Wheelgate Park, Newark

Following our first visit to Wheelgate this December we feel like we’ve discovered a gold mine of fun. Before venturing the 90 minute journey from Derbyshire to Nottingham we discovered no one had heard or been to the Adventure Park in Mansfield. Believe me I’m now singing its praises. My children loved the concept that they weren’t restricted to a certain number of rides because of cost, and they could go anywhere and have as many goes as they liked for the entire day. Even though we visited during the first snow showers in December the children (wrapped up warm) enjoyed all the outside attractions including the crazy golf, train rides and roller coster, mini mining museum, maze, boats, bouncy castle, carousel, pirate ship and trampolines. There are loads more to do outside. In fact we didn’t manage to get to the farm area. After lunch we ventured to the enormous indoor soft play area – Land of the Pharaohs. There is no need to worry about losing your little ones. There are staffs strategically placed at various slides to police which children are at a height to rides the slides. In the older children’s play area, I had to go in with my tall three year old daughter. There is a second, very large, indoor play area – Alien Galaxy Zone. This is probably best suited to children aged seven years or older yet my younger two children still had a go on everything their height permitted. This is a great place to come to entertain children of all ages as there is lots of attractions and rides aimed at all ages and abilities. Mums and Dad may enjoy some peace in the Birds of Paradise house and a chuckle at the Lord of the Rings display. Probably best to take a picnic to Wheelgate, as we did, (ample picnic table indoor and outdoors). The food here does nothing to wet the appetite with fast food chips, burger and hot dogs alongside prepacked sandwiches is all that we found on offer. The entertainments at Wheelgate is definitely wholesome whatever the weather yet take your own food to be sure of a fine day out.

Me and my 2 and a half year old son has visited the park on a few occasions over the last 6 months. Come rain or shine there is something to do for a full day out, whether it be the out door rides, indoor play areas or visiting the animals in and outside the different barns. My son especially enjoys bouncing on the trampolines, playing in the outdoor maze, going on the pirate ship plus many more things. There is certainly something to do for all ages and the park is over a vast amount of land that you never wait too long for anything at all - this pleases me when you have a 2-3 year old who is not very patient!! Perfect for picnics in the summer while you watch your little ones run around exploring the many things to do. We recently visited the park over the halloween half term expecting queues and delayed enjoyment, however i was pleasently suprised with the additional activites, at no extra charge, that was available throughout the day - these included pumpkin carving (you cpould keep your creation to take home free of charge) painting, colouring scary masks, a treasure hunt plus more. I would recommend Wheelgate Park to families with children of all ages, very good value for money and you can also purchase yearly passes at a very reasonable price! Go crazy and enjoy!

we took our 17month old daughter to the fangtastic halloween event at wheel gate park, the park opens at 10am every day, and apon arrival we were greated by a very friendly witch, once inside the park we notice everything was decorated with pumpkins and ghosts. They have several beautiful outdoor play parks, a under 5 section with wendy houses, ride on tractors and sandpits. Ther older parks had climbing frames and swings. There was also a small village large enough for the "little people" to enter, adult are a little to big but can still go in. They also had a farm with goats, chickens sheep and llamas. and inside some small barns where rabbits, ferretts and other small animals. There is plenty of ourdoor but undercover picnic areas to use however i noticed that some of the bins hadnt been emptied and black bags were piled up at the side ( maybe they hadnt got round to emptying them yet?) They also had several indoor activity places, pharohs and all things egypt and a space type activity place, all had indoor dining but not for picnics. The wall of mirrors maze was mind boggling, it can definatly confuse you, but was great fun, no pushchairs were allowed in this maze. They had a outdoor maze which my daughter just loved, however the middle of the maze was out of reach to me pushing the push chair behind, we ended up leaving the way we came. we were there roughly 2 hours, however with our daughter being only 17month there was very little she could do, i do think that next year when my daughter is 2 - 2 1/2 she will be old enough and would enjoy it more. Overall we all had a great time and we are planning on going back for the christmas event. definatly worth a visit.