Tag: days out with kids

A Great Review of Pettitts Animal Adventure Park

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Another day, another post about one of our local adventures! This time a review of Pettitts Animal Adventure park, which is based in Reedham, and is close to both Great Yarmouth and the Norfolk Broads. Pettitts offers theme park rides, animals as well as animal encounters, parks and playgrounds, and entertaining shows. It is a classic theme park….but smaller. I would say it is best suited to primary school-aged children, with older children preferring something a little more thrilling. But my boys LOVED it, and at 5 and 8, were the perfect ages for everything offered.

Note: Pettits closes for the winter season, and isn’t due to reopen until Easter this year, so this review is based on our last visit, which was during Halloween half term (the last day before they closed for the winter, in fact!)

THE ANIMALS

Pettitts is an animal adventure park, and it lives up to its name with the number of animals you can see! Obviously, this isn’t a zoo (so don’t expect lions and elephants!). We boys loved how close they were able to get to the playful raccoons, we went to an animal petting session where they held rats, rabbits and bearded dragons, and there is also a large farm where you can interact with all the traditional farm animals, as well as feeding and petting a huge pen full of goats.

In terms of more ‘exciting’ animals, we loved to see the meerkats, were amazed at just how many reptiles were in the reptile house, there were aviaries full of exotic birds, and cheeky marmosets who made us laugh with their antics. I will reiterate again, if you come expecting a zoo you’ll be disappointed (and Norfolk certainly boasts better zoos) but in conjunction with the other elements of the park, there were plenty of animals for an entertaining day out.

THE RIDES
The boys are theme park junkies, so it comes as no surprise that their favourite part of Pettitts was the rides. These were age-appropriate for both boys, and all were family-friendly too, which meant the four of us could ride together. If you’re looking for big thrill rides then you’re going to be disappointed, but there are two small junior roller coasters, some classic spin and circle rides, and a hot air balloon ride the boys loved so much that we must have ridden it a dozen times.

Some of the rides were obviously ripped off from Disney (think Dumbo flying elephants and a junior coaster that called itself ‘the wildest ride in the wilderness’) but if anything this only added to the charm of the place rather than took anything away. The queue times were always short, and the friendly staff were happy (and even encouraged) the children to ride again if there was no one else in the queue.

THE PLAY AREAS

The play areas at Pettitts are big, well thought out, and plentiful. At the main play area (a monolithic wooden structure where the boys played for at least an hour) there was an abundance of seating for waiting parents. There was also only one entry and exit to this playground, which made me feel safe even though the playground was so big I couldn’t see the kids at all times.

Other play areas included a JCB-themed sand play area, with slides and functioning diggers, and there were also two huge slides that you whizzed down on straw mats. Like most kids, the boys love a playground, so they were delighted to be left to their own devices and play games together, whilst I supervised from a comfy deckchair with my face turned towards the sun! Some areas of the park can feel a little older/run down, but it certainly doesn’t impact on the fun, or act as enough of a deterrent to a brilliant day.

THE BEST OF THE REST

Unlike so many other theme parks, picnics are encouraged at Pettitts, and there is an abundance of seating areas; covered and uncovered, in shaded spots and out in the sunshine. We brought our own packed lunch and then shared chips to put in our sandwiches. We then had giant ice cream sundaes from the ice cream parlour later in the day (and huge donuts for breakfast, calories be damned!) These were good quality, delicious, and reasonably priced, so three big ticks from us! Other eateries included a donut stand, sweet shop, coffee shop serving Costa coffee, and the cafe where we fetched our chips did serve hot meals if you wanted something more substantial to eat.

This is one of the things I really like about Pettitts: at other theme parks you feel forced to pay extortionate fees for mediocre food, but here bringing your own is just so easy.

PRICES

As Pettitts is closed until Spring, 2022 ticket prices aren’t available yet, but the link to purchase tickets is here. One feature of particular note (particularly if you live locally) is that once you have purchased a ticket, you can use that ticket to return again for half price at any point during the year. This is incredibly good value, and something we take advantage of, taking the boys in both the Easter Holidays, and for the Halloween event. We already have their opening weekend marked in our calendars, and are looking forward to going back and enjoying more of what Pettitts has to offer!

Review: Alton Towers Santa Sleepover, December 2021

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The end of last year got away with me (with Christmas, and all our family birthdays crammed into December) so this piece is much later than I planned, but better late than never! At the end of December, we enjoyed a weekend away to Alton Towers for their Santa Sleepover event.

We absolutely loved the Christmas market that they had opened along Tower Street, the Santa experience was fab (and Santa had plenty of time to chat with the boys), all of the staff that we encountered were friendly and welcoming, and we just loved the theme park! Only certain areas of the park were open (CBeebies land, David Walliams land, some of the Pirate area, Hex, Pinball, and the Driving school) but it was plenty to fill a day and lots of fun.

