Heart of England Country Park and Beach

I went with a few adults and 2 children aged 13. It was a terrible day out. None of the activities that are included with the entrance fee are suitable for adults or 13 year olds. Even our children were not allowed to use the trampolines as they were too old. £42 for a picnic! Outrageous. We left after 30 minutes and got our money back (after a huge row with a verbally abusive staff member).

I too have been to the country park and beach and I thought it was reasonably ok. As you know we in the Midlands are pretty much landlock and on a beautiful summer’s day, which we do get occasionally and you feel you don’t fancy taking the children to the park again but would like to treat them to a day by the beach without having to drive for 2 hours to get there. It may be a last minute planning where the afternoon just turn out brilliant. This is what happened to me and I treated my kids and they enjoyed it. Now I know its not perfect they are some improvements that they need to do, e.g. toilets, zipwire, prices, some more quipments making it more adventurous for older groups. The park is well kept and there are large spaces to play vollyball, cricket, badminton, footie and so on. