Overnight break for a five year old

[slev]

Clever people of Mumsnet, please can I pick your brains?

DH is away next week and I have a couple of days off work to spend with DS before he goes back to school. As it's just the two of us and there's no real need to be at home Monday night, I was thinking about an overnight trip - but where?

We have Merlin passes.and live in SW London so Legoland, Chessington etc are day trips rather than overnights. We've done Drayton Manor in the past, but I think he's out growing Thomas Land now. Is Alton Towers worth the trip? Or anywhere else?

Doesn't have to be a theme park, just anywhere a 5 year-old will enjoy - it's for him, not me. And happy to have a reasonable drive if we're staying overnight.

All ideas welcome!

West Midlands safari park and stay I. The hotel in the middle of it?

How about Monkey Forest in Staffordshire? Also there is Trentham Gardens next door that has a playground, mini train and barefoot walk.

We live a bit closer than you, so we left home early morning and had a half day at Monkey Forest, then stayed at the Premier Inn on-site (it could be called Trentham Gardens, not sure, but it would come up on the Premier Inn website if you searched for a hotel using the Monkey Forest postcode) and went to Trentham Gardens the following day.

The premier inn is called trentham gardens! Monkey forest is great.

Or how about think tank in Birmingham one day and Cadbury world the next?

Warwick Castle. It's included in the merlin pass, lots of hotels nearby, not too far (we are SW London too) and it's an absolute winner with kids because it's a "proper" castle.

Failing that, Longleat.

I think Cadbury world is not all that great. Monkey forest and trentham are ace!

I wouldn't go to Cadbury world

DS is 5 and loves Alton towers

Given the choice of Disneyland or Alton Towers our DC would pick Alton Towers every single time. It is fabulous.

Cadbury world is awful, we were killing ourselves laughing at being sent down a really long corridor and at the end was a solitary man giving out Curly Wurlys, nothing to see or do, just take the Curly Wurly and head back down the corridor. WTF.

Monkey world is just a bunch of monkeys in a bit of woodland, sometimes they sit on the path and sometimes they CBA. Meh.

RAF Cosford is good (and free). Warwick castle is fine.

But IMVHO Alton Towers beats everything and Harry Potter studios comes second!

Isle of Wight - always fun to go on a ferry and lots to do there.

If you are doing an overnight I believe the Alton Towers hotel Splash Landings is meant to be quite cool. We haven't stayed there but DH and DD once went there to use the Water Park and had a terrific time. You could do Alton Towers one day, the Water Park the next and stay in the hotel.

Oh no about Cadbury world . I've not been since I was little and was looking forward to taking DS.

I'll stick to Thomasland and the monkeys!

Think tank is definitely worth it though!

York? National Railway Museum is a must see attraction. We spent an entire day there with DS and he loved it and keeps asking to go back. Free to get in and they just ask for a donation. Plenty of other places such as the Jorvik (Viking) Centre, York Minister and Castle. Easy to get to by train from London. If you go by car, get a hotel on the outskirts and use the park and ride services to get into York as they are really good and reasonably priced.

Thanks for the suggestions. Looks like we may do Alton Towers although DS still keeps dithering between that and Thomas Land (but only because he wants to stay in the Thomas-themed rooms again!). But it's probably going to be as quiet as we're ever likely to get it as most people will be back at school, so we'll take advantage while we can.

Lots of good ideas here for future though - had never heard of Monkey Forest! And can't believe I hadn't thought of York - we used to go there all the time as kids and DS would love the railway museum.