This day out was one of the highlights of our summer. We used Tesco vouchers for Drayton Manor. You aren’t able to use them for children between 2 and 3 so we had to purchase a ticket for him but this still meant a great saving. We were also lucky that we were able to stay with family, but otherwise we could have done it in a day or considered the theme park hotel. We’ve been here before, twice, when our older children were young and I think we will be returning in a year or so if it continues to be an option with Tesco vouchers. Our older children weren’t particularly into trains and they still loved Thomas Land which is part of Drayton Manor, so we knew it would be a big hit with our toddler who loves trains!

We did quite a lot of splitting into one parent and toddler and one parent and the older two on this day out which is sometimes the best way with our children’s ages of 2, 8, and 10. We started with me talking our toddler into Thomas Land and going on the small rides such as Jeremy Jet’s Flying Academy, Bertie Bus, Lady’s Carousel, and Sodor Classic Cars. The queues were small and my little one had a fantastic time on these rides! Meanwhile my husband took the older ones into the main park where they went on bigger rides like Thor, Accelerator, Loki, and the Bounty Pirate Ship. They love rides so had an equally brilliant time.

We took a packed lunch with us and ate it in Thomas Land, there was a good outdoor area to eat there near the cafe. The cafe served great coffee and snacks. We then swapped over and I took the big kids on the river rapids which was fun and then we queued up for The Haunting which seemed to take absolutely ages and in the end my daughter found it too scary so we left before the main part of the ride started.

We swapped over again and I took the little one through the zoo area (he liked the monkeys) and had a look around the Dino Trail and a play in the play area. We queued a while for the train ride which was great. This was a brilliant fit for our family as we all had great fun. We’ll be back before long.