Visitors to the theatre can be entertained by such acts as Roy Chubby Brown, Sarah Millican, and the 70′s Musical BOOGIE NIGHTS.

Britannia Pier, Great Yarmouth, UK by Adam Smith

If the theatre doesn’t interest you, there are indoor and outdoor rides such as the Giant Slide, Big Foot Super Truck, Formula One Raceway, Childrens Log Flume, Ghost Train, and Super Trucks to name a few.

There are two arcades that have traditional penny slot machines to state-of-the art computerised racing machines to get your blood pumping and test your skill.

And if the indoor and outdoor rides and the arcades don’t tickle your fancy, there are a whole slew of games from Bingo to a Rifle Range to Can Alley Games to Mini-go-Karts, and Kiddies Rides that are guaranteed to provide an afternoon of fun for the whole family.

For those who love to shop, and especially those with a sweet tooth, there are plenty of candy shops, doughnut shops, and novelty shops up and down the pier. If you are hungry for something other than sugar, there is a burger joint, seafood restaurants, and a cafe.

If you have had a long day and need an adult beverage or three, there is the Pier Tavern that offers great music, live entertainment, Karaoke, (for those brave enough to try it), a billiards room, and a family area. Pier Tavern is one of the most popular bars on the Pier.

Another popular pub is the Long Johns Showbar. It is family friendly by day, offering family friendly entertainment and once the kiddies are home sound asleep, the bar offers the night dwelling adults the very best in DJ’s to listen to while enjoying a few adult beverages.

Further information about the history of Britannia Pier, events coming up in Long Johns Showbar or The Pier Tavern and Theatre dates visit: https://www.yarmouth-norfolk.co.uk/holiday/britannia-pier.htm

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Legoland Windsor

Fun for both adults and children alike, Legoland Windsor is split into different zones that you can explore, including Pirates Landing where you can learn swashbuckling skills at the Pirate Training Camp, the Land of the Vikings where you can sail and explore the Nordic maze and many others including Duplo Land for younger guests. Rides at the park include Laser Raiders – a laser gun ride, the Dragon roller coaster ride, the Vikings’ River Splash ride, the Orient Expedition train ride and many more. The latest attraction at Legoland is the Star Wars Miniland Experience recreating some of the well-known scenes of the films.

Legoland Windsor is situated outside Windsor, close to the M3, M4 and M25. It’s about a twenty minute drive from High Wycombe.

Model of Tower Bridge in Miniland, Legoland Windsor, England, UK by Cherryguy93

Thorpe Park

Another theme park option is Thorpe Park which would suit families with older children as the rides here are not to be laughed at! The latest addition to their roller coaster offering is the Swarm, the first winged roller coaster in the UK. Other favourites include SAW – a horrifying roller coaster that has a worse than vertical drop, Stealth – a super-fast ride that catapults you from 0-80mph in less than two seconds and finally, Nemesis – one of the original terrifying rides of the park.

For those who prefer to stay away from the intense, high speed, sick inducing roller coasters, there are plenty of other rides to enjoy including the Rumba Rapids, Loggers Leap log flume and tea cup rides.

Set near to Staines, Thorpe Park is close to the M25 and M3 and is only a thirty minute drive from High Wycombe.

Thorpe Park, England, UK by ThorpePark1000

Harry Potter Studio Tour

Any budding little witches and wizards would appreciate a trip to the Warner Brothers studios London to see the ‘Making of Harry Potter‘. The studios are situated in Leavesden near to Watford which is a thirty minute drive from High Wycombe. At the studios, you can see the sets used in the films including Diagon Alley, Hogwarts Castle, Hagrids Hut and the potion’s classroom. You can see props used in the films such as Hagrid’s motorbike and Harry’s Nimbus 2000 broomstick. Tickets must be bought in advance and sell out quickly, especially for popular days such as weekends and bank holidays so book ahead in order to avoid disappointment.

Harry Potter Studio Tour, England, UK by Rev Stan

If you’re planning a trip to London and are looking for a hotel in the High Wycombe area, take a look at the Holiday Inn website for great offers:  https://www.hihighwycombehotel.co.uk/

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Pleasure Beach in Great Yarmouth, UK by Jeremy Thompson

Chief attractions

Once you enter the park you are sure to be tempted to enjoy a ride. Besides the exciting Scenic Railway Roller Coaster there are lots of other rides to cater palpitating pleasure at every moment. Even children find ample scope of great attractions as there are various amusement arcades, ice cream and sweet shops. If you have time you can eat what you like in the cosy corner of the park. Initially just after the inauguration there were only two rides in the Pleasure Beach. Now there are countless ones ranging from the Segway Grand prix to Cups and Saucers especially made for the children. Amid all the thrilling rides there is of course another special attraction for the park visitors, the ferris wheel, popularly known as the Yarmouth Wheel.

