Swimming is one of the most popular activities in many countries and few sports can provide so many benefits for your body. Among its many benefits, it can help you lose weight, improve your fitness and make your body work without affecting your bones or joints. Let’s discover them all:

• Though its impact might not be as visible as that of other more intense activities, swimming is a very efficient way to burn calories, even if you swim at a low or moderate pace.

• It will build muscles all over your body and though you might not look like an Olympic athlete as a result of few laps in your local pool, swimming will make your muscles bigger and stronger and it is a great way to work out without putting stress on your joints.

• It makes your entire body and especially your heart and lungs stronger. Some researches have shown that swimming has many beneficial effects on your cardiovascular system and it may help lower blood pressure or control blood sugar. It is also appropriate for people with clinical conditions like arthritis, injuries or other issues that would make all other more intense activities difficult.

• Swimming is the ideal way to take a break from a busy life, work commitments and all the other aspects of modern life. A pool is a quiet and safe place to be, a place where you can shut off and de-stress after a long day.

• Kids need to exercise every day and swimming is great for them, too. It is a fun activity and it will not feel like a chore for them; the idea of splashing in a pool will get them moving.

Warm summer days and evenings are the perfect time to make the right use of your porch and enjoy the time outside with your friends and family. Why not have a family lunch or an evening party on the porch, or simply enjoy a nice warm afternoon and relax? Here are some simple ways to transform your porch and make it comfortable and inviting with just a few touches.

Upcycling is the key word. Look around in your house, your garden, and your garage for old things you no longer use that might have a second life on your porch.

Antique milk cans are lovely planters. Use an old piece of wood and repaint it as a welcome sign.

Old window frames or mirrors are great wall decorations, and old ladders can be used as shelves. A cable spool painted white and decorated with plants, candles, and glasses makes for a wonderful porch table. Or how about old wooden boxes as storage for your rubber boots? 

Go with a color theme and get lots of cozy pillows. If you want a bit of privacy, how about a white tent on the porch? Old shutters make for great room dividers, and climbing vines make your porch look inviting.

Lights set the mood, so go with lots of candles or fairy lights. For a mosquito repellent, try a mason jar filled with water, a lime, two sprigs of rosemary, some essential oils and some vinegar, and a floating candle on top. 

Finally, provide comfortable and easily set-up seating for all of your guests: Bestway’s inflatable couch with its sturdy coil-beam construction and convenient folding design can double as a guest bed when not needed on the porch. Or add some oriental colorful flair and comfy seating with our inflatable pouffes and enjoy Arabian nights on your porch in the summer! 

Boat trips make for a fantastic day out during your beach holiday with family and friends. If you remember to take these five things on board of your boat, your trip will be safe and fun for everybody!

1. Sun protection
Having sun protection is the most important thing when staying out on the water all day. Bring plenty of sunscreen and lip balm and remember to reapply frequently. Sunglasses and hats are also helpful. Bestway offers UV protection suits for your kids.

2. Swim and diving gear
If you want to go swimming, snorkeling, or diving during your boat trip, Bestway offers a huge variety of swim and diving gear such as goggles, diver masks, snorkel sets, and glide caps. Also remember to keep everybody safe by packing swim vests or inflatable armbands for your kids. Our animal riders and colorful lounges make relaxing in the water more fun. Baby seats keep even the little ones safe at all times.

3. Food and drinks
A day out in the sun and the fresh air will make everybody hungry. Since boat rides can get a bit bumpy, prefer harder food over soft one, e.g. apples or carrot sticks over bananas. Food in sturdy containers can’t be crushed, unlike chips in bags. Cheese sticks or pretzels are also great. Take plenty of water for everybody. Bestway’s inflatable cooler will make sure that the drinks are chilled.

4. Clothing
Clothes in layers are more flexible than one warm item, so bring several sweaters you can wear on top of each other. Plenty of towels and one change of dry clothes can make the boat trip much more comfortable.

5. First aid
Ginger is a great relief if somebody gets seasick. Have some band aids ready for minor scratches, and use insect repellent to enjoy a bug-free boat trip.

A vacation with a group of friends can be a lot of fun, and renting a beach house is a fairly cheap solution for relaxing holidays. But even close friends can get on each other’s nerves every now and then. The best idea is to plan the holiday in advance and discuss what everybody’s wishes for the holiday are. Simply taking one or two hours to read or listen to your favorite music can help you relax and unwind.

When you’re spending time by the water, Bestway offers you some great solutions to carve out some moments of relaxation away from your friends or family. Enjoy some time alone on the water with our CoolerZ items. These “grown up” water sports products give you the perfect alone time by the beach or in the pool. They come with cool and fun accessories such as cooler bags or cup holders.

Take Bestway’s inflatable spiral swim ring or the luxury float, just drift out onto the lake or in the pool, read a book and enjoy some holiday time away from the group. Take the floating cooler with you and fill it with some ice-cold refreshments. Relax in our rapid rider or on our luxury lounge with cup holders.

