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Introduction /
Disclaimer:
I decided to write this section, containing what is
much sort after information after a long weekend trip to Alton
Towers and Drayton Manor, which meant I finally had the information
needed for most of the parks on this site.
As a warning I must
emphasize this information only relates to the information from my
most recent visit. It won't necessarily be the easiest and / or the
cheapest method. I would also recommend double checking the
information, especially if there's a bus route, that might have
changed involved. The best places to check are either the parks web
site, or with the local tourist information center. I can't give a
100% guarantee things won't have changed since my last
visit.
Another useful place to try is National Rail Enquiries for train times, and Transport Direct for a route planner giving basic information on
public transport to various parks and tourist attractions.
Also
if you're traveling by car you can use The AA: Route Planner,
you can get directions by putting in your home town or village as
the starting location, and the park you're going to as the final
destination.
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Adventure
Island:
Adventure Island is pretty easy to get to. You can get
a train to Southend Victoria or Southend Central train station. I
usually get the tube to Westham tube station, and get a train from
there. On peak days you can ask for an Adventure Island ticket at
the station, and you get a special money saving deal including the
cost of your train fair and wristband.
Once in Southend it's a
short walk down the high street to the seafront, where Adventure
Island is easy to find.
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Alton
Towers:
Alton Towers can be difficult to get to by public
transport. When we went with the coaster club we had to
get a taxi due to the early and late start for exclusive ride time.
A taxi from Stoke-On-Trent station to Alton Towers cost us
approximately £25.00 including a tip, which isn't that bad for a 30
minute journey, especially if you've got a few people sharing. It's
best to organize your return trip with the driver on the way in,
ours was very helpful and we managed to organize most of our trip
with him. It's best to take a mobile phone with you so you, then
call them 30 minutes before you need them, so you don't have to wait
for them to arrive from Stoke-On-Trent.
On my most recent trip I saw some shuttle buses advertised on the parks website.
We got one from Stoke-On-Trent train station, where it cost £5.00
for a return ticket. We didn't have any problems with the buses, but
they were busy, even on a weekday during school term. I would imagine
it getting very busy on busier days. Another factor to note is the
buses aren't that frequent, and stop pretty early in the day. This
could be a problem if your train gets delayed.
Although it's now a lot easier to get to the park without the expense
of a taxi I don't think I'd be willing to risk it still unless I knew
we could still get a taxi if the worst came to the worst.
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Black Gang Chine/ Robin Hill:
If your going to the Isle of Wight you'll need
to get a ferry from either Southampton. Portsmouth or Southsea,
using either Wight Link,
Red Funnel or
Hover Travel. I don't
know about the Red Funnel ones from Southampton, but I know the
Wight Link ones from Portsmouth are convenient as they're at the
back of Portsmouth Harbour train station. The hover travel ones from
Southsea are less convenient for the train station, but are right
next to Clarence Pier if you want to stop by there.
There are buses that stop outside both parks, including some extra
tourist route buses during the summer season. You can find details
on all the routes on the
Southern Vectis website. When we visited we were staying on the
Isle of Wight for a few days. A day trip isn't impossible, but the
money and time it takes to get a train, a ferry and then a bus has
always put us off a day trip.
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Blackpool
Parks:
Blackpool is pretty easy to get to. You can get a
train to one of three Blackpool stations. When I go it's usually via
Preston, where I get a train to Blackpool North. From there it's a
short walk to the seafront, where you can get a tram along the
seafront to the piers, the Tower or the Pleasure Beach.
There are
also two other train stations in Blackpool, one is the Pleasure
Beach station that is almost next to the Pleasure Beach, and
Blackpool South which is also only a short walk from the trams on
the seafront.
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Brighton
Pier:
There are regular trains to Brighton station from
London, the best station to go from is London Victoria. If you get
an express train with only 3 or 4 stops you can cut up to 30 minutes
of your journey time.
Once in Brighton the easiest way to the
pier is a 14 or a 27 bus to the seafront, or it's a 10 or 15
minute walk to the pier by going down the main road to the
seafront.
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Camelot Theme Park:
From the
map it looks like it should be relatively easy to get to Camelot
with public transport. I couldn't find any info anywhere though on a
bus to the park though. There is a train station relatively nearby
called Euxton (pronounced Exton) Balshaw Lane. It's on the
borderline of long walking distance, it might be worth considering
taking bikes along if you have that option.
A taxi is relatively cheap, at under £10 if you can organise one.
There isn't a taxi rank serving the station, and couldn't find a
reliable list of taxis online. You would either have to contact the
park before hand, or rely on directory enquires.
An easier option might be to go to the further away Chorley train
station. I haven't tried this myself, but it's a larger town so it's
more likely to have taxis at the train station, plus I found this
list of local
taxi companies online to use. It's probably a good idea to take
this if you go to Euxton station anyway, that way you can at least
get a taxi, even at a higher cost for a non local one.
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Chessington World of
Adventures:
Get a train to Chessington South train station, (not
Chessington North) the best places to do this are either Waterloo or
Clapham Junction. The park is only a short distance from Chessington
South.