Pro tip: If you can take the kids on a weekday then do! We went into the park on the Friday and Saturday of our stay and the difference was incredible. Whilst the Saturday was fairly crowded, on the Friday we queued for nothing, for most of the rides we were the only family riding, and it felt like we had the whole park to ourselves! In fact, the boys enjoyed ‘Raj’s Bottom Burp’ so much that the wonderful operator let them ride 4 times in a row without getting off! The following photos show just how magically empty everything was:

I try very hard to be positive, but there were some aspects of this break we didn’t enjoy: Covid compliance in the hotel was non-existent and the waterpark was crowded to the point of discomfort. We also had issues in a couple of the restaurants. For this reason, I won’t be mentioning these elements of the Santa Sleepover in my review.

MEETING SANTA

With mask-wearing being required in December, we were a bit worried about the magic being ruined by Santa in a face mask: we needn’t have been concerned. The Santa experience was brilliant! Santa was warm and welcoming and had a real beard (very important to our boys!). He was sitting behind a desk and there was a glass screen on the desk for covid-reasons, but it had been set up in a way that felt really organic and natural. After being assured that the boys were good, they were directed to a stack of wooden parcels, where they opened the ‘magic doors’ to find their own gifts: a dated Alton Towers bear each.

Pro tip: If you can book the first slot of the day for Santa. We did this, and it meant we didn’t have to queue at all for this experience.

CBEEBIES LAND

I have written a whole post about CBeebies land before: It is the perfect place for toddlers, pre-schoolers, and those in the early years of their school career. Boy5 is in year one and he is a huge Peter Rabbit fan, so he loved the Hippity Hop ride and seeing Peter’s paw prints on the walk of fame. Boy9 enjoyed riding alongside his brother, and his favourite ride was the Octonaughts coaster, but would be the first to admit he is far too old for CBeebies land now. Having said that, the land is clean, wonderfully themed, and the layout makes it easy to navigate. There are plenty of rides and attractions to enjoy, covering the whole spectrum of the CBeebies universe. Special mention to the Furchester hotel show, which is a lot of fun and which both boys genuinely enjoyed.

DAVID WALLIAMS LAND

This was our first visit to David Walliams land, and both boys really loved it! The theming is excellent and feels very true to the books(and films) and the rides are age-appropriate and a lot of fun for both the 5 year old and the 9 year old. There are four rides in total, and three of them were family rides that we could all enjoy together.

The four rides comprise of a carousel, a themed version of a twister, Raj’s bottom burp (a child-sized drop ride that farts as it goes up and down, to much small boy amusement), and Gangsta Granny ride, which is the jewel in the crown of the area, and a lot of fun. The shop is themed to Raj’s corner shop, and every detail of the mini-park has Walliams touches in it. Boy9 is a devotee of Walliams books, so visiting this area of the park was a dream come true for him, but Boy5 loved it too: would recommend it heartily for all primary school-aged children.

THE CHRISTMAS MARKET

Finally, how can I not mention the 60 stall Christmas market, which injected the whole experience with such a wonderful festive feel? We loved walking around it, and enjoyed a great lunch there too, eating Bratwurst and Churros, Hot chocolates, and an incredible venison burger. It was, without doubt, the best meal we have ever eaten in Alton Towers. Note: the prices weren’t cheap (in fact, they were eye wateringly expensive) but this is easier to tolerate when the food tastes so good.

Great Yarmouth’s Time and Tide Museum: An Unexpected Hit!

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When we visited the Time and Tide museum yesterday, we didn’t have high expectations. It was a horribly wet and rainy day, and we wanted an indoor, educational (ish) morning out to somewhere we’d never been before. A friend of a friend mentioned the museum on social media, so we decided to give it a go: We couldn’t have been more impressed!

The exhibits were interesting and well presented, with plenty of interactive elements to entertain the children. You start your tour by entering a replica of typical row housing from 1913, which was incredibly popular in the area, and was incredibly well done. You then passed into a courtyard, where you could see examples of old fishing boats, and we also found a play boat which the children jumped straight on to, despite the rain.

The museum also covered a surprisingly huge spectrum of both history and world events, covering both with a local focus. We loved learning more about the Herring industry and smoking process, which the town was famed for and the building itself was used for: this covered much of the downstairs of the museum. But upstairs things only got more interesting, particularly for the boys!

Roman artifacts, neolithic bones, a Viking longboat carved from a log. Local stories from those touched by the sinking of the Titanic, how Great Yarmouth grew into a popular seaside resort, and a fascinating gallery about life in the area during both World Wars. Did you know that Great Yarmouth was the most bombed coastal town in the UK? I had no idea!

The final exhibit was niche, but my favourite of all. The history of Ladybird books, which are produced locally, with walls full of beautiful illustrations. There was also a stack of books and a comfy sofa for children to cosy up and get reading.

All in all, we stayed in the museum just over 2 hours, but you could certainly stay much longer. We didn’t read or appreciate all of the exhibits fully, as Boy5 was getting a bit antsy at the end of the 2-hour mark. (Not bad going for a boy of his age!) Everyone agreed that it was a great morning out, and we would definitely visit the museum again- in fact, we’ve already promised to take my parents on their next trip to visit, because I know they would have found it fascinating too!

