Tag: knowsley

Spa Days: Volair Spa, Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

Despite a promise to look after myself a bit better this year, beauty treatments and spa days have been pretty thin on the ground. Other things and other people come first, which as a mum is how it should be, but it was definitely my turn for a bit of TLC. Real life friend and fellow blogger Liz from Expression and Confession and I hopped in the car for a day at Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park. We had been invited to the spa for the day to check out their facilities and to find out more about the treatments they offer.

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

We arrived at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park and not being locals we had no idea what to expect. It is a large, very modern leisure centre. It’s an interesting state of the art building, filled with sculptures, interesting art works, the biggest swimming pool I’ve seen in a while, a gym, squash courts and lots more.

We headed upstairs to the Volair Spa. We were greeted by Hayley who gave us fluffy robes and slippers to change into. Once we’d got changed we sat in the relaxation room and chilled out with a cup of herbal tea while we waited for some more people to arrive. This is a really restful place, with soft mood lighting, scented candles and comfortable chairs or beanbags to sit on.

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

After a short welcome and health and safety talk we were shown downstairs to the Thermal Suite. I love thermal suites, they are always my favourite part of a spa. The thermal suite at the Volair Spa was small but perfectly formed. It had one steam room, a sauna and a jacuzzi. Everything looked new, scrupulously clean and very very tempting.

We were given some Lycon Spa Essentials exfoliating sugar scrub to scrub ourselves all over with before we began. There were lots of different scrubs to choose from, but I went for the pomegranate. We scrubbed and showered, and with fresh glowy skin we slipped into the jacuzzi to let the de-stressing process begin.

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

We had an hour in the thermal suite, and we tried out the sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. We felt deliciously relaxed and reluctant to leave for lunch. A two hour session in the thermal suite costs just £9.50, or two people for £15 which is excellent value. If I lived locally I could happily spend the day here, swimming for an hour or so, then unwinding in the thermal suite for a few hours.

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

After a light lunch and a glass of fizz we found ourselves in the capable hands of Beauty Therapist Hayley. Hayley gave us a fascinating hands on workshop on how to take our make up off and give ourselves a lovely home facial. My skin already felt pretty fantastic after applying the AromaWorks facial cleanser, toner and facial oils.

We were then ushered into one of their treatment rooms. The rooms are quiet, lit softly and are lovely relaxing spaces. I volunteered to have a Crystal Clear Micro-Dermabrasion treatment. It works by gently exfoliating the outer layers of the skin and gives immediate results for a range of skincare niggles including fine lines and wrinkles, open pores, blackheads, pigmentation, blemish scars and acne scars. I have pretty good skin for my age, but they promised to blast out some of my stubborn blackheads, clean my open pores and give me a general freshen up.

The Crystal Clear Micro-Dermabrasion didn’t hurt at all. Ultra-fine crystals are blasted onto your skin, but it feels quite gentle, just a little bit like someone is gently pushing your face with something like the rubber end of a pencil (that’s the only comparison I could think of, I’m sorry). It took around 20 minutes and afterwards my skin was moisturised. When I got home I took a photo…

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

… and I was impressed by how fresh and glowy my skin looked. It was visibly cleaner (yes I do wash every day) and brighter. Everyone who has clapped eyes on me since has remarked on how well I’m looking too.

We had a thoroughly relaxing day at the Volair Spa at the Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park. It’s a lovely, modern spa with good facilities, great treatments, a restful atmosphere and free parking. It was so good we’ve booked to go back next month!

The Volair Spa is at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park, Longview Drive, Huyton, Merseyside, L36 6EG Tel: 0151 443 2580

We were invited guests of Volair Spa, but all images and opinions are our own. We were under no obligation to blog about our spa day.

Knowsley Safari Park – Feeding the Animals!

We were invited guests of Knowsley Safari Park. We were given free access to their Family Workshop in return for this review. All images and opinions are our own.

During the gloriously long Easter weekend we hotfooted it to Knowsley Safari Park to feed the boys burgeoning obsession with giraffes and cheeky monkeys.

We went primarily to check out their “Food and Feeding Family Workshop” which is two hours of fun and animal education for just £6.50 each.

The workshop was hosted by knowledgeable rangers, Nicky and Sue. They started by telling us about herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, then we got to meet and touch some. We met a Australian tree frog, some giant land snails, a rat and a pair of weird but harmless hissing cockroaches, as well as looking at some animal skulls and checking out their teeth.

We were then put to work preparing breakfast for the meercats. This involved stuffing fruit, dog biscuits and mealworms into holes drilled in small logs, then plugging the holes with melon. This was great, messy fun. We then carried our logs to the meercat enclosure and watched them eat their goodies. Meercats are really popular and they’re such funny little creatures close up. We watched them for a little while and they seemed to really enjoy their breakfast.

Later moved on to meet the giraffes. We climbed onto the feeding platform and we were set to work feeding Oliver. Oliver was a very handsome giraffe, he’s 14 years old and really very beautiful. We fed him carrots which he ate by reaching his long, black tongue out for, curling it round the carrot, then munching away. The boy loved this, giraffes are one of his favourite animals. I think he was quite taken aback at the size of them though.

Once the giraffes had full bellies we walked back to the safari school. We were soon put to work again making fruit kebabs on ropes for the Egyptian fruit bats. This was sticky, but fun work. Once we’d all made a kebab and washed our sticky hands, we took our bat treats to the indoor bat forest. The rangers hung the fruit kebabs from the trees while we all stood and watched them feed.

Knowsley Safari Park

I’m not easily spooked, but bats brushed my face and hair a few times and I wasn’t keen to stay for long. The boys loved it, so I stayed with them. As our eyes adjusted to the dark we watched the bats swoop onto the trees and devour their dinner.

Then it was back to the safari school to collect our certificates and badges and say goodbye. I think the family workshops are tremendous value and next time we go to Knowsley Safari Park, we’ll be looking to see what’s available. Our boy loved it. He was a bit young though, and the workshops are only really suitable for children aged 6 and over.

The family workshop was so much fun, we all really enjoyed it and we all learned something new. Not only that but we got to get up close and personal with some of our favourite animals. We’ll be back!

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Knowsley Safari Park and were given free access to their Family Workshop for free in return for this honest review. It was brilliant and worth considering doing if you’re going.