Alton towers short break review title over 5 images. two of rollercoaster, one of woodland accomodation, one of a Dad and son on a ride and one of a child on a ride
Alton Towers Short Break 2023 Review

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As long as I can remember, from the young Stephen who’s first ‘big ride’ was the Corkscrew, back in the day of the toyland tours, mini apple and energizer, I’ve always wanted to stay at Alton Towers.

20 years later, with a wife and a 3 year old, my dream to stay finally came true. Here’s what we thought in our Alton Towers Short Break Review.

Mystical Woodland lodge accommodation

With six accommodation types to choose from there’s something for everyone from the traditionally themed, flying ship containing, Alton towers Hotel, to the Splash landings Hotel with the waterpark and the child themed CBeebies land hotel.

We opted for the mid-priced Enchanted village Woodland lodge. These cosy cabins had the right amount of mature theming for us, while still magical for Munchkin. Our stay included a round of golf and breakfast at the on-resort Crooked Spoon restaurant.

The lodge transported us to a mystical, land with its woodland theme, watched over by forest sprites. With munchkin loving how we could secretly turn their light on and off to imagine them coming and going but never seen. For us, it was clean, comfortable, albeit the longest walk to the park.

The accommodation also comes with an included 9 hole golf pass. While a good themed course of rides past and present, the golf needed a bit of TLC. It looks like it hasn’t been maintained in a long while.


Looking for other theme park short break reviews? Check out our Legoland review here ➡️


Fab kids rides, experiences and shows

I didn’t know what to expect from the children’s Cbeebies Land area, having not visited it since I was a child, but Munchkin was instantly in awe. He got to meet and greet his favourite characters, pretend to be Postman Pat, give Duggee a famous Duggee hug and ride his first rollercoaster guided by the Octonauts. Its safe to say he had an exceptional time from the get go.

Some of the best thrill rides

It wouldn’t be a trip to Alton towers if Daddy didn’t get to sneak away, join the single rider queues and ride some of my old and now new favourite rides. The Smiler didn’t disappoint and the Wickerman is surprisingly thrilling.

Munchkin loved standing by the drop zone of oblivion too, watching the coasters fall and vanish into the smokey pit. Now I’m counting down the days to take him on it.

Quirky dining experiences

There’s an array of restaurants to choose from when you stay. There’s the Crooked Spoon where we had breakfast, a pizza restaurant in the Splash Landings hotel, a Secret garden restaurant in the main Hotel and the rollercoaster restaurant within the park grounds.

We visited the rollercoaster restaurant on our first night. It was so exciting to see out food fly down the tracks, with flashing lights and music to add to the experience. While this provided a fantastic experience, it was let down by how food comes out as its cooked, so my main meal came nearly 10 minutes before Munchkin or Mummys. Anyone with a young child at dinner will know that the child’s dinner should come first. Otherwise the food was delicious and the whole experience was worth a visit.

On our departure day we visited the Secret Garden. This had the biggest portions of delicious home cooked English meals and a lovely finish to our break.

A fantastic pool

For an extra cost, a visit to Splash Landings Pool can be added. This is a fantastic adventure pool with water flying everywhere. Indoor and outdoor pool zones, a fun fast indoor river and a multitude of slides. This was pure noisy swimming pool fun and I’ve never been to a pool like it.

One downside would be the large slide which circles the room had a wait time of 40 minutes. I’ve never seen anything like that in a pool or waterpark before and I certainly didn’t want to waste that long away

Price

A short break at Alton towers like most theme parks doesn’t come cheap. Also if you stay on resort, you have to add park tickets and pool tickets with only breakfast and crazy golf included in the short break price. Overall the one night break, with two park days and one pool visit, came just short of £380. A considerable amount consider we don’t pay much more for 4 nights at Center Parcs, yet I’d definitely spend it again.


Looking for a longer staycation? See our review of Center Parcs here.


Location

Alton Towers is located in Staffordshire between Stoke and Trent and Derby.

Sum up and those all important stars

Even with my high expectations from wanting to stay as a child, the Alton Towers short break did not disappoint. The accomodation, food, and the park itself were superb. The only disappointments were the arrival of meals at the Rollercoaster restaurant, and the mini golf, which looks like its needed love for many years. Overall its a great break we would definitely repeat in the future.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Thanks for reading,

Daddy and Munchkin

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Our National Trust Top Four

While we only started our membership during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have managed to visit a good handful of National Trust properties. While Oxburgh Hall and the Dunstable downs and a few others didn’t quite make the list, here are our top four of the National Trust properties so far. (This post will get updated over time as we visit more locations).

4. Clumber Park, Worksop

Clumber park is a huge expanse of woodland and park land situated off the A1, south of Worksop. It has many a peaceful walk surrounded completely by nature, letting you feel totally disconnected. This is the property we first saw Munchkin’s love for nature grow. His little nine-month old eyes lit up when he first saw the trees towering above him and his love for nature hasn’t changed since.


