Joe Willis recommends taking flight with​ the family to Flamingoland

DAYS out to theme parks like Flamingoland and Lightwater Valley were the stuff of school trips and very rare family outings as a boy growing up in Gateshead. Always during the summer holidays, or very near to them, and always rammed with thousands of others doing the same thing.

Alton Towers seemed like a world away and Disneyworld may as well have been on Mars.

Fast forward to 2013, and with children of my own, I have found out for myself how holidays with toddlers can be tricky. To save our sanity, we have so far resisted taking our one and three-year-old on a plane somewhere sunny: too far, too hot, too expensive.

What they need are short bursts of interesting activities suited to their ages somewhere within easy driving distance. So a week in a luxury holiday home in North Yorkshire theme park, only two hours from our front door, seemed ideal.

There we discovered exotic creatures for Tilda, the eldest, and the chance to go on as many rides as her little tummy could handle, and a swimming pool and grassed areas for Finn, who is nearly 18 months old. There were also some pretty impressive adrenaline-inducing rides for big kids like me to squeeze in when given the chance.

Growing up, my family had a touring caravan and we enjoyed many weeks in the Yorkshire Dales. However, our accommodation for this break could barely be described as a caravan.

For starters, the three-bedroom Swift Bordeaux was bigger than the flat I rented as a student journalist.

No kidding. The master bedroom had a full-size double bed with a dressing table and its own en suite toilet. The two other rooms were fairly compact twin bedded rooms, but there was plenty of room to sleep without feeling cramped.

The bathroom had a full working flush toilet and a sink, with a power shower better than one we have at home, and the kitchen had all mod cons. As well as a dining table for six, the lounge had a spacious settee that swallowed you up and a large flatscreen television mounted on the wall. I could live in this, I frequently found myself thinking during the course of our stay.

The caravan was sited not far from the club entertainment complex, which offers nightly Blackpool-style cabaret. One minor problem we did experience, having young children, is that the caravans were not soundproofed; some of the guests could get a bit vocal after darkness had fallen and the ale started flowing.

Being on-site had fantastic upsides, too. During the day we were able to go into the park as the rides were starting up, before the dreaded queues had begun to form.

With our wristbands giving unlimited access to rides, Tilda enjoyed having free reign of the aeroplanes, balloons, teacups, flying cows and the cars she could “drive” herself.

She was a little apprehensive about the new dinosaur section, which has realistic models of all types of fearsome creatures, and had to be told they were not real several times. The ghost train, in hindsight, was also a big mistake and photos on the screens at the end showed a very sorry looking man with his hands over a very frightened little girl’s eyes. Dad of the year, I am not.

I did, at times with some trepidation, manage to get myself on each of the fastest, highest, stomachchurning rides at least once. The star of the show was Kumali, a rollercoaster where your legs are left dangling as it whips you round and about and upside at breakneck speeds.

On rainy days there is a smallish fun pool with waters slides and a gym and we made very good use of the soft play pirate, which has a maze of padded tunnels, perfect for my two monkeys.

Speaking of monkeys, one of the best things about Flamingoland, which was opened in 1959 by eccentric Scarborough businessman Edwin Pentland Hick, is the zoo.

Tilda loved the sea lion show and is now so used to seeing rhino, hippopotamus, lions, tigers, giraffe and zebra, that she reacted to each new wild species as if were a cow at a North-East petting farm. I, on the other hand, saw it as the closest things we are ever going to get to being on safari.

Fact box

  • The holiday cost £600 for six nights including passes for the family to have unlimited access the theme park, holiday village and leisure complex. Visitors can camp and take their own touring caravans and motor homes as well as book holiday homes through the park, or just visit for the day. To find out more log on to flamingoland.co.uk or contact the park at: Flamingo Land, Kirby Misperton, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 6UX. T: 0871-911- 8000
  • Swift Bordeaux models such as the one we stayed in start at £27,215. For more information contact the company at Swift Group Ltd, Dunswell Road, Cottingham, East Yorkshire, HU16 4JX. T: 01482- 847332; W: swiftgroup.co.uk