Or take time away from your group of friends as a couple: Bestway has a “Double the fun lounge” for you! These two lounges can be connected by buckles and strings so that you face each other. The couple’s lounge is made from sturdy pre-tested vinyl. It offers everything you need for a relaxing time: comfortable back rests, two cup holders per lounge, and one detachable sunshade per lounge. This luxury time out as a couple by the sea or in the pool will prove to be very relaxing and make you go back refreshed and ready for fun with your friends!

Flamingos are the new unicorns! This summer, “Flamingo Fever” is spreading all over the beaches and pools everywhere. Teenagers and VIPs alike are fascinated by inflatable pink flamingos or magical unicorns.

These so-called “fashion floats” have become so popular that even luxury resorts are now offering them to their guests to make relaxing by and in the water even more fun. While unicorns were ubiquitous in 2016 (not just as fashion floats but basically everywhere: phone cases, shirts, sunglasses, chocolate…), flamingos have joined them this summer. The pink birds evoke images of summer, and pictures of celebrities or bloggers on Instagram with their unicorns and flamingos in the pool are sprouting.

Bestway’s supersized flamingo rider and unicorn rider let you join in the fun and catch Flamingo Fever in your own backyard or by the sea. Relax in the flamingo float in your own pool or let your kids feel like princes and princesses, taming the magical gold and white unicorn.

Our fashion floats are made from sturdy pre-tested vinyl and come with heavy-duty handles. The flamingo float is a bright pink and a real eye catcher on every picture! The unicorn float is elegantly white, with a golden horn and golden wings. The floats have a cup holder, so that you can be fashionable while sipping a cold drink. They have safety valves, and a heavy-duty repair patch is included. The unicorn and the flamingo keep your kids safe in the pool or by the sea or a lake. The bold visual statement makes keeping track of them easy.

Float and relax, take selfies with these lovely creatures and post your memories of a great time outdoors! And once the outdoor season is over, your kids will probably want to keep their beautiful and magical unicorns and flamingos… in their rooms!

At Bestway, we are strong believers in sustainability and alternative energy solutions. We take our environmental responsibilities seriously – but not only that: we make sustainability and production efficiency go hand in hand!

Bestway participates in the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), that is a UK-based non-profit organization working with companies and shareholders to disclose major corporations’ greenhouse gas emissions. When it comes to sustainability and environmental responsibilities, many companies feel that the theory of saving energy and waste often does not go well with economic goals of efficiency and feasibility. At Bestway, however, we have found ways of combining these two. And we strive to continue doing so in the future! 

Our retailers focusing on sustainability along their supply chain have been scrutinized and they encouraged us, as a supplier, to participate in the CDP. Bestway not only joined the project but grasped the opportunity to improve, because we believe in sustainable solutions. That is why we opened our facilities for ground-level insights into our sustainability projects.

Companies participating in the CDP are asked to answer questions regarding their energy use, their waste treatment, their future plans etc. The CDP sustainability report was filled out by 5,600 suppliers – and Bestway ranked #10 over all categories in China and #1 in the category of plastic and metal toys! The #10 overall rank shows that the CDP recognizes Bestway’s will to be sustainable across all categories and to continue doing so in the years to come.

Our participation in the CDP has enabled us to set clear goals and to measure our progress against these goals regarding our "points of excellence". In particular, we have been able to decrease our environmental impact – while at the same time saving money and increasing production efficiency – in the following key areas:

• Waste from construction and demolition
We have considerably enhanced our waste management in China by inviting demolition companies to our building sites. Whenever old buildings are demolished to make room for new constructions, these demolition companies can bid for taking down the constructions and removing the waste. Informal recyclers then recycle the materials (from plastic bottles to large debris from infrastructure demolition) in China’s circular waste economy and pay Bestway for the waste. That way, the demolition is taken care of, Bestway even makes a small profit, and the debris is not thrown away but re-used.

• Post-consumer waste and waste from post-production
The three main materials used in our production are triple laminate (combining two PVC layers with a nylon mesh) used for sturdy pools and such, PVC (polyvinyl chloride spools are used to produce inflatable products), and flocked PVC (used, for example, as the comfy and warm layer of air mattresses). All of these can be recycled – whereas the PVC is usually ground down and then reformed into sheets and spools, the nylon mesh can be treated with air and “fluffed” for use as stuffing material for stuffed animals. That way, we reduce production waste and are cutting down on costs because we have less excess material. 
Post-consumer waste is being reduced by working with major retailers to have them send store-level returns back to the manufacturer, who then either recycles the materials or sells them.