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Clarence
Pier:
The nearest train station to Clarence Pier is
"Portsmouth and Southsea." From there you can get a bus or taxi if
you want, but it's not that long a walk to the pier. The signposting
isn't that clear, but as long as you keep heading in the direction
of the Seafront it isn't to hard to find.
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Disneyland
Paris:
One option to get to Disneyland is the Euro star,
where you can book direct trains to the park. Another option is to
go to the center of Paris and get the Metro which is pretty easy
once you understand how the Paris Metro system works. Just take RER
line A to Marne-La-Vallee. If using the Metro for several days
the tourist passes for unlimited travel on the Metro is good
value.
The hard part is understanding the Paris Metro. What you
need to look for is signs indicating the stop at the end of the line
for the direction you want to travel. In this case a train heading
to Marne-La-Vallee. Keep an eye out for signs on the train, as some
trains take a different route at some points, and some terminate
before Marne-La-Vallee.
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Dreamland
Margate:
There are regular trains to Margate train station from
London Victoria. Margate station is on the seafront, and if you turn
right along the seafront you should only be a minute or two away
from Dreamland. Just be careful not to miss the entrance building.
There's a cinema you go past, and then there's a short road that
ends at a building that's the entrance to Dreamland
Margate.
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Fantasy
Island:
There are trains you can get to Skegness, but I'd
recommend giving yourself extra time for your journey. The trains
aren't that frequent. When I went I got stuck in Grantham for a
couple of hours after my first train got delayed by engineering
works, and I missed the connecting train I was scheduled to
get.
Once in Skegness it's worth going to tourist Information on
the seafront, as well as picking up a bus map it's worth looking for
a Fantasy Island brochure to pick up a special deal coupon on the
tokens.
To get to Fantasy Island you need to wait at a bus stop
in the main road the train station is on, if you haven't got a bus
map you'll need to ask the bus driver, but there are several routes
that stop at Fantasy Island frequently.
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Flamingo Land:
The nearest train station to Flamingo Land is Malton. As you
exit Malton station, if you almost do a U-turn to the left you'll
see a taxi company, that's office is part of the train station. The
easiest method is to go to that office and ask for a taxi to the
park, an d
arrange for one to pick you up at the end of the day. I think this
costs around fifteen or twenty pounds each way. This is definitely the
method I'd recommend if you have young children. Another option worth
considering if you know what train your getting, is to book a taxi in
advance. This can be useful as you can book your return journey in
advance too. To do this you can use several local taxi firms including Station Taxis in Malton.
There are
buses from York and Malton you can get. I got mine from Malton, and
it's pretty easy to follow the signposts, and find out which buses
to get from the information boards. One warning is the buses are
very infrequent, sometimes at less than once an hour. You need to go
to http://www.yorkshiretravel.net/ and use the journey planner to find out the bus
times, you can put York or Malton as the stating destination, and
Flamingo Land as the end destination.
There are buses that go to the park at the start and end of the day. At other
times the bus stops in quite a
rural village location a short distance from the park, I've included
some photos of the area round the stop so you can spot it. From
there it's about a ten minute walk to the park.
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Funland, Hayling
Island
The best train station to get to Funland on is Havant.
From there it's a short walk to Havant bus station. There are
information boards telling you which bus to get. There are buses
which go to Funland every half an hour, which is pretty easy to spot
from the bus. The only thing to be warned of is the bus fares are
pretty expensive, I paid just over a fiver for a bus journey that
was only about twenty minutes each way.
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Great Yarmouth
Parks:
Obviously you'll need need to get a train to Great
Yarmouth Station, most likely by going via Norwich.
Once there
you need to remember that Great Yarmouth is a peninsula, so you
don't follow the river to get to the seafront, you walk away from
the river until you get to the other edge of the peninsula. You
should find yourself close to Joyland on the Seafront, and there are
good transport links using a bus, or a road train to Great Yarmouth
Pleasure Beach along the seafront.
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Harbour Park,
Littlehampton:
You can catch a train to Littlehampton train station,
from there you can get a taxi if you wish, but it's only a short
walk. If you walk in the rough direction of the sea, and keep an
eye out for signposts you shouldn't have any problem finding Harbour
Park.
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Hollycombe Steam
Collection:
The information on the parks website is pretty accurate here. You get a train to Liphook
train station, and from there you look for the main road that goes
across a railway bridge. The quickest way to find it is to look for
a set of steps at the back of the station car park, which
leads up to the road.
Once on the road it takes around 20 minutes
to reach a signposted turn off, which has a small road you follow
for about 10 minutes until you reach the ticket office.
The one
thing to watch, not mentioned on the website is that parts of this
road are unpaved country road. This includes some parts going
through wooded areas with poor visibility. This is worth
bearing in mind, especially if you have young kids for who the road
may well be too dangerous.
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Legoland
Windsor:
The train station you need is Windsor and Eton, which
you can catch trains to from London Waterloo or Clapham
Junction.
There's a map to where the bus stop is above one of the
station exits. Just follow the road down, left at the crossroad, and
follow the corner round to the right.
