Alton Towers, Alton

Fantastic experience, spent two days at the park and splash landings plus an overnight stay in the Alton Towers Hotel. My children thought the whole break was wonderful, the rides, the activities, the entertainment! The food in the hotel was lovely and great value for money. The rooms were fab, clean, spacious and themed to tie in with the hotel. Every member of staff we came into contact with was phenomenal, Alton Towers are definitely winning on the customer service front! They were friendly, approachable and great with my children, everyone had time to talk and nothing was too much trouble! A few down sides, hence only 4*: The food and drink within the park was very expensive and no healthier options were available. The toilets were a state, I know it's nearly impossible to toilet check all those toilets as regularly as required but the floors were a mess, bins overflowing, every toilet I used was dirty. Perhaps encouraging adults to actually accompany their children when using the facilities? Other than that a truly magical trip away, highly recommended!

As a family we love Alton Towers. They have aced the mix of family friendly rides, kids rides and big kids rides. The park size is huge and offers loads of places to go and chill out away from the hustle and bustle. The food is on par with most attractions of this type, until you visit the hotels and find some lovely food. Of particular mention should be the Secret Garden that offers some lovely food.

An absolutely wonderful theme park of the first order. The rides cover the whole range from gentle to frighteningly extreme. On the downside - the site is HUGE. Impossible to tell how far we walked in total but it is measured in miles. Add to that the distance between the entrance and the car parks and it's a full days walking. This is NOT a cheap day out and is probably best tackled over 2 days! Allowing queuing time (average an hour) you'd be lucky to cover 6 to 8 rides a day. This makes the 'Fast Track' tickets an excellent option. For 5 of us (only 2 actually riding) total cost of entry and Fast Track was £257 (including all available discounts!). Only real gripe would be £6 per car to park! Really? Isn't better just added to the cost of entry?

Not exactly Disney, but then there is no competition for that. Plenty to do here for all of the family. Something for the babies, teens and older folk. Staff are always helpful and the park is always clean. The only thing for me is... when it rains you get wet whilst waiting. This is something that Disney does well, looking after the guests with cover in the queues and should be taken in to consideration here. Also the cost is very high if you turn up on the day. There are obvious ways to save money, but not all of the family want the white knuckle experience and the park land goes to waste. I'm sure of there were tickets just for those areas it would increase the popularity of the whole site.

Went for the weekend. Had a great Saturday, but didn't get onto Smiler, so we raced there first thing Sunday, but it wasn't open and they didn't know how long it would take. We were a large group, so split into 2: half of us had a good day with plenty of rides, but the other half managed a total of 2 or 3 because the queues were so long and rides kept stopping. The Hallowe'en decorations were fun