ELTIPS FACTFILE: AV R T

drop. To calm down, we all loved family favourite Duel – a modernday ghost train ride where you get to shoot ghouls with lasers, while Hex sent us into a spin… literally.

During Scarefest the park stays open until 9pm so for a further kick you can ride in the dark.

To turn it into a short break, we overnighted in a quirky woodland lodge in the resort’s Enchanted Village, a short distance away via the free monorail service.

The lodges are semi-detached, sleep five and include everything you need, including beds, towels and bathroom, but nothing you don’t need. They are just like self-contained hotel rooms. Parking is free and breakfast is included. We added on theme park tickets for both days so we could max out on fun, thrills… and Halloween chills.

Al Alton Towers Theme Park t i cke ckets, f rom £ 34 adult/£ 28 28.50 child when booke booked online at least five days in advance. Scarefest Sca 2019 runs until u November 3. T Tickets for individual attractions cost from £ 5pp. Prebook at altontowers.com/ scarefest. Woodland Lodge fr f r om £ 186.50, incl including breakfast. altont altontowers.com

DURING Scarefest, hotel and lodge guests are allowed to enter at 9.30am – half-an-hour before general opening – to be ready for the rides first.

GET the Alton Towers app to check the length of queues for popular rides.

THE monorail linking the accommodation to the park takes only a few minutes and runs frequently. But in peak times at either end of the day queues can be long so consider walking. It’s

only 20 minutes.