Special one

Keeping aside the rides if you want to taste something special you have to wait for a year or two. ‘The Edge’, a multiplex comprising a cinema hall, hotel, bowling alley and obviously a casino within it is going to raise its head adjacent to the park to add colour to tinge the Pleasure Beach.

However there is free entry to the park you need to pay for the rides which is between £13 – £25 for unlimited rides for the day priced depending on childrens ages. Opening times vary and depend also on the weather. There is a car park which is free if you buy a ride ticket.

For more information about Great Yarmouth seafront visit: https://www.yarmouthnorfolk.co.uk/.

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Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by Colin Smith

Scottish International Storytelling Festival
One of the largest gatherings of its kind, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival takes place in Edinburgh. For 10 days in late October, the Royal Mile in Edinburgh opens its Scottish Storytelling Centre to visitors and storytellers from throughout the world. This festival not only allows you to listen to some of the best stories about local Scottish history, but will let you experience the character of artful storytellers from around the world as they expound on nearly anything you can think of. Scotland has a long history of oral narrative as a form of communication, and the Scottish International Storytelling Festival embodies that historic process.

Loch Shiel Spring Festival
The first weekend in May of each year offers you the opportunity to experience some of the best classical music in the world at the Loch Shiel Spring Festival. Dedicated to sharing classical music on a local level and beyond, the spring festival attracts leading classical artists from all over Britain to the West Highlands for this festival. The area surrounding Loch Shiel offers spectacularly beautiful settings for listening to music, and the variety of concerts will astound you.

Dundee Flower and Food Festival
If you’re looking for something a little different while you’re in Scotland, you may want to reserve some time for the Dundee Flower and Food Festival. This delightful festival takes place in early September. It is a weekend packed with free cooking and gardening demonstrations as well as a craft fair. You also have the opportunity to experience food before you buy it at the festival. You will see stunning floral displays and learn gardening techniques that are sure to inspire you to try and duplicate them when you get back home.

Arran Folk Festival
The Arran Folk Festival takes place in mid-June on the Isle of Arran, off the coast of Scotland. This festival will allow you to listen to some of the best folk music in Scotland. There are free concerts throughout the event, which let you to experience the traditional music of the area. The festival was begun in 1990 and has grown to become one of the most anticipated events in the area.

Aberdeen International Youth Festival
This festival of music and performing arts attracts some of the finest artists and musicians from throughout the world. You can see blossoming newcomers perform with established professional musicians and actors in this extravagant showcase of talent. More than 70 countries have been involved in bringing the very best in live performances to the stage. With numerous events taking place each year, the Aberdeen International Youth Festival attracts more than 30,000 visitors.

Tarbert Seafood Festival
Early in July, the Tarbert Seafood Festival opens to throngs of visitors. There are arts and crafts, food stalls, and gardening exhibitions. You can take in a cooking demonstration from renowned seafood chefs, or watch the Seafood Queen crowned on the Tarbert Hotel Balcony. You can watch the Children’s Parade, or marvel at highland dancers of all ages. There is also a cook-off and a sheep-shearing demonstration. Of course, there will be live music throughout the event.

The Hebridean Celtic Festival
This festival takes place in mid-July in Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides. You can listen to a variety of musical performers from all over the world as you experience the Gaelic culture and Hebridean heritage. You can attend a workshop given by some of the performers or simply enjoy the typical festival attractions, such as trying local dishes while you listen to music at a pub or watching children’s events.
Guest post from Bailey Harris. Bailey writes about insurance quotes for InsuranceQuotes.org.

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10. Apocalypse (Drayton Manor)

Drop towers are a standard feature of most modern theme parks, carrying riders up high up into the sky before sending them free-falling back down to the ground below. Drayton Manor’s Apocalypse, though, is no generic amusement park ride. Instead, this 5-sided monster offers three district types of experience, with riders able to choose between being seated, standing on a floor or standing with no floor at all. If the 177-feet drop doesn’t put you off, then this will be enough to draw you back for a repeat ride or two.

9. Oblivion (Alton Towers)

Oblivion, the world’s first vertical drop roller coaster, opened to huge fanfare in 1998. It remains one of the best rides at the UK’s most popular theme park, carrying guests to the top its signature, 180-feet-tall drop. There, they are held for a few agonising seconds, before plunging into a darkened pit below. The ride is occasionally criticised for being over too quickly, but few guests will be disappointed after experiencing such a stunning set-piece.

8. The Ultimate (Lightwater Valley)

Opened back in 1991 at a cost of £5.2 million, The Ultimate is still the headline ride at Yorkshire’s Lightwater Valley. At the time, it broke the record for being the world’s long roller coaster, at some 7,442-feet-long. While it has since lost this record to Japan’s Steel Dragon 2000, it remains the longest if measured by duration (an amazing 7 minutes 34 seconds). There are plenty of thrills along the way, with the ride hitting a top speed of 51 miles per hour.