Due to Covid requirements, tickets to the museum must be pre-booked at least a day in advance. Adult tickets cost £6.70, whilst children cost £6.20: under 4s are free. For a family ticket (of 2 adults and 2 children) the price is £23.22.
TIP: If you’re on a budget then Norfolk museums offer a ‘twilight hour’ ticket, where you can visit for the last hour before closing for just £2 per person. We used to do this a lot at Norwich castle when Boy5 was a little younger, and couldn’t spend more than an hour at a time in a museum anyway!

You can find out more about the Time and Tide museum, and book tickets, here.

Where to Visit Santa for Christmas 2021

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It’s that time of the year again! With less than 100 days ’til Christmas, now is the perfect time to start thinking about booking your Christmas 2021 Santa experience. In fact, some of the experiences local to us opened up bookings (and sold out too!) more than a month ago. We try to do something different every year, so we have booked the Alton Towers Santa Sleepover: a two day experience which cost us £480 (they advertise prices as being from £85pp) but if you haven’t booked anything yet then here are some of our favourite, tried and tested, UK Santa experiences:

Lapland UK

The final booking window for Lapland UK opens TODAY so if you want to experience the UK’s premier Christmas experience then now is the time to book. I’ve written a full review of our Lapland UK experience here and, it truly was magical. Santa looked the best I have ever seen him look, and the fully immersive experience and attention to detail meant that the kids truly believed they had been magically transported to Lapland. BUT, by gosh was it expensive! The price is dynamic, and is more expensive the closer to Christmas you visit, so I can’t tell you exactly what it will cost, but I can tell you that we booked a weekday at the beginning of December to keep the costs low, and still spent over £400. For an experience that only lasts 4 hours, that’s a lot of money! But can you put a price on magic?

Legoland at Christmas

If you’re a fan of theme parks, or of Lego, then Legoland is probably a Christmas no brainer! Legoland at Christmas offers two options: either the Santa Sleepover or the day trip, which is what we went for. Not all of the rides in the park are open at this time of year, but there is plenty to fill the day, and the Lego model village (our favourite part) is open too: Santa also parades through the park on his sleigh, and you can pay extra to visit Santa in his grotto and receive a Lego gift (this year the grotto experience is £20 per child on top of the cost of park entry). We loved this experience because it was combined with a day out, Santa and the elves were incredibly friendly with lots of interaction, and the faux pine forest you walked through to reach the grotto was incredibly well done: as adults we know that there were multiple grottos, but as children you couldn’t tell at all, and ours were certainly none the wiser.

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

Visiting the Winter Wonderland in London’s Hyde Park is one of my favourite Christmas experiences, but more for the wider experience than the Santa. Classic funfair rides, German Christmas beer tents and market food (yummy bratwurst in particular), a large ice skating rink and other attractions such as circus shows and ice sculpture displays mean that you could spend the whole day here and always have something to do. The Santa here is secondary to everything else, but it is a fun addition. You can’t book tickets to see him as he is available for free with entry on a first come first serve basis. I would recommend getting there as the Winter Wonderland opens if you do want to see Santa, so the queues can get long. You can find out more about the whole experience here.

Meet Santa at the London Wetlands Centre

We’re big fans of the London Wetlands Centre: it’s a great place to be no matter what the time of year, with nature walks to explore, an abundance of adventure play equipment, and of course, birds everywhere you look. But in December the whole thing has a magical air, because Santa has a grotto here! If you’re outdoorsy then this is the Santa experience for you. Kids get to meet the main man and his elves, and whilst things are different every year, when we visited there were husky pulled sleigh rides and donkey rides available too. Boy8 is obsessed with wolves and huskies, so this was one of his favourite Christmas experiences out of all the ones on the list (though his favourite Santa by far was the ‘real’ one at Lapland UK). You can book this year.

Wroxham Barns Christmas Experience

Wroxham Barns is based in Norfolk, and so is wonderfully local to us. Last year, when Covid requirements meant we couldn’t travel far, we tried their Christmas experience. Whilst it certainly didn’t have the glitz and magic of many of the other experiences outlined here, it was a lot of fun, and it made this list for two reasons: Because the Santa is a sweetheart, and because the event was perfectly covid safe. It was very odd for the kids to see Santa sat behind a glass screen, but he made it seem normal, and had plenty of time to engage with the children and answer their questions. Rather than hand the children presents, they each choose a gift from the ‘elves toyshop’ which added to the fun and the sense of covid safety. Find out more and book here.

ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure Park Santa

Finally, we have something of a tradition that every Christmas Eve we visit ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure (another local attraction) to ‘say goodbye’ to Santa before he starts his journey around the world. To be honest, this tradition started because we were season ticket holders of the park, and so it was a fun and affordable way of getting the boys to run off some of their Christmas eve energy. The grotto is really pretty, the elves are enthusiastic, and the presents are of really high quality: but parents of older children beware! The santa here has a fake beard (!) which is a big no no in our family, and Boy8 was well aware he was just one of the ‘helpers’ and not the real deal. Boy5 was blissfully unaware, and was very pleased to meet Santa!

Where will you be visiting Santa this year? And have you ever been to the Alton Towers Santa Sleepover? I would love to read some positive reviews before our visit!

