Wick – the Toddler Pool and Lunch on the Harbour
A few hours.
The route
Wick's leisure centre has a toddler pool beside its big 25-metre pool, and its family sessions are kept for parents and children only.
It's bright, level and easy with a pushchair, with baby changing in the changing rooms, and lunch is a few minutes away on the harbour. It suits families with babies and young children on a grey day.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is House of the Northern Gate, 16 miles away. Sleeps 18.
The day
Wick
An hour splashing in the toddler pool and the shallow end, then soup and home baking looking over the boats in the marina.
About three hours
East Caithness Community Facility
The East Caithness Community Facility is on Newton Road, with around 280 parking spaces, disabled bays and a drop-off point at the door. The pool's family sessions are for parents and children only, with the toddler pool open beside the main pool. On the timetable that runs to 11 October they're on Saturdays from 11.30am to 12.30pm and Sundays from 11am to 1pm, so check the next one on High Life Highland's page. A swim is £9.10 for an adult and £5.50 for a child at the time of writing, and under-3s swim free with a paying adult. The building is level throughout, with a lift, a Changing Places room, and baby changing in both the main changing village and the accessible changing room. Wick Library is in the same building, with Bookbug for babies and toddlers on Wednesdays from 11am to 11.30am.
5 min by car
Wickers World
Lunch
Lunch is at Wickers World on Harbour Quay, about 5 minutes' drive across the river: the white café with a lighthouse on its sign, looking over the boats in the marina. It serves all-day breakfasts, homemade soup, daily specials and plenty of home baking, and opens Monday to Saturday from 9am; it's shut on Sundays. Children are welcome, and it's said to be step-free, with toilets: ring 01955 602433 to check with a pushchair. On a Sunday, No 1 Bistro at Mackays Hotel, a few minutes' walk away, serves lunch.
If it rains
All of it is under a roof.
No 1 Bistro, a restaurant in Wick.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Wick.
Photograph by Walter Dinda (Walt) via Google