There are giant palm trees as far as the eye can see, the temperature is a constant 30C and there's the gentle splish splash of water as I dip my toes into a vast swimming pool complete with a swim-up cocktail bar. I may be abroad right now - but one day Manchester, one day very soon, this really will be ours.
I'm at the original Therme Waterpark in Bucharest, Romania - a huge indoor domed waterpark and wellness experience boasting 10 pools, 16 water slides, 10 saunas and outdoor beaches, pools and fountains. It's a truly jaw-dropping experience - but even more astounding is that the next Therme Waterpark will be right here in Manchester and it will be DOUBLE the size of this one.
Work is about to start shortly to demolish EventCity opposite the Trafford Centre to make way for the £250m Therme waterpark with a staggering 25 pools, 35 water slides and 30 saunas. It's set to be a gamechanger for not only Manchester's tourism scene, but for the entire UK.
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Seeing how it will look on a computer generated image is one thing, but actually visiting the real-life Therme here in Bucharest is quite another. It makes you realise that this really IS a reality, and it's about to become OUR reality.
That one day very soon, all of us northerners will be lolloping around on an indoor beach, waves lapping on our feet, before we swim up to a cocktail bar for our Margaritas and Mojitos. We'll be getting steamy in a range of eye-popping sauna experiences (more on that later), getting a relaxing massage or facial, or maybe even trying a bit of yoga in an expertly manicured herb garden, all under a glass dome super-structure.
For anyone who spent their summer hols at Rhyl Sun Centre in Wales or The Water Place in Bolton in the 80s, 90s or 00s and thought that was pretty exotic (me included), your mind is about to be seriously blown.
Walking into the real Therme does feel a bit like you're walking into a CGI though. It's just so darned perfect.
Arriving at the huge glass domed structure, which is around half an hour out of the city centre of Bucharest, you get a sense of the scale of the place. But it's once you get inside that you appreciate just how spectacular it all is.
At the entrance desk you can rent some flip flops and a fluffy robe to wear over your swimsuit or bikini, although the temperature is set at a permanent 30C inside, so it won't be long before you'll want to shrug it off. Trust me, everyone is quick to lose their inhibitions once inside the toasty glass dome.
And here in Bucharest it's a real range of people using the facility, not just Love Island style gods and goddesses, so there's no need to feel body-conscious. Incredibly there's the capacity for up to 10,000 people to enjoy this place every day, yet it never feels overly full during our visit - that's how massive it is.
It's the Therme mission to very much be accessible to all - with a dedicated family zone boasting 16 zany water slides and a variety of different pools and splash parks suitable for the very youngest in the family up to the more adventurous. They've got big ambitions for Manchester next, where there will be a jaw-dropping 30 different water slides, including their very first "living slide," clad with all sorts of flora and fauna.
It took us several hours just to do a walking tour of the whole Therme site, which in Bucharest includes three "zones" that you can book to visit separately for set prices, or pay to use the lot. There's the Galaxy family-friendly zone where you'll find all the slides, The Palm which is over-14s only at the central dome, while Elysium gains you access to all of the facilities - including the upper floor where the saunas and wellness centre can be found.
And when it comes to those saunas, well, it's not just sitting around on a towel feeling like you're melting here at Therme. It's all a bit more interactive than that.
It's famous for its "Aufguss" sauna experiences, where you might be called to rub yourself down with honey while a therapist performs a towel dance in front of you. Or head into the Amazon Sauna for a "Fruity Ice" ceremony where you rub a block of frozen ice tea over your body which is sizzling away in 65C heat.
This is also where you'll find the wellness centre and treatment rooms, with a range of massages on offer, the likes of volcanic hot stone massage, or a Siberian Cold leaf massage, priced from £44 for an hour. But if your budget doesn't quite stretch to extra treatments, the whole place is bursting with relaxation zones and experiences that are included in the entrance price.
Therme Manchester won't be opening until 2025 so pricing has not yet been confirmed, but bosses say it will follow a similar structure to how it's done in Bucharest. And that too, is aimed at being affordable and accessible to all with a sliding scale of fees - I'm gobsmacked when I see how reasonably it's all priced in Romania.