Exploring the Sainsbury Centre Sculpture Park in Norwich With Kids

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The Sainsbury Centre, based on the UEA campus, is an art gallery, museum and café. Primarily focused on world art, the centre itself is free to access and is a wonderful place to pass an hour in its own right. But the Sainsbury Centre also offers a sculpture park which spreads out across the UEA campus and around the Broad which is also on the campus grounds.

Parking at the Sainsbury centre is free: you just need to go into the gallery to get a permit which you display in the window of your car. Access to the gallery and the sculpture trail is free too, unless you want to explore one of the special exhibitions. You can also collect free maps to the Sculpture park in two formats from the gallery reception: either a ‘grown up’ map or a child-friendly version: we used the child-friendly version which was fun, easy to follow, and featured activities that you could do on your way around too.

The Sculpture Park includes important works by notable artists such as Henry Moore, Elisabeth Frink, Lynn Chadwick, Liliane Lijn and Antony Gormley.

There are three different trails you can take: the short trail, the long trail, and the longer trail. Depending on which you choose, and how fast you walk, these should take between half an hour and an hour and a half. The walk around the Broad (the lake at the bottom of the campus) is particularly pretty, and well worth the exploration, with a few sculptures along the way to add to the fun.

We opted for the longest route, and then went into the Sainsbury centre to explore the indoor exhibits and to have a cup of tea (and a cheeky slice of cake!) I’m not going to pretend to be an art expert, so I won’t comment much on the quality of the works, but we were impressed by the high standard of the artists on display, as well as the variety. And it was lovely that once we had spotted and analysed a Henry Moore sculpture, the boys were quickly able to identify other pieces by the same artist. The kids were inspired, and went home to work on their own self-portraits and sculptures (using the contents of my recycling bin!)

It was a really lovely way to pass a morning, and one that I would definitely recommend if you’re in or around Norwich. We followed our trip up with a visit to the park on the way home, and the kids declared that it was an excellent day out that they’d like to do again! The sculpture park is a permanent exhibition of the gallery, so you can visit and enjoy at any time.

Riding Ponies at Rancho Cala Mandia

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I’m a big fan of supporting/promoting small businesses, and we stumbled across this one when we were exploring Cala Mandia (the village we were staying in in Mallorca). Located down a narrow dirt track behind our hotel, the ranch is home to 3 ponies, 16 horses, and a gorgeous elderly donkey. In the mornings, between 10 am and 1pm you can drop in for kids pony rides, and to book hacks in the afternoon. Smaller children can enjoy the pony rides, whilst the afternoon riding sessions are only for children over 10/adults.

The couple that run the ranch were incredibly warm and welcoming, and the boys had plenty of time to stroke and love the ponies before they climbed aboard for their ride; and the prices were incredibly affordable. Short 5 minute rides were 5euros whilst slightly longer 10 minute rides were 7 euros. Obviously our pony addict boys opted for the 10 minute ride, and they were so happy to be on board their ponies, stroking them and talking to them throughout. They were lead by the owner and expert, who was incredibly good with the boys, engaging them in chatter and making them feel at ease.

The weather was incredibly hot during our stay, so we arrived at bang on 10 am and we were the only family there, which was great. I would definitely recommend arriving earlier rather than later, especially if you’re travelling to Mallorca during the summer months, because it’s just too hot to be riding ponies (or, for the parents, walking alongside them) during the heat of the day. The ranch itself offers very little shade, which we found was common for many outdoor activities in Mallorca, so not a criticism, just something to bear in mind!

I admit it’s a niche recommendation, but if you’re staying at the Insotel Cala Mandia with kids then a visit to a Rancho Cala Mandia is an absolute must: it’s situated less than 5 minutes walk away from the hotel, and was a real treat for the kids (my kids are pony/horse mad, and they didn’t stop talking about it!)

You can find out more about Rancho Cala Mandia here.

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Visiting the Drach Caves and Porto Cristo in Mallorca: Fun For All The Family

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One of the biggest and most famous attractions in Mallorca are the Drach Caves. Whenever a local asked what we were planning to see or do during our stay, they all told us we would regret not seeing their famous caves: and they were right! Beautiful, enormous, awe-inspiring…it would be easy to run out of adjectives for this natural phenomenon.

The Drach Caves are just outside of Porto Cristo, which is located to the east of the island of Mallorca (and is just a convenient five minute drive from Cala Mandia, which is where we were staying). We have visited caves before (in Wookey Hole and Cheddar Gorge), but the scale of these is simply something else: you feel like you’re walking for miles! The caves have a horizontal extension of about 1,200 metres and a maximum depth of 25 m. below ground level: at their centre you’ll find Lake Martel, which is significant because this is the largest underground lake in the world.

