Travel test

Do you know the location of our monthly mystery travel picture? If you do, you could win three superb DK guide books worth up to £19.99 each. For September, it’s an 800-year-old temple which has starred in a Hollywood movie. Enter at mirror. co.uk/travel.

Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight, the UK’s oldest theme park. Tickets £20pp, under fours free. blackgangchine.com. Or you can buy a combined ticket with (excellent) sister park Robin Hill for £35pp and get unlimited seven-day return admission to both attractions.

Blackgang perches on a cliff on the south of the island. There’s free parking for more than 800 cars, and the park is also well served by Southern Vectis buses. EXPERIENCE: Blackgang is so old, some people reckon the previously unknown dinosaur recently dug up on the island might have popped in for a candy floss at the park’s grand opening. Only kidding! The park actually dates back 175 years, and although it’s distinctly retro that’s all part of its charm.

There are a couple of scary-ish rides here, notably the Cliffhanger roller coaster, which twists thrillingly high above the sea. But Blackgang is more about firing up the imagination than adrenaline levels. Our children are 10 and 11 but still had to ask, with genuine trepidation, whether all the “electrified” fences and warning signs around the walk-through animatronic dinosaur safari were for real. Bless.

Blackgang proves you don’t need cutting-edge effects to keep kids happy.

Our pair spent the day happily immersed in timeless pleasures such as the hall of mirrors, spinning vortex tunnel, crooked house and the playground pirate ships armed with water guns – ideal for squirting any parents daring to suggest it’s home time.

A week on and I still have the squawking Happy Birthday song from Blackgang’s Dodo Valley attraction stuck in my head.