Pleasurewood Hills, Lowestoft

We’ve spent this week in Suffolk so instead of my usual blogs I’m writing a couple of reviews of East Anglia attractions that we’ve visited. We don’t have twins yet; we have to wait until November for that next slice of fun. But we do have a two year old incredibly wilful Monty. However, I recognise that this gives us a two-to-one parent/child advantage and by next year we will be outnumbered three-to-two. Nevertheless, I am writing these reviews to give an idea of what’s available and what’s fun or not fun.

Weatherwise, this week we’ve had a mixture of wind, rain, sunshine and cloudy days. All in all, a typical English summer holiday then.

First up we went to Pleasurewood Hills, a theme park a la Alton Towers near Lowestoft. I’d never heard of the place and, having never visited a UK theme park I was a little worried that we were all set for a real disappointment. I’m glad to say I was in for a surprise.

It’s a decent size park with rides for kids of all ages, or heights even, as most of the rides are categorised not by age but by height. For several rides children had to be greater than a metre and for some slightly more. Although there were plenty of roller-coaster type rides, there were also some which were ideal for Monty.

There were also several other regular features that can be done, for example the sea-lions doing clever acrobatic things and balancing balls etc. I’m really not a fan of these kinds of “entertainment” but that’s just me.

In the afternoon we were able to attend a circus, 50 minutes of magic, acrobatics, trapeze-flying and gymnastics. The circus was 15-20 minutes late in starting which really frustrated us. You can’t keep families with young children waiting that long and expect them to stay. I wasn’t surprised when I saw at least one family walk out, bored of waiting. In the end we were glad we had waited as some of the acts from the 5-person troupe were truly excellent, notably the “clown” who had been amusing the kids no end throughout the programme. His was the last act; with help from two of the others ripping off his clothes he instantly morphed into a gymnast of seriously phenomenal ability. Most of his act was done on his hands balancing up in the air and doing one arm hops across the stage and other incredible feats. The only other places I have ever seen people with such incredible ability is at Cirque du Soleil or in the men’s gymnastics finals.

No wonder his act was left until last. I noticed that by the end, practically every other daddy in the audience was equally impressed by his talent; no doubt we all realised that even when we were young and fit we could NEVER have done anything like what this guy was doing.

The only real let-down of the day was a thirty plus minutes wait to be served at one of the restaurants. It’s completely unnecessary to keep people hanging around that long when, if you managed it right, you could make the meals and restaurants one of the best features of a day like this. If the weather hadn’t been so good no doubt the queues would have been a lot longer.

So if you’re thinking of visiting Pleasurewood Hills, take a picnic. Apart from that, expect to have a great day. we were genuinely surprised by the place and will go again next year, no doubt.

For details of location, opening times, costs etc, check out the Pleasurewood Hills website.

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