Unique to this cave network experience was the concert that was performed on the lake here: once we had been escorted in a very large group through the caves, when we arrived at the lake we were seated in a rudimentary tiered auditorium. The lights went out and you were plunged into pitch black darkness when, suddenly a row boat illuminated by string lights appeared on the lake. There were three of these boats, carrying musicians who played a classical music concert from the boats, right in the middle of the lake. It might not sound like much (and photos and recordings of the concert were sadly prohibited) but it was such a beautiful and moving thing to experience. From here we walked (or rather, huffed and puffed through our sweaty face masks!) back up to ground level where we rewarded ourselves with ice creams. In ‘normal’ times there is also an underground boat ride as part of the experience, but this wasn’t offered this summer due to social distancing rules.

The whole experience only lasted just over an hour, but it was still well-worth the visit, and definitely something you would regret not seeing and experiencing if you’re visiting Mallorca.

Now for the practical stuff: don’t waste your money booking a day trip to these caves, particularly if you’re staying nearby! You can buy your tickets directly from their website here for 15 euros for an adult and 8 euros for a child. We then took a taxi from our hotel in Cala Mandia to the caves, which only cost 6.50 euros. By contrast, I spoke to another family staying in our hotel who paid 60 euros per person to visit the caves on a ‘day trip’ (which is more per person than we spent for our family of four). They took the same cave tour as we did, and then spent longer than they would have liked in a pearl factory on their way home. Please- save your money!

The Drach Caves are then a 5-10 minute walk (depending on whether you have kids walking at a snail pace like we do!) into Porto Cristo, which is a traditional fishing village, and which still retains its original charm, whilst also having a tourism element to its economy. There’s a beautiful sandy beach here, port and a marina full of boats, as well as several great options for lunch over the water (and some of the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten!) We ended up going into Porto Christo several times, and loved its laid back atmosphere and local flavour. Combining the two locations makes for a great day trip, and I would consider this one of my favourite days during our time in Mallorca.

For a child’s-eye point of view of the caves, Boy8 says “It was very great, I loved it. I don’t really like classical music but I thought the boats looked absolutely stunning. I think other kids would like it. The stalagmites and stalactites had all weird shapes and sizes, one of them looked like a cat! It was really fun, one of my favourite things at Mallorca.”

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Three Days in London: A Whirlwind Itinerary for Travelling with Kids

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We have just returned from a whirlwind three day trip to London: we clocked up just over 20,000 steps a day, crammed in so many activities that Boy8 said that his ‘London bucketlist was complete’ and munched on more calories than I’m prepared to calculate.

Mr MumTravel and I lived in London before we had kids and moved to the sticks, so there are some obvious attractions that we knew we wanted the boys to see, as well as some restaurants we wanted to return to for our own selfish nostalgia. We were travelling with my sister and her family, making us a party of eight in total. We travelled by train, and stayed in the Premier Inn Kensington (Earls Court) which was a classic Premier Inn (basic, but clean and with a good breakfast offering) in a brilliant location: you could walk to the museum district in under 10 minutes, and Earls Court tube station was just a two minute walk away. As we weren’t planning on spending any real time in the hotel, it was the perfect pick for this trip. We booked well in advance, and only paid £98 for two nights stay and breakfast for 4 people for two days too, using their ‘kids eat free’ offer.

Here is a breakdown of our itinerary.

DAY 1:
See: The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum, The Horrible Histories, Terrible Thames Boat Tour
Eat: The Natural History Museum, Bodeans BBQ Tower Hill.

DAY 2:
See: London Zoo, Covent Garden
Eat: Goodfare Italian, Camden; Wahaca Covent Garden

DAY 3:
See: Leicester Square (and the Lego Store), China Town, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and Platform 9 3/4.
Eat: The Rainforest Cafe, Leicester Square; Le Pain Quotidien, Kings Cross.

DAY ONE
Our first port of call was to drop off our luggage at the hotel; whilst check in wasn’t until 4pm, we were able to leave our luggage in the secured left luggage room, rather than carry holdalls around with us all day. From here we walked to the museum district where we had an reservation for the Natural History Museum at 11am.

Reservations are essential for visiting the museums right now, due to Covid restrictions, but access is still free. Visit the website in advance of your visit to secure an arrival time, and you will be given a QR code that is scanned as you arrive. You are also asked to wear face masks in the museums if you can (which we did) but this advice also might change in the future. We love this museum: more importantly, the kids love this museum! It’s so wonderful to see children so excited about something that is educational. Our first stop, of course, were the dinosaurs and the animatronic dinosaur is always a hit. We also went to the earthquake simulator and discovered more about the way the world works: this is my favourite exhibit.

We left the museum to have a relaxing sit down in the forecourt, where we tucked in to hot dogs and chips from the snack cart. This was more for convenience than anything else, because we didn’t have long to get to the Science Museum next door for our researched time, but actually, sitting in the sun under the beautiful architecture of the museum itself was a lovely way to spend half an hour. We then hopped to the Science Museum for a shorter visit: we had booked a slot at the pattern pod, then took a whistle stop tour of the space and transport exhibitions. The pattern pod was aimed at Boy5 and his cohort, who really loved the interactive exhibitions and the hands-on approach to science.