From my experience the
Legoland shuttle buses have always been reliable. I've been on
quiet school days, and the buses have still been running without
any hitches, and there are extra buses on busy days and late buses
on special event days. The only days I can foresee any major
problems would be an extremely busy day like a bank holiday, or
weekend during the school holidays, although I've never been on a
day like that so don't know if it gets to be a problem or
not.
There is a bus stop on on the main road outside the park
which I imagine would have buses going between there and the area
round the train station, but in my experience the shuttle buses
have been reliable enough to get from the station to the
park.
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Lightwater Valley:
Lightwater Valley is a strong
contender for most difficult UK park to get to without a car. You
can find details of local buses at
www.yorkshiretravel.net/
but there are no direct buses from a train station to a park. I
wasn't able to find a journey that didn't involve at least 2 buses.
Not being locals, and having a train to catch in the early evening
we decided instead to find the nearest train station we could and
look for taxi details. The nearest train station we found was Thirsk.
There isn't a taxi rank serving the station, but there are details
of local companies on the
Thirsk
Tourism Website. Even with this info it turned out the park was
even further away than we thought it would be from the map. We
thought it would be around £20, each way, it was closer to £30.
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Oakwood:
To say getting to Oakwood without your
own car will take some doing is an understatement. First you need to
check out the official tourism sites for Narberth
and Tenby. Narberth is the closest town to Oakwood, Tenby is
slightly further away, but has the added bonus of being on the
coast.
Both Tenby and Narberth have train stations, but they take
two hours to get to from Swansea. Unless you live close to the
Swansea to Tenby train line you'll most likely have to look for
accommodation on the towns official sites for your
visit.
When I was in Tenby I saw some buses advertised to local
attractions, including Oakwood, but this was for a limited service,
only 3 days a week in peak season.
Most likely though you'll need
to go to the towns website, or look locally to find a local taxi
service, to book a taxi to and back from Oakwood.
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Pleasure Island,
Cleethorpes:
Obviously you need to get a train to Cleethorpes bus
station. From there you can get a taxi, which won't cost more than a
fiver, or you can walk to the seafront and get a number 9 bus to the
park. The bus goes right alongside the park, so you should be able
to spot it quite easily. One thing you have to be careful of is the
buses don't operate in the evenings, but this probably won't effect
you unless you intend to stay on after your visit at the parks
family pub, or one of the other nearby restaurants or
attractions.
Another favourite method of mine, which is probably
best used for coming back from the park is you can walk a short
distance from the park to a miniature railway. You can catch this
for a distance along the coast, from where it's not that long a walk
to the amusements around the train station.
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Pleasurewood
Hills:
To get here you either need to get a train to Great
Yarmouth like I did, or get a train to Lowestoft. From there you can
get a bus that goes between Great Yarmouth (from the main shopping
high street) and Lowestoft.
You have to get of the bus at a giant
Tescos Car park. From there you need to find a roundabout at the
entrance, and go down the road that doesn't go in to Tescos or
towards the main road you got the bus down. It's about a 10 minute
walk across a couple of empty fields to the park
entrance.
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Rainbow Park, Hunstanton:
I should warn here that
I had a lift to the park on my visit to Hunstanton, so haven't been
to the park using public transport. I thought this would be easy
enough, until I learned that Hunstanton doesn't have a train
station.
The best information I could find was on
this website for a
local bus company. By the looks of it the best option is to get a
train to King's Lynn, and get a bus to Hunstanton their. The buses
seem to be frequent during the day, but I would recommend checking
the times back as there aren't that many from late afternoon
onwards.
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Thorpe
Park:
You can get trains to Staines station from London
Waterloo or Clapham Junction. There are meant to be regular shuttle
buses from outside the station, but I've found these to be
inadequate and unreliable.
The alternative I've always had to use
is to follow the footpath from the bus stops that runs parallel to
the railway track. If you can't spot the bus stop or path you're
probably on the wrong side of the station and should cross the
bridge to get to the other side. After walking a bit down the path
you should come to a small tunnel going under the railway tracks,
walk through this and across the car park you come out at. Almost in
front of you should be a shopping centre with a load of bus stops
outside where you can get a bus to Thorpe Park from.
When coming
back you may need to walk out of Thorpe Park to a bus stop on the
main road outside. I've been there early on in the season when a lot
of buses where missing out the Thorpe Park stop, possibly because
they didn't realize the park was open.
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Wicksteed
Park:
The nearest train station to Wicksteed is Kettering.
You can get a taxi from the station if you wish, but it isn't that
far a walk. For this I would recommend going to www.multimap.com and typing in Kettering in as a search. This will give
you a map of the area on which the train station and Wicksteed park
is marked. Once you've got this map it's pretty easy to follow the
main roads down to the park.
I'm told there is also a bus that goes close to the park that comes
from a number of major towns in the area in the form of
Peterborough, Corby, Wellington, Northampton and Milton Keynes. The
route number last time I checked was X4. You could find a timetable
by looking up Wicksteed Park on
this link.
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