Travel

Tony Clayton-Lea tells us about this family-friendly holiday destination.

As a parent of two teenagers, it was something of a release valve to be able to scream right into their faces and not be carted off by the authorities. But then, when you're sitting beside them on a succession of extreme thrill rides (called with cunning simplicity Detonator, Nemesis Inferno, Tidal Wave, Samurai, Colossus, Stealth, Slammer and Rush), there isn't much else you can do except scream at the top of your lungs and wonder why in the name of the good Lord above you have come to such a place as Thorpe Park.

Thorpe Park is part of the Madame Tussauds' empire of UKbased family attractions – under its remit it also operates Warwick Castle, the eponymous wax works museum, and Alton Towers, another (bigger) thrill ride theme park outside Stoke. We'd been to Alton Towers before, but not Thorpe Park, and as it was close to London, where we were paying a visit to, we thought why not give it a go. A word of warning, however – if you are the type of family that would rather spend your evenings crocheting doilies, it's only fair to warn you that you should be prepared for screaming. Lots of screaming.

The good news is that if you're planning to be in London for a few days it makes a great day trip out of the city. Location is important, however. We were staying in a family room at the superb Landmark Hotel, the back of which is located directly opposite Marylebone Underground station. On the Bakerloo Line, Marylebone is only several stops from Waterloo, the main British Rail station that services trains to Staines.

The journey from Staines to Thorpe Park car park is short, and costs £3 per person. When you enter Thorpe Park itself, you are advised to kiss goodbye to any notions of normal adult life. Depending on your thrill ride tolerance levels, the next six hours will comprise some of the best stress-relief moments of your life or the closest you will get to a nightmare without going asleep.

The first ride we went on was Tidal Wave, a flume-type experience that brought carriages of 20 people – four to a row – up and up and up and up a steep incline, at which we reached a plateau. And then it went down and down and down – at a speed difficult to calculate due to the heart and the brain in shock via the Niagara Falls-like torrent of water that landed on us. We were totally soaked through, which is why we congratulated ourselves on doing this ride first – the remainder of the hot summer's day acted as a natural dry-out period.

For the following five hours or so we alternated the thrill rides with sitting down and checking we weren't going to have an attack of some kind, chilling out and breathing slowly in order to prepare ourselves for the next phase of fun. In quick succession we rode on Stealth, Detonator, Colossus, Slammer and Nemesis Inferno; they were, to a ride, the scariest and the most exciting experiences we've ever had.

Our teenagers loved Thorpe Park from start to finish; it was their environment, after all -- hundreds of other teens milling around, looking cool and looking after number one. As parents, we treasured the freedom they had within a controlled environment; they couldn't get into too much mischief with so much going on around them, and we couldn't get into the typical annoyed adult mode because we were enjoying ourselves so much.

Better than a week's holiday in a resort area, with all the accompanying teenage temptations? Absolutely. Tony Clayton-Lea would like to thank Visit Britain, Aer Lingus and The Landmark Hotel for their assistance.