• Energy
The biggest achievement both in terms of sustainability and cost reduction is Bestway’s cut in energy and emissions. In three factories and fifteen sustainability projects, we saved over 7,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2015. Our goal is to continue reducing our emissions by five percent each year. 2016 saw a reduction of 9.3 %, way ahead of our goal. We produced over 5,000 mWh of energy from solar power in 2015, accounting for 5.9 % of the three factories’ energy use. Running our water heating and compression system for only twelve hours a day instead of around the clock has cut costs for electricity by thirty percent.

Sustainability is a long-term project. Bestway wants to support future efficiency, sustainability, and longevity by applying innovative and forward-thinking ideas and strategies. By conserving energy and cutting down on waste, we can achieve environmental goals while still saving money and becoming more cost-efficient.

We are turning challenges into opportunities, and we are in it for the long run.

Sometimes you want to get away from everything: you’ve had a long day at work, the family has been driving you crazy and you just want a moment for yourself or a romantic getaway with your loved one... don’t deny it, we all know the feeling. But we can’t just drop everything from one day to the next and abandon all our responsibilities; we have to find another solution. How can you have a relaxing getaway in your own home?

By creating an oasis of luxury in your very own garden! It’s simpler than you may think. Let me explain: a garden is an area of your house that is like a little piece of nature with flowers, trees, grass… this space is the perfect place to install a inflatable spa or pool. A hot tub is one of the best way to relax: to lay in hot water while it bubbles and massages your body… I can’t think of anything better, not to mention that it can create a perfect night with your loved, just add candles and champagne!

The inflatable pool can also become your perfect day out with the kids: instead of having to take the car and fight traffic while you drive them to a public pool or park, they can invite some friends over and play by the pool while you enjoy the peace and quiet inside. To make your garden even more luxurious, you can add pool furniture, like comfy sun beds to lay on and enjoy the sun, or even an inflatable pool chair, so you can relax with a cocktail in the pool without having to worry about getting wet.

These simple touches will create an ambience of relaxation and luxury: you can create the perfect getaway right in your own back yard!

Even the most fun things need to be taken care of properly if you want them to last, and we are sure that an inflatable pool is one of the last things you’ll want to be throwing into the bin because it wasn’t well-kept. The key to making your heated inflatable pool, small hot tub or outdoor hot tub last is proper maintenance. Sometimes draining and cleaning can seem complicated and time consuming. But if you follow these helpful tips, you can get the job done quickly and easily.

The best approach depends on the type of inflatable pool or hot tub you own. For pools of larger sizes, your best bet is to purchase chemical products that will prevent bacteria from entering and infecting the water. When you go to your local pool shop, you should look for chlorine to treat your pool. If you don’t want to deal with this on a daily basis, a simple chlorine floater will do the trick. Just pop one in your pool; it lets out small quantities of chlorine to keep the pool clean and you won’t have to worry about it harming your children while they swim.

For smaller hot tubs remember to use less chlorine as there isn’t as much water in the tub and too much chlorine can make the water unpleasant. Last but not least, for outdoor hot tubs, such as the Lay-z Spa, just disconnect the pump, replace it with your garden hose, and turn it on. This will allow fresh water to circulate, and then proceed to drain the tub.

We also recommend following the instruction manual carefully in order to properly use the filtration system: regular filtration is a key factor for cleaning and maintenance as it ensures that the chlorine is effective and that water remains clear and crystalline.

We also recommend changing the filter cartridges regularly, as indicated in the instruction manual. Cartridges and sand filtration systems need the appropriate maintenance to reach the best results.

And there you have it. Once you get the hang of it, cleaning and draining it won’t seem as hard a task as you imagined. Just be sure to choose your products wisely, and you’ll be able to enjoy your inflatable pool or hot tub for many seasons to come!

Spring is almost over and summer is just around the corner: hot sun, summer holidays, days at the beach with beach parties at night, relaxing at home in the heat... wait, that last one isn’t right. You can’t go to the beach every day and I think that we can agree that laying around all day at home in the heat isn’t always the most fun activity.

But, if you decide to invite some friends over, you have to have some sort of plan. What’s fun for everyone, refreshing and really simple to set up? Why an inflatable pool party, of course! Yes, the perfect answer to your long summer days is an inflatable pool. Pool parties are fun and can be left to your imagination! You can choose from so many different themes, from Hawaiian to surf! Once you’ve decided on a theme, ideas for activities will start to flow. You can have a huge water fight or even play volleyball in the pool. There is nothing better on a hot summer’s day than chilling in a fresh pool with all your friends. And inflatable pools are so simple to set up and easy to purchase.

Right here at Bestway, we offer a wide range of models at convenient prices. A small price to pay for a whole summer’s worth of fun! And why not add a twist with some super cool accessories such as a ball, water pistols, and outdoor lilos. After all that running around and playing, lying down on a lilo in the pool is just what the doctor ordered!

And best of all, anyone can have pool party, from adults to children! Just remember to play safe and always make sure you have an inflatable rescue ring on hand. So there you have it, your simple solution to a fun summer! We assure you, you won’t regret it!