Aqua Palace, Port El Kantaoui, Tunisia

Myself and my boyfriend visited Tunisia in May 2008 and while we were there we decided to take a walk into the main town, where we found Acqua Palace.

About Acqua Palace
Acqua Palace as you would imagine, is a water park and it's the only water park in Port El Kantaoui. It was closed for a while in 2007 while renovation works were carried out and it opened its doors again for the summer season of 2008, boasting bigger, better and faster slides.

Location
Acqua Palace is located about a 5 minute walk from the main town of Port l Kantaoui. It is not very well signposted but we still found it very easy to find.

Prices
Admission was 15 dinars for adults which works out at £7.50. Prices for children were 7.50 dinars which is about £3.00. I thought the prices were very reasonable and although the park is not massive, I still felt the prices offered us good value for money.

Inside Acqua Palace
The first thing I noticed about Acqua Palace was how new and modern it looked which would make sense considering it has just been refurbished. The grounds were extremely clean and well laid out. Inside, there are various waterslides, a lazy river, a children's area and two restaurants. Towards the back end of the park there was a large, clean swimming pool which at various times throughout the day turns into a wave pool. There are also plenty of areas for sunbathing or just to chill out and the sun beds are available free of charge.

As you arrive at the park, you need to pay your entrance fees at a little booth which is just to the left of the main entrance. After you have paid, you will be given your entrance tickets which you then hand to somebody who is stood just inside the main entrance. From here, you are then directed to the changing rooms. There are male and female changing rooms but unfortunately there are no family changing rooms although we did notice a large family going in and the attendant told them they could all go in one of the changing rooms of they wished to do so. The changing rooms were large and consisted of individual cubicles with lockable doors. I couldn't believe just how clean the changing rooms were, I was really impressed. Also inside the changing rooms were several toilets and lockers. Lockers are available for anyone to use and you need to pay 75p for the use of one. If you want to lock the locker, then you need to pay £2.50 for a padlock and once you return the padlock, you get the £2.50 back. I thought the prices charged for the lockers were really reasonable and it was nice to lock away are valuables while we enjoyed the park.

The Lazy River
The Lazy River runs around the entire park and as I already mentioned, the park isn't overly large but taking a rip around the lazy river is still pleasant enough. The one downside to the lazy river was that there were no entrance points or steps to climb down and into the river so you literally had to just climb into the water from the side which wasn't a problem for us but might have been for some people, especially small children. The lazy river has a current running all around it which pushes you around the course. There are rubber rings available although they just seemed to be floating around the river and you just grabbed one to sit on. I couldn't actually see an area where you collect the rings from so I assume that you have to just choose from the ones that are already in there. There were only about 15 rings floating round on the day we went which wasn't really a problem as the park wasn't too busy but I can imagine later on in the summer season, when it gets busier, they will need to provide more rings. As you float around the course of the Lazy River, you pass the various features of the park such as the wave pool, the children's area and the slides. There are also various jets as you float around which you end up floating underneath and you get a blast of cold water which is actually quite refreshing in the Tunisian heat.

Slides
In total there are 4 types of slides. Three of these are half tubes slides so they are not totally enclosed and you can see the park as you travel down them. There is a white tube slide which has just a couple of bumps and hills on it, and there is also a yellow slides which lasts a bit longer as you go round corners and down hills and over bumps. I assume that the white slide if probably aimed more at children as it is calmer then the yellow slide. There two slides are situated next to each other with a set of steps to the left of them which you need to walk up to reach to entrance to the slides. Next to the two tube slides there is a row of four flat slides. These were great fun and you travel down them so fast. Only people over 12 years old are allowed to use these slides and I assume this is because you end up being spin run and flipping over due to the force at which you travel down the slide. You also land in the pool at the bottom with some force and are thrown under the water.
The last slide is situated across the other side of the park and again this is a tube slide. The slide is white and has various bumps and corners as you travel down in. This slide is actually higher than all the others, so of course you travel down it much quicker.

Main Pool / Wave Pool
The main pool is located in the lower section of the park and was actually pretty empty when we visited. Three times a day the main pool turns into a wave pool where fairly large waves take over the pool. The times for the wave pool are advertised throughout the park and the lifeguards comes and let you know when they are about to start the waves which I thought was fairly useful. The pool is really large and looked exceptionally clean, all around the outside of the pool there were sun beds and tables where you could chill out and enjoy your surroundings.

Children's Area
The children's areas consisted of a small, shallow swimming pool which had a large play area in the middle of it. The play areas consisted of ladders and slides and several jets which sprayed water down the slides and out into the pool. At one side of the little swimming pool there were three children's slides which were similar in appearance to the adult slides although obviously less severe.

Restaurant
There were two restaurant to choose between although they did serve the same food. One restaurant was more formal than the other, with one having properly laid out tables and the other having patio table and chairs. They served hot and cold drinks as well as snack items such as sandwiches and burgers. They also served larger meals which as omelette and chips. The prices were reasonable and you would look to pay about £3 for a burger and chips.

Summary
In summary, I would highly recommend a trip to Acqua Palace. I thought that this attraction offered excellent value for money and although its not very big, you could certainly enjoy a whole day here because you can chill on the sun beds in between riding the slides and taking a dip in the pool. There were three life guards on duty at all times, one situated at the bottom of the slides, one near the children's pool and one near the main pool which I felt was reassuring that our safety was being looked out for.
The park itself is well laid out and extremely clean, with excellent changing room facilities. All in all, Acqua Palace makes a great day out.