Travel test

WHAT: Drayton Manor Theme Park’s Magical Christmas extravaganza with one night at the on-site four-star hotel. B&B for a family of four costs around £130 a night.

WHERE: North of Birmingham, close to J9 on the M42 in Staffordshire. Tamworth train station is a three-mile cab ride. EXPERIENCE: There was a Thomas the Tank Engine at every turn in the hotel, which sent our four year-old into an excitable frenzy on the Friday night.

While the decor feels a little dated, the bedrooms are spacious and comfy.

The beauty of being on-site is the welcome lack of pressure to get up and out early.

After breakfast we mooched over to the park, where many of the big thrill rides were closed for annual maintenance.

Cue groans from my seven year-old. Fortunately there was one biggie – Accelerator – which he went on a stomach-churning seven times. My four year-old was far happier with plenty of younger rides available in Thomas Land, and the one we all loved the most was the Troublesome Trucks Runaway Rollercoaster.

We also took in a 20-minute show called A Christmas Wish, with Santa and comedy sidekick Elf Tinsel getting the crowd up and dancing. The kids loved it.

In the afternoon we had a pre-allocated time for the Grotto Experience and were led by elves to a quaint storytime with Mrs Christmas, and then to a workshop where we made reindeer food.

Finally, we got to meet Santa himself, who posed for a quick picture (additional cost, of course) and passed us some tokens we could cash in for presents.

Our favourite part of all – rather bizarrely given we were there for the Christmas events – was the extensive zoo.

QUIBBLES: A Christmas Wish was billed as being 4D and it felt a bit underwhelming when the only 4D element was the Elf’s toy fun squirting water over the crowd.

When there aren’t so many thrill rides open, it’s also probably going to be more of a crowdpleaser for the under-fives. VERDICT: Value for money, very festive with fake snow and a 35ft Christmas tree. 7/10