7. Bubbleworks (Chessington World of Adventures)

Located near London, Chessington World of Adventures is home to some of the UK’s most inventive and bizarre theme park rides. Bubbleworks is a great example, with guests boarding circular rafts to take an indoor tour of a “bubble factory”. After viewing the “Bubbleworkers” hard at work, they enter a dazzling final scene in which an array of fountains leap over the boats.

6. Lost River Ride (Flamingo Land)

Flamingo Land doubles as both a major theme park and a world-class zoo, and the Lost River Ride combines both elements into one large-scale attraction. The first half of the ride is a leisurely boat cruise past a range of majestic animal species, including rhinos, giraffes hippos and lions. Things then get a little more thrilling, and a lot wetter, with riders plummeting down a 60-feet drop into a splash zone below. Unmissable.

5. Stealth (Thorpe Park)

Thorpe Park’s Stealth certainly doesn’t feature the longest ride experience on offer at any of the UK’s theme parks, with coaster’s run-time coming in at just under 30 seconds (10 of which are spent cruising back into the station at low speed). Still, what it lacks in duration, it makes up in sheer spectacle, with riders being launched from 0 to 80 miles per hour in just 1.8 seconds. They then climb to the top of a 205-feet-tall tower, before racing down at a near-vertical angle towards the ground below.

4. Tomb Blaster (Chessington World of Adventures)

Chessington World of Adventures features a number of themed lands designed to take “adventurers” on a tour of exotic areas of the world. The Forbidden Kingdom area recreates Ancient Egypt, and is dominated by the popular Tomb Blaster ride. This takes guests on a tour of a tomb, where they must use laser guns to fend off hordes of the undead. It’s a fiercely addictive attraction, with guests always returning for “one more turn” to try and beat their top score.

3. The Swarm (Thorpe Park)

The first “wing rider” coaster in the UK opened at Thorpe Park in March 2012, and places guests at the centre of an alien invasion of London. The coaster’s trains represent the aliens, with riders being carried on “wings” on either side. This enables some impressive “near-miss” elements, including close encounters with the wreckage of a crashed plane, a burnt-out fire engine and a partially submerged helicopter.

2. The Big One (Blackpool Pleasure Beach)

Dominating the skyline on Blackpool’s seafront is The Big One, the UK’s tallest roller coaster. It is the headline attraction of the historic Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which still attracts more guests than any other amusement park in the country. Riders get an incredible view of the seaside resort from the top of the 213-feet-tall lift hill, but there’s little time to absorb it before racing around the coaster’s circuit at speeds of up to 74 miles per hour.

1. Nemesis (Alton Towers)

Alton Towers established itself as the UK’s leading theme park in 1994, when it opened Europe’s first inverted roller coaster, Nemesis. While the park has since installed a range of other major coasters, none can quite rival the original for sheer thrills. The ride is housed in a trench in order to overcome severe height restrictions placed on the park by local authorities, and this ensures that the scenery races past riders’ feet at close quarters. Other rides have tried and failed to top the Nemesis experience, and it remains one of the best roller coasters in the world.

Photo credits

All images © Natalie Sim.

Nick Sim writes runs one of the web’s largest resources dedicated to theme parks all over the globe. Thinking of trying out Nemesis for yourself? Don’t miss the site’s up-to-date listings of all the latest Alton Towers vouchers.

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Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by Dave Smith

You have to pay to get in to the theme park itself, which currently costs £30 for children, £40 for adults (and a child over 12 is considered an adult so expect to pay full price for older kids) or £120 for a family of four for a day, so it isn’t cheap, but once inside your ticket covers all of the rides and so the only extras will be souvenirs and food and drink.

Thorpe Park is famous for some of its rides, including the new rollercoaster and live action maze based on the Saw movie series. Not all of these rides are suitable for young children and some are particularly scary, so it is a great choice for thrill seekers and teenagers but not so good for the feint hearted.

Thorpe Park has several rides, including the Logger’s Leap log flume, where you will get very wet, so unless it is a very hot day it is a good idea to buy one of the waterproof ponchos they sell at the park to try and keep your clothes dry.

Thorpe Park also has plenty of restaurants and bars where you can unwind during your visit. For further information visit their official website.

View Thorpe Park – one of England’s biggest and most popular theme parks United Kingdom in a larger map

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National Railway Museum was opened in the current premises in 1975, however the collection originated from the early 19th century. Today, the National Railway Museum has a national collection of historically significant railway vehicles and artifacts associated with the railway, with the various written and visual records. You can see here more than 100 locomotives and nearly 200 other vehicles. In 2001 National Railway Museum was awarded as the Best European Museum (European Museum of the Year Award in 2001). In addition to various exhibits you can also ride the giant Ferris wheel and special small train here.

York National Railway Museum, England, UK by Xerones

York National Railway Museum is open all the year daily from 10:00 to 18:00, except of December 24, 25 and 26. Admission is free. It is the biggest railway museum in England and the largest railroad exhibit of its kind in the world.

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