Adventure Valley Durham

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Last weekend my daughter was invited to Adventure Valley, Durham for a birthday party and we decided to take her little brother along for a day out too as it looked like lots of fun. Adventure Valley is located in Brasside, Durham close to Frankland prison and is well signposted, we managed to find it easily. This was our first time visiting and I did not know what to expect but we had such an amazing time that I am sure it won't be our last visit.

Adventure Valley is an indoor and outdoor play centre that is ideal for children aged three plus, although I am sure slightly younger children would also enjoy it too. There was so much to see and do and you could easily spend the whole day there exploring and having fun as it is huge. 

Upon arrival, we came across a panning for gold station which Jacob made a beeline for before heading off to explore the animal barn and huge (18,000 sq foot) indoor soft-play area. Sophia was there for a party and they have little party huts with dedicated party hosts who take you on a tour of the site and plan lots of fun activities with the children. It was a great idea for a party and all of the children had great fun. After the party (it was around 2 hours long) we joined the rest of the family to have some fun and explore what else there was to do. 

As we visited on a weekend during the summer holiday's there were magic shows and family games to take part in. You could also pay a small fee to ride on a pony, play mini golf (which looked really good) or to take part in a roller disco, we didn't take part in any of these activities as the children were having too much fun with everything else that was on offer. 

We spent most of the time outside whizzing down the giant Runaway Races slide in giant rubber rings (so much fun), sliding down one of the many slides or speeding along on the zip wire. There was also lots of great play areas with giant jumping pillows, a park area, a huge pirate ship, Noah's ark and an impressive fort area where the children spent ages running around and exploring. 

Everywhere you looked there was something new for children to explore and have fun on, we even witnessed a water fight taken place. 

The pedal go-karts and snake helter-skelter and goat mountain were huge hits with my almost 4-year-old, he spent so much time on these. 

Sophia loved seeing all the animals, especially the ponies and exploring the Maize Maze where we had fun finding our way out the giant maze, I think we took lots of wrong turns! The children were amazed at the bird of prey shows we encountered on our exit from the maze too. 

As the children were having so much fun playing outdoors and exploring we missed so many of the activities such as the tractor rides, petting and grooming the animal sessions and the hamster Grand Prix races. 

The setting for Adventure Valley was beautiful too, out in the countryside all you could see were rolling green fields and trees and it was lovely. We found Adventure Valley to be really clean and tidy, there was a lot of wasps which sadly spoilt things a little but it can't be helped at this time of year and they did have traps everywhere to try and control the problem.

 We also visited the cafe and the prices were reasonable and there were lots of toilet facilities around which were clean. 

Overall we had a really lovely day out, we were there from around 12 until 4 and the children would have stayed for longer if we had of let them. They had a brilliant day out and so did us grown-ups, it was nice doing something outdoors and watching the children play with all the equipment having fun. Even though we visited on a weekend in August we did not have to queue for anything as there was so much to do and so there were no queues. 

We will definitely be returning to Adventure Valley soon as the children had a great day and have already asked to return. If you are looking for a family day out this summer then I really do recommend a visit to Adventure Valley as I am sure your children will enjoy it as much as mine did. 

It took us about 30-40 minutes in the car to get to Adventure Valley so it is not far from Newcastle, parking on site is free. 

Adventure Valley

Union Hall Farm

Brasside

Durham

DH1 5SG

Adventure Valley is open 7 days a week from 10am - 5pm. 

Full opening times, details of what is on and to book tickets visit www.adventurevalley.co.uk

Disclosure My daughter was attending her friends birthday party at Adventure Valley and we were kindly given complimentary tickets for the rest of the family for the purpose of this review, however, all opinions are my own.