For a sunny day at half-term, this place is perfect. As well as the cafe, there is a community…read moreorchard, a field full of cows, an adventure playground and a woodland walk. The visitor centre itself was designed to show-case green technology, and was kick-started in 2001 with £1m of lottery money. Some of the technology appears to need updating, and it could be better explained to visitors. However, the park is great. It feels like open countryside, despite being only a mile or two from the centre of Leicester. Well worth a half-day visit.

Great place to walk the dog. Loads of trees, with numerous paths - some tarmac and some grass. And…read moreusually other dogs to meet! Two children's play areas - one for little kids and one suitable for all other sizes. Even my teenagers enjoy going on things like the zipwire. Visitor centre is so-so. Reception staff are helpful and usually friendly, but restaurant is nothing to write home about. Local schools do visits, so you may run into them during term time...

There is not much to see here, this place is mostly for people to appreciate birds and plants, but…read moreit's tiny, with very few species and all too common. The best thing about it is convenient location. Walking around a green park improves overall health.

The Arboretum is a small park in central Nottingham not too far away from the Victoria Centre - a…read moreperfect place to relax and while away an hour or two. It's not huge in area, but still manages to pack quite a lot into a small space. The Arboretum pub is no more, unfortunately, but that still leaves the small lake (more of a pond really), aviaries and gardens to explore. Popular with students and the occasional dishevelled person talking to themselves, the Arboretum has character and it's wonderful that a green space like this still exists in the city centre. Events are held occasionally.

A pretty big park with a several amenities from a snack bar to a model railway and boat rentals for…read morethe river. Nothing fancy but pretty ideal if you want to take you little 4 legged friend for a walk (that would be me!). Plenty of parking.

security and manager did not let us in at 7.45 as they said they close at eight a white family then…read morewent in at 8 and they let them in we walked back and then they said we can now go in spoke to the manager and did not even apologise. asked for there names and gave me an asian name when he is clearly not an asian one of the security guys D wilkes also was rude supposed to be a family event and clearly the workers do not know how to treat people equally! also have videos off this hopefully they do not treat other people this way as it shows inequality still exists.

Rosliston Forestry Centre is just on the outskirts of the village and is one of South Derbyshire's…read moremost popular destinations. The car parks are accessed to the south, and a pay and display (£2 all day). This really is the perfect place for children of all ages, there are huge areas of open space, a children's playground, with a huge owl shaped slide and on the day of our visit a huge pool, where you could get into a huge transparent ball and move around the surface of the water. Adults are equally well catered for, a variety of walks of different distances, through the now well established forests, percolated occasionally with wooden sculptures, monuments to the area's industrial heritage and a large pond, complete with baby coots and moorhens. There is a recently opened craft shop, specialising in card making, a souveneir type shop and a cafe, to name but a few of the attractions. The Hub Cafe is fairly large building with a decent amount of both indoor and outdoor seating. Menu wise, a good range of drinks, both hot and cold, alcoholic and non. Food wise, there are hot dishes like burgers, lasagne, pasties etc. There is also a wide variety of ice creams, sandwiches, paninis and a soup of the day. Pretty standard fare overall, but tasty nonetheless, the salad could have done with being fresher though. Cajun fries were a hit, very spicy! As I said, at any time of the year the Forestry Centre is relentlessly busy, which detracts somewhat from its overall appeal perhaps I'm just antisocial! Still, if you walk far enough, you can still find peaceful and serene locations, away from the hustle and bustle.

A really well looked-after outdoor centre. perfect for kids - it has a lovely outside play area and…read morevarious short-ish woodland walks.

William Gregg is the leisure center in Heanor, not the sandwich shop…read more The leisure center has had a full refurbishment over the past year, and is a lovely clean facility. The changing rooms are great with decent sized lockers. The gym here is brilliant. The staff are really motivating and friendly, and always on hand to give advice if you need it. They also make sure you don't feel intimidated by the body building types. There is loads of equipment and loads of running machines means I've never had to wait to use one yet. The brand new pool is lovely! Very clean and modern. If you're going to use the facilities here regularly I'd recommend becoming a member. It's very good value for money, for about £30 monthly you get unlimited use of the facilities and classes on offer, and you can use your membership at the Ri0pley Center too!

Great variety of equipment, also the classes are not all for women. Nice new pool and large…read morechanging rooms. There are different tariffs and you can take a 'break' and not have to pay admin. when you start back. The staff are always happy too-when they're not taking a class. Body Pump rocks!

Lovely woods that are seldom busy despite how near they are to Bradgate. Lovely walks for everyone…read moreincluding dog walkers and you can ride your horse in there on certain days. Bird song, squirrels, trees, bluebells in season. Two different carparks, fantastic at any time of year. If you go please don't spoil it.

Very easy to find and looks a little run down but don't let that put you off, the birds on display…read moreare very nice and look very well cared for. My kids loved the free flying birds that were very tame and loved taking food from you and would often walk along your arms. The cafe is very basic but looked clean the staff were friendly. We spent more time here than we expected to and my kids spent the following days talking their visit. Would we visit again? - YES!

We live quite near to Tropical Birdland but we didn't even know it was here until a friend told us…read moreabout it so I guess they could do with advertising the place better. It was fairly easy to find through the village of Desford & they have decent sized carpark. The place itself looks very rundown and dirty so I was a little dubious about it. It cost us £20 for 2 adults and 2 children which wasn't too bad. It is quite a large park but very basic. There are lots of different averies with loads of different species of birds - some that are endangered in their native country which was nice to see. The last part of the park has lots of huge parrotts which are out not in cages so be prepared to have them landing on you. This freaked me out a little but the kids loved it. They have a small cafe at the entrance of the park which looked clean and tidy but we didn't use so can't comment on the quality. They also have a good sized picnic are in the part where the birds are free flying and sell drinks and ice cream but be prepared to share your ice cream with one of the birds. We spent a morning here and did have a really good time. I guess it would be nice if they had some funding to spruce the place up a little and this place could go from good to great.

A review of a council run leisure centre should probably really focus on what the place sets out to…read moreachieve. I would guess that it aims to provide a place for the public to fulfil their leisure requirements, with decent equipment available, a good selection of classes, served by good staff and all reasonably priced. With the above in mind I can not fault Carlton Forum. I moved to the gym in here from a more expensive National Chain, for the simple reason that I needed to save a few quid where possible. Having ditched my £65 per month subs at the previous gym I am now paying £31 per month at Carlton Forum. So what have I lost for the £34 per month I now get to keep in my pocket??? Well the luxury definitely, the nice plush sofas, a receptionist with a perfect smile and model looks etc etc. But in terms of the need it intends to fulfil - that of keeping fit - absolutely nothing! Carlton Forum provides access to all the equipment I need to carry out my regimes exactly as before and the atmosphere is less pretentious than the previous place, giving a more communal and relaxed feeling when you finally pluck up the courage to visit the gym. Obviously there are a wide range of things on offer beyond that of just the gym. Swimming, tennis, football, badminton, exercise classes, spinning classes, squash etc etc. So there really should be something for everyone.

Carlton Forum is a nice little leisure centre, which offers all the things you would expect -…read moreswimming pool, Gym, squash and badminton courts etc. They run classes and swimming lessons, as well as swim sessions like Ladies only and Timid Swim. The prices are reasonable and you get discount with the Gedling Leisure card. There is a bar upstairs, however if you are looking for a drink in the day they only have vending machines.