The temperature is a constant 30C, there are palm trees as far as the eye can see and there's the gentle splish splash of water as people float around a vast swimming pool complete with a swim-up cocktail bar. It might be hard to believe, but one day Greater Manchester, one day very soon, this really will be ours.
I've been to the real life Therme Waterpark and Wellness Resort in Bucharest, Romania, so I can now very firmly visualise what the bosses of this place have got planned for the first Therme in the UK - that's currently being built in Trafford.
Now that the ground has officially been broken and works have commenced on the vast former EventCity site next to the Trafford Centre, we can all start to imagine what it's actually going to be like to have a resort of such scale on our doorstep.
I went to the original Therme Waterpark in Bucharest to get a sense of the scale of what's to come in Manchester. It's 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 Therme Manchester will be DOUBLE the size of the Bucharest resort.
Work finally started at the site in Manchester in October, after delays due to a few different redesigns. But work is now well underway with diggers seen out on the site in recent weeks.
It brings with it the tantalising prospect of a staggering 25 pools, 35 water slides and 30 saunas being built inside. It's set to be a gamechanger for not only Manchester's tourism scene, but for the entire UK.
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 have the chance to lollop around on an indoor beach, waves lapping at our feet, before we swim up to a cocktail bar for our Margaritas and Mojitos. Our kids will be able to whoop with delight while whizzing around a dazzling spaghetti junction of water slides.
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 domed 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 picture perfect.
Arriving at the huge glass domed structure, which is around half an hour out of the city centre of Bucharest but close to the airport, 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 model figures, 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, that on our visit in 2022 were 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's opening date 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 on my visit, prices started 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 started 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 started 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 in Romania alcohol prices are way cheaper than the UK. On my visit, we were paying the equivalent of £5 - £6 for cocktails that would usually set you back about £12 - £15 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 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.
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 and a half years. Bosses aren't putting an opening date or year yet, but on that basis and given work has now started we could be looking at a 2027 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, MD of Peel Waters where the development sits 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.
“TraffordCity is all about bringing unique and experiential leisure concepts together in one accessible location; Therme Manchester will not just be a gamechanger for Greater Manchester but for the north west and the UK.
"The resort will offer something which has never been seen before in the UK and we are looking forward to continuing to work closely with Therme Group to deliver this exceptional offering.”
With work now finally underway on the project. we can all start to imagine the reality of something very, very exciting taking shape here in Manchester.
