The Australian Institute of Sport"The Australian Institute of Sport - Come be inspired!"
This is a great place to bring the kids or anyone who loves Australian sport. You get to see where the Australian sports men and women of tomorrow are currently training, their facilities and regimes. There is of course a museum section too which has a fabulous interactive area which any kid or big kid will love.
Getting to The Australian Institute of Sport and Opening HoursThe AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) is quite a few km outside of the main Canberra city. It's probably best to get there by car. It's well sign posted from the main roads and can be found at: Leverrier Street, Bruce, Australian Capital Territory. The campus itself is pretty large so you need to follow signs and parking for the Visitors Centre. The only thing you can really do here is a 90 minute public tour so either book in advance or you can just turn up. Tours depart daily at 10.00am, 11.30am, 1.00pm and 2.30pm. They tend to close on key holiday dates such as Easter and Christmas You can expect to pay about $18 per adult and $10 per child. If you live locally then you can use the excellent facilities including the swimming pool and gym facilities. They also offer summer camps etc for kids during the holidays.
What You Can Expect For Your Tour Around The AISFirstly the tours are usually taken by a budding elite athlete - so you never know, you may see your host at the next Olympic games. The tour will give you some of the exciting history of this place. Did you know that the Australian Institute of Sport was inspired by Australia's poor performance in the 1976 Montreal Games? From that moment on, the government at the time put funds into building a centre to ensure Australia had a wealth of emerging talent. It worked - with Australia being the only country to win a medal in every Olympic games since. Over 260 of the medal winners in the Beijing Olympics had come through the AIS - pretty impressive hey. The tour takes you into the "Interactive Play Room" which has ball games, cricket games and computer games to test your abilities - you and the kids could spend at least 45 minutes in here! Then you get a tour of the facilities including the gym and swimming pool. They tell you some fascinating stories, interesting facts about the training regime, water temperatures etc - I won't spoil it all though...you'll just have to go! If you like your sport, then this is an interesting tour. It will hold the attention of your teenage kids too!
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