Prices are sectioned into off-peak which is Monday to Thursday in term times, while peak is Friday to Sunday and school holidays and you can choose to stay for three hours, 4.5 hours or a full day. In Romania, prices start from £10 for adults for three hours off peak in Galaxy, and from £8 for kids aged 3-14, with under-3s going free.
For adults in the Palm, prices start at around £14 for three hours off peak, and £16 during peak times - or £22 off peak/£26 peak for the full "one day holiday" experience inside. For adults enjoying the premium Elysium experience, the prices start from £18 for three hours up to £27 for the full day off peak.
As for food and drinks, there's also a wealth of options - but you have to be careful not to rack up the costs where this is concerned. The way it works is you're given a unique wristband when you enter, and you pay for anything extra you buy by tapping your wristband on the payment consoles and then paying it for it all when you leave through the turnstiles.
As I discovered, when you head to the swim-up Palm Pool Bar, it can be quite tempting to partake of the array of iced cocktails to cool down with. But here in Romania alcohol prices are way cheaper than the UK, - we were paying the equivalent of £5 - £6 for cocktails that would usually set you back about £10 - £12 in swanky bars here in Manchester.
There's also some pretty spectacular dining options here too. There's a huge restaurant on the main Palm, looking out across the impressive beach zone (where you can also dine outside if you prefer) where you can order from the likes of health-focused salads and sushi to more devilish treats like burgers and fries.
Up in Elysium we headed to enjoy the venue's fine dining restaurant, The Mango Tree, which boasts a seriously stunning outdoor terrace, where we even got to watch the sun set. As night falls, the experience just carries on here at Therme though.
An array of dazzling lights sparkle to life through the palm trees, and the background music that has been there all day starts to burst up a notch or two to give a pool party vibe to proceedings. You can swim through the main Palm pool outside, where fountains also burst to life with regular light and water shows through the evening.
Incredibly, Manchester really will have all of these outdoor experiences too - as it's an all-weather attraction, with bosses stating it doesn't matter how cool outside, the water remains warm throughout. There will be an indoor beach here in Manchester though - what is billed as the "UK's first all-season beach" complete with lapping waves.
As for where things are up to with the Therme Manchester site? Well, earlier this month plans were submitted to Trafford Council by landowner Peel L&P to demolish the EventCity conference space on Barton Dock Road to finally make way for the building works to start.
The 28-acre resort opposite Trafford Palazzo and The Trafford Centre is set to create 1,200 jobs and have a £4.5bn economic impact for the region. The build time is set to be approximately two years - so we're looking at a 2025 launch .
Some of the attractions within the resort include Greater Manchester’s first all-season urban beach, a ‘next generation’ waterpark, expansive thermal pools, a wellbeing spa, immersive digital art, an onsite urban farm and botanical gardens. Bosses are also keen to stress that "environmental consciousness is at the heart of Therme" by using sustainable design and technology to create an affordable and inclusive environment.
Getting to see the real-life Therme made it all feel so much more real to me. When you look at those artist impressions you really can't believe that something like that could really be about to land in the middle of Trafford Park.
But seeing is believing folks - and having experienced the real-life Therme I can tell you we're in for such an incredible treat on our doorstep.
In the most recent statement on the project, James Whittaker, Peel L&P’s Executive Director of Development said: “Therme Manchester is an attraction like no other and it’s incredibly exciting to be making preparations to bring the UK’s first resort of this kind to TraffordCity for people of all ages to enjoy.
“It will attract visitors and investment from across the globe to TraffordCity and the wider city region and we’re proud to be the host venue for such an exceptional development with a strong focus on sustainability, health and wellbeing.”
Richard Land, Chief Development Officer, Therme Group UK said: “We are delighted to have reached this critical stage with Peel L&P, which marks the beginning of on-site works for Therme Manchester.
"An iconic project for the city as well as for the entire UK, this milestone confirms the arrival of Therme in the North. It also solidifies our vision for 90% of the UK to be within easy reach of a Therme destination, with future developments planned for Glasgow, London and other key cities”.
With work finally about to begin on the project, we can all start to get excited about something very, very exciting about to take shape here in Manchester.
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