3. Belton House, Grantham

Belton House is a one of the properties I visited as a child, and we have revisited many a time with Munchkin. It has a giant wooden park which, for a little one, stretches for miles, is the National Trusts biggest play area, and is topped off with a woodland train to give you a swift ride through the trees. Belton House hosts fantastic Christmas light displays (which we will certainly be visiting this winter) and has a fantastic property (which you can visit again now).


2. Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge

Just pipped by Cliveden for the top spot, Anglesey Abbey was the first property to fuel my passion for visiting National Trust properties. Set in 114 acres, north-east of Cambridge, Anglesey abbey features a fantastic woodland park (which is sadly currently closed due to Covid-19) and fabulous seasonal gardens which surprise us on every visit. We love a stroll or toddler-run up and down the tree -lined grass walkways and an amble alongside the river which leads up to a working water mill.


1. Cliveden, Maidenhead

Set on a stretch of the Thames, north-west of London, this property has miles and miles of woodland and riverbank to wonder. It boasts a fantastic property (albeit one we’ve only seen from the outside as we visited during Covid times, during our October getaway). There’s a fantastic wooden storybook themed play area, a wooden play trail, options for boating trips and absolutely stunning gardens.

We learned a lesson at this one which we found out the hard way. If you walk the many miles up to the southern car park and then down the Thames, this may be a beautiful walk but there is a chance your toddler will get tired, go in the pushchair and fall asleep. But that’s fine right? Well not when the return up the hill is many many steep steps, which is a challenge with all the day’s bags, a pushchair and a toddler sleeping inside!

That said, it is such a fantastic and beautiful property. The view of the Thames is spectacular, and there’s plenty for the kids to do when not wondering through the woodland. That’s why its made the top spot.

National Trust Membership

As mentioned in the intro, we have a National Trust membership which grants us access to the houses and gardens, free parking (at most properties) and a handy dandy guidebook. For two adults its only £10/month and for a family of two adults plus children its only £10.50. To compare, a visit to Cliveden costs £15 per adult and £7.50 per child aged 5 – 17, with children under 5 go free, so membership was a no brainer for us.


Which is your favourite National Trust? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading,

national trust

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A Dive from the Sky – Daddy did a skydive

In April 2019 I thought it would be great getting a group from work together to do a skydive. I had a gift voucher from 2011 and just hadn’t found a group of determined individuals to go with (or maybe I was actually procrastinating a little). So I popped the email out and got nine colleagues, past and present to join me, little did any of know then though that it would take until September 2020 to actually jump…

The faint hearted may call us crazy jumping from 10,000 ft, and maybe I would have agreed a little. But now, post-jump I think you are actually maybe crazy for not wanting to give it a go!

Why it took so long? You know, that 17 months it took from booking to actually jumping. Well that’s firstly the struggles of getting 10 people to agree on a date to book, with everyone’s weekend plans. Then add the typical British weather, slap on a vital plane part stuck in customs for weeks and then top it off with a sprinkling of a viral pandemic. It’s mad thinking it actually went ahead, for seven of us at least, still amongst the Covid-19 madness.

We made it on site once before, in November 2019. We jumped into jumpsuits and slipped on our harnesses in preparation. The first group boarded the plane, with us in second position. The plane set off, down the run way, then the fog dropped. We waited until 1:30pm, saw no relief and went home disappointed.

The group before us, on the plane that never flew

Then on Saturday 5th September, a coffee, was a welcome sight as seven of us nervously arrived. The nerves then grew as we got closer to flying, but were then suddenly dashed as wind speeds increased and the plane was grounded, over and over, again and again. We waited it out like before and at around 3:45 pm our names were called across the tannoy. ‘It’s actually happening!’ (though we got this far last time). We got fastened up in harnesses, took one last anxious looking masked covered face photo (see below) and climbed into the plane.

Sky diving is probably the closest you’ll get to another human who’s not from your household during lockdown. It is awfully cosy on those planes.

The door opened and closed throughout the climb, as per the new Covid rules. Then we hit 10,000 ft. The door opened for the final time and the first jumper disappeared outside. Four of my friends later, it was my turn. We shuffled to the door, legs back, fingers in our harnesses, head back and moments later we were speeding down towards the ground.

30 seconds of freefall seemed only like a moment. Then the parachute opened and the full view could be fully absorbed. It was the most mind-blowingly beautiful sight but also topped with the extreme thrill as my instructor asked if I wanted calm or exhilarating (a silly question for me). We spun in circles, dipped and dropped, before we finally drifted to the ground.

It left us all speechless, but elated beyond words. It wasn’t long after we were saying what we should do next…

Munchkin, I’ll take you one day, if you like. Just don’t tell Nanny.

Thanks for reading,

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