The reason our Science Museum trip was cut short? So we could hop on the tube and scoot across to Tower Bridge, where we had tickets to join the Horrible Histories Terrible Thames river cruise. This lasted 45 minutes and cost £58 for a family of 4, which is much more than other river tours we could have booked. BUT: it was worth every penny. The kids laughed, joined in, learned some fairly disgusting facts, and haven’t stopped raving about the trip since! It was also a less step-intensive way to show them all the sights, which would have been impossible by foot on such a short trip.

Once we hopped off the boat it was a short walk to Bodeans Tower Hill: a smokehouse and grill, and Mr MumTravels favourite place to eat: it’s not fancy, giving off sportsbar vibes, but it is welcoming to children and the food is out of this world. If you don’t try the pulled pork and the burnt ends then you will regret it.

DAY TWO

We had organised one main activity for our second day: tickets to London Zoo. The weather was against us today, with rain showers on and off all day, but there were enough indoor exhibits that it didn’t have too much of a negative impact.

Social distancing worked well here: rather than wander around at will, you picked a colour and followed the arrows around the exhibits. Once you had completed the three coloured trails, you had seen everything in the zoo! Special mention goes to the penguins, who were as playful as ever, and seemed to love being as close to people as possible.

Once we’d had our fill of the zoo we wandered back to Camden station, stopping in a little Italian restaurant for drinks and cakes, and to wait out the worse of the rain. It was then a short and simple tube ride to Leicester Square, which we used as our gateway to Covent Garden: we showed the kids the opera house, wandered through the market, and stopped frequently to enjoy the street entertainment (the Charlie Chaplin impersonator was a particular hit) before heading to Wahaca for lunch. I love Mexican food, and the Mexican street food here is excellent: its loud, vibrant, and has a cantina feel, which meant it is perfect for families. No need to worry about keeping the kids quiet!


DAY THREE
This was our last day in London, and we had plenty to fit in! We started by heading to Leicester Square, where we explored the statues in the garden, and then walked over to the Lego store when they opened at 10am. The queues here can get crazy, so getting here early and walking straight in is a top tip.

From here we headed to China town where we admired the pastries in the windows of the bakeries and the cooked duck hanging in the restaurants. Boy8 was delighted to buy a bottle of pokemon water from a Chinese supermarket, whilst Mr MumTravel picked up more than one box of his favourite sweet taro dumplings. We then walked down to Trafalgar square where we admired the statues, and then hopped on the bus (number 11) to Victoria before swapping to another bus to Green Park. Riding a bus was a ‘wish list’ item for Boy5 and his cousin, and taking a regular red bus was much cheaper than riding a tourist bus (which charge upwards of £20 per person for a ticket). Because this is the area close to where we worked in the city, this was an easy win for us.

We hopped off the bus at Green Park and then walked through the park to Buckingham Palace which was a treat for all of us, but especially me because, believe it or not, despite living in London for several years I had never actually visited before. We got here at just before 12pm, and managed to catch the changing of the guard, which was a really fun and exciting thing to see. We then walked down the mall and up to Piccadilly circus to head to our lunchtime restaurant reservation.

Lunch was a ‘big treat’ for the kids and a big disappointment for the grown ups: we went to the Rainforest Cafe. The theming was good: the kids love the version of the restaurant in Disneyland Paris, and the animatronic animals are just the same. But the food was mediocre at best, and incredibly overpriced: we knew this would be the case, because we’ve eaten here before, but I can’t in good conscience recommend it if you’re an adult who likes good quality food. Or don’t want to spend £4.95 on a small glass of coke. If you’re an adult who likes to see your kids with their heads on stalks and wonder in their eyes though, it definitely has its merits. They were so glad we did it. We grown ups had main courses and drinks only, and rewarded ourselves for our sacrifice with desserts later.

From here we headed to Kings Cross, which is where we would be getting our train home. The older boys (and massive Harry Potter fans) were excited to visit Platform 9 3/4 in the station, and then we went to Le Pain Quotidien for drinks and desserts whilst we waited for our train.

It was a whistle stop tour of London, and we all wished we had booked to stay for a couple of extra days to maybe take things at a more leisurely pace, as well as to see some more of the museums (My favourites are the V&A, and the Tate Modern, but there just wasn’t the time). But if you’re time poor, and want to cram in as much as possible with your kids on your next visit to London, then this could be the perfect itinerary for you.

Review: A Family Day Out to Legoland Windsor, Summer 2021

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I have a love/hate relationship with Legoland Windsor, considering it both the best and the worst of British theme parks: and much of that has to do with how busy the park is on the day you visit! The mini land is exceptional, a place we could happily get lost for hours. Regardless of how busy the park is, it always feels quiet there too: but the rest of the park? Oh my!

Both boys are committed Lego fanatics, so a trip to Legoland is always at the top of their wish list. But dear God, the queues! On a busy (summer weekend, school holidays, the special Christmas event, almost every day we choose to visit….) you will queue for hours just to get on one ride. Hell, you’ll queue for hours to get a hot dog from the snack cart! As theme parks go, Legoland is small but its capacity certainly isn’t.

This weekend we went for our first trip to Legoland with Coronavirus restrictions in place, and we hoped that the legal reduced capacity requirements would make for a much more pleasant day out. Sadly it didn’t seem to have had any discernible impact on the queue levels, and neither did the park feel any quieter than usual. It was also hot, hot, hot! Only we would plan a trip to a shade-free theme park on the hottest day of the year. Here is a quick breakdown of how we found the whole experience:

Our first port of call was the new ‘land’ in the resort: Mythica. This has been much-hyped so the boys were desperate to see it, and to be fair we were all massively impressed! The land features three rides (which I would categorise as one main ride and two supplementary ride) as well as a ‘character meet’ area, lego building zone, playground and a restaurant (which we didn’t try, but which served fish and chips, according to the board outside). If you download the app then you could use AR to bring the models around the land to life, which our oldest in particular absolutely loved; this new way of blending Lego and technology that the brand is experimenting with at the moment is incredibly popular in our house!

The Flight of the Sky Lion ride had a 100 minute queue but it was amazing: Boy8 loved it and didn’t stop talking about it all day, whilst Boy5 found some of it a little scary. This is a flight through a fantasy land of imagination on the big screen; like a 4D cinema that you watched from a moving car that took you into a world of imagination. The other rides were ‘hydro’ and the ‘fire and ice’ drops, and were basically repurposed versions of other rides in the resort, but they fitted into the land nicely and made it feel like more of an experience than the singular ride that it is all revolved around. If you want to see this land at its best then I highly recommend heading there first and early, before it gets too busy to properly appreciate.

Then we decided it was time to cool off. Thanks to the extreme temperatures the queue for the splash parks were insane, with some people waiting up to two hours for their 25 minute slot in the water. We decided not to get involved in that, and instead opted to play in the smaller water play area, the Duplo Brick Safari. There was no queue for this, but it was jam-packed as a result: with children waiting six and sevenfold to take a turn to splash in the water. It was a welcome chance to cool off though, and even we grown-ups got involved, splashing our feet in the water (and running through the animal-themed water features). There are changing rooms available but there aren’t many, given the volume of people hoping to use them, so we changed the boys in the open-air, hiding their modesty with towels instead. If you’re visiting on a sunny day, definitely pack towels and swimsuits in your backpack.

Both boys are big Ninjago fans, so of course, they were keen to revisit the Ninjago section of the park, which was new when we last visited in 2019. The main ride here is an interactive 3D ride, where you battle against enemies alongside the ninja, and the boys just loved it! There is only one subsidiary ride in this area; a small pirate theme themed on the ninja’s ship, the Destiny’s Bounty. The boys enjoyed this too, although because it is small and has tight turns, it made me feel sick! Elsewhere in the Ninjago area, there were brick figures of all the characters, a small climbing wall,and a Ninjago-themed shop. The Ninjago franchise is wildly popular and this area is always busy, so I do feel they could have done more with it.

The other rides we managed to tackle during our trip were: The Monster Haunted Party, The Coastguard HQ boat ride, and the Lego reef, which are all based in the Lego City area. We then went to the Lego Knights area of the park to ride the Dragon, and the Dragon’s Apprentice. There was so much more we wanted to do, but a combination of the heat and the out of control queue times meant that just wasn’t possible. Still, we were incredibly happy with the number of rides we did get to do this trip, and the boys had a fab day.

After we had had our fill of the rides, we enjoyed our favourite part of any trip to Legoland: walking around miniland. The boys could literally do this for hours! Much of this is being refurbished this year, meaning that a lot of the usual moving elements aren’t moving right now: this includes most of the boats, the tube train, the marching soldiers at Buckingham palace, and so on. This was a huge shame but didn’t detract from how impressive the models were: if you haven’t visited before you probably wouldn’t even notice, but as regulars, we did and they were missed. We will be glad to have them back for the 25th anniversary year next year.

All in all, I think Legoland is the best theme park in the Merlin franchise for my boys and other kids in their age category. But the queue times in the summer holidays and at weekends often puts us off taking the plunge and booking to go again!

Free School Holiday Activities in Norwich and Norfolk

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The long stretch of the school holidays are just a week away, and parents up and down the country are already beginning to panic about how they’re going to entertain the kids! This year our already-lengthy six week holiday is actually a seven week holiday. We’re planning to spend two of those weeks in Kos (Greece), and are taking a three night break in London. I’ve also booked the boys onto an intensive week-long swimming course, and we’ll be keeping up with their twice-weekly football training, to run off some of their energy. But that still leaves four and a half weeks to entertain them and, because of our other holiday expenses, I’d like to keep the costs low! We also want to stay outside where possible, because exposing ourselves to Covid right before our flight would be a very bad idea.

