It’s the location of the newest Forest Holidays site, with the brand’s cosy-contemporary log cabins buried within swaying layers of deciduous trees. Each cabin comes with a roof deck and hot tub, which is the ideal way to unwind after a day pounding the mountain biking trails. -CA
...or the forest in Somerset House, London
And on the subject of woodland: 400 trees have popped up as part of a temporary exhibition at London’s Somerset House. The woodland, part of an interactive installation called Forest for Change, is made up of 27 different species of tree including Scots Pine, Hazel and Silver Birch. Visitors to the installation will hear birdsong when they walk among the trees and be able to record messages documenting the change they want to see in the world. -CA
Head to the beach
From Whitby and Waterloo to Folkestone and Aberdeen, the Independent’s travel team have picked out the best beaches across the UK – whether you’re into a traditional kiss-me-quick seaside town or a windswept bay all to yourself. Read our pick of best beaches here. -CA
Cornish coolers
Even when the G7 circus moves on, the southwesternmost county is set to be more crowded than ever this summer. Yet I predict a couple of locations will still provide space as well as the chill factor. Take the train to the end of the line at Penzance, follow the shore for 10 more minutes and you arrive at Jubilee Pool – a vast Art Deco masterpiece with a pool the size of Rutland and a promise that the water is just a degree or two warmer than the sea beyond the gently curved walls. (I didn’t check.)
Or go inland to follow the Fowey River: about halfway down from its source on Brown Willy, Cornwall’s highest peak, you can discover the Golitha Falls. Don’t expect Niagara-like magnificence, but there are some lovely, shaded pools for splashing around. -Simon Calder
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