Today we spent the day at Adventure Valley near Durham, whilst meeting with friends to catch up and let the kids run wild, burn off some energy. It's a little on the pricey side at nine pound per adult and child over 2, which is a little beyond the usual 3 and over stance and a bit annoying that they feel the need to charge for adults at all, if you want to charge 18 pounds per child, then do so, but don't try to make it seem better value by charging parents instead.Aside from this, it is pretty good value and would be more so if D was a little older, say over 5, rather than pretending to be under 2 (what's a week after all?).
There is a range of outdoor activities that kids of all ages will enjoy, Daddy particularly enjoyed the ring slide, be aware you need to drag your ring back up the hill (no euphemism intended) afterwards; you go a lot faster if the track is wet. D enjoyed the indoor slide and the tractor ride, although Daddy may have traumatised her with the indoor helterskelter style slide, to which he lost the skin off his elbow and she became quite fearful of dark tunnels - with good reason as spinning down a tube very quickly might not be the best way to entertain a two year old, but at least she walked it off and didn't throw up, stating no likey!
For kids that don't need to nap, this is an excellent place to spend the whole day and ideally that would be a warmish summer day, rain might make it less enjoyable as most of the attractions are outdoors; the soft play (including the cafe) and the animal enclosures are covered though.The animals were entertaining and D did love feeding the goats and sheep, you can buy bags on the way in and petting the rabbits seemed to make her quite happy and was a big draw for the other kids in the place. There is a schedule for the different animal oriented activities handed to you on the way in, with something every half hour there is plenty to keep them occupied in this regard.
There are a few different coin-op rides inside and out, we rode on the little cars inside which was a pound for three laps and daddy realised that he could shed a few kilos in order to speed things up a little, on the plus side our ride lasted much longer than everybody else's. Parent's should be prepared to fork out more cash on some of the cool stuff, as most of it costs a bit extra.
There was only one thing that put a bit of a mar on the day and that was the inflexibility of the cafe staff when it came to our request to swap the children's meal drink for a bottle of water, which cost the same as the box of juice included, but was for some reason an unacceptable exchange; tap water was offered although given that I felt this was a reduction in value for the meal a second bottle was purchased. This is a bit of a theme, places don't seem familar with the existence of children who simply don't like juice of any kind - chocolate milk is an acceptable substitute in most establishments although it wasn't on the menu today. The food was ok and reasonably priced although a lot of parents seemed to elect to take picnics and sit outside with them, there is a lot of room for this, providing the weather is ok, it did seem to be pretty windy though being up on a hill and I would suspect that it often gets a stiff breeze up there. Still at least the kids won't overheat.
Parking is ample and free, so that is a big plus; finding the place is pretty simple as it is near the prison; what could possibly go wrong. Apparenty there is a 55 pound season pass, which makes the place a lot more affordable for those who live in the area. All in all, it is a great place to take the kids for the full day, it would be a bit better if everything was included in the entry fee, even if that was a little more and perhaps only charge a couple of pounds per parent too.
As an attraction it is probably a five out of five, but value is more three out of five.
No comments:
Post a Comment