If you’re in the same boat then here are some of the free school holiday activities in Norfolk that we have planned or booked to get us through the summer. I tend to book in one paid for day out a week as standard, then fill the rest of the week with these kinds of activities:

  • Brick Dinos at the Forum. Lego and dinosaurs? This exhibit is a dream come true for our boys! We visited the previous Lego exhibit here by the same artist in 2018, and the boys really enjoyed seeing the models and playing with the bricks, so we’re excited to see what they do with the new theme. The exhibition will be in situ from 19th July to 30th August; although the event is free, to manage numbers (and covid safety) you will have to pre-book a slot here. Spaces are going fast, so hurry to ensure you got a spot.
  • Go to the Library. Whilst you’re in The Forum, stop by the children’s library, which is inside the Millenium Library. We love it here: it’s such a calm space, whilst simultaneously being bright, colourful and welcoming. We choose and borrow books, read stories to each other, and spend a happy hour in the library every time we go to the city. You can also sign up to the summer holidays reading challenge here: if you read a book a week throughout the holidays you will be rewarded with stickers and certificates.
  • See Dippy at the Norwich Cathedral. Dippy the Dinosaur has left his home in London’s Natural History Museum, and has been taking a tour of the UK. This tour was interrupted due to Covid, meaning that instead of landing in Norwich last summer, he is finally visiting us this year instead! Norwich Cathedral is the only cathedral on his tour, and is a lovely place to visit even without the extra excitement of dinosaur bones. You can see him there from 10am-4pm throughout the summer: you don’t have to pre-book this one, unless you’re visiting as a party of larger than 8. We are combining this with our booked tickets to the brick dino exhibition, to make a full dino day out!
  • Redwings Horse Sanctuary. The Redwings horse sanctuary is home to more than 90 rescued animals. As you can imagine, the vast majority of these are equestrian, including horses, Shetland ponies and donkeys. Usually there is a play area, as well as the animals to enjoy, but it isn’t clear if this will be open due to it being a small site, and covid regulations being difficult to enforce. Even without this, it’s a fun trip out: as well as seeing the animals the sanctuary also offers a lovely nature walk. The site opens from 103.0am to 4pm from Friday to Monday. Entrance is free, but donations are welcomed. Pre-booking your slot, using the link above, is essential.
    Find the sanctuary at: Redwings Horse Sanctuary, Spa Lane, Aylsham, Norfolk, NR11 6UE
  • Whitlingham Country Park. Whitlingham country park is a lovely place to walk, around a man made Broad. This is a great place to go for a nature walk: bring your binoculars and your magnifying glass and see what you can see! We love to stop for a picnic half way round too, to make it even more of a fun day out. You can read my post about Whitlingham country park here.
  • Spend the Day at the Beach. One of the best things about living in Norfolk is just how close you are to the beach! If you’re hoping to visit the seaside on a budget then visit one of the many beaches that don’t have arcades/attractions/chip shops etc. Just pack a picnic, and your buckets and spades, and enjoy some old-fashioned family fun. You’ll find us on the beach at least twice a week when the sun is shining! You can read my picks of the best beaches in Norfolk here.
  • The Sainsbury Centre Sculpture Park. The Sainsbury Centre is a large, modern art gallery based at UEA (the University of Easy Anglia). As part of this gallery, its grounds have been transformed into a sculpture gallery, featuring 20 large and dramatic sculptures from some of the UK’s most significant sculpture artists, including more than one piece by Anthony Gormley. Access to the sculpture gallery is free, and you can park here for free too. You can also download a child-friendly map of the site from the Sainsbury Centre website, allowing the children to tick off each sculpture as they see it.
  • Enjoy that Park Life! It’s a classic for a reason – kids love going to the park, and it’s an easy (and free) hour out of the house. Norwich is blessed to have an abundance of brilliant parks. We particularly enjoy Eaton park, which has a huge skate boarding park, as well as a large playground and numerous football pitches. There’s something for everyone. Waterloo park is also popular thanks to its splash pad/water park, which is a great place to cool off on a hot day.
  • Break’s GoGo Discover T Rex trail. We’re back on those dinosaurs again! From Monday 12th July until Saturday 11th September 2021, 21 individually designed and painted T Rexes will land in Norwich for children to hunt for and explore. You simply download the trail map from this link and take yourself off on a day out to find them all. Each T Rex has been painted with a microbial varnish which stops 99% of germs spreading, meaning that the trail is relatively Covid safe too.
  • The Hillside Animal Sanctuary. Based in West Runton, the Hillside Animal Sanctuary has such a wide variety of animals that it is a fully fledged farm. We visited last summer and enjoyed a very happy couple of hours out. Usually you pay an admission charge to visit this sanctuary but during 2021, visits are free. You can find out more here.
  • Norwich Museums. This one isn’t free but is cheap enough that its worth mentioning! Norwich Castle and the museums in Norwich (we particularly love the Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell, which has loads of interactive exhibitions) offer twilight tickets for £2, allowing you entry 1 hour before closing. When you’re visiting with a 5 year old, one hour is plenty of time in a small museum, so we did this relatively frequently pre-Covid, and this saves us a fortune!

That’s everything I’ve found so far, but with the paid-for activities I’ve also booked, it should be plenty to keep us entertained all summer long! Obviously I’ll be popping up reviews of all these activities as and when we enjoy them. I also want to acknowledge that free doesn’t always mean free and with the cost of petrol and parking/public transport usage, as well as the cost of either buying food or packing a picnic, many of these activities won’t be accessible to everyone.

If you have any other free or cheap activities and days out that you’d like to share please leave them in the comments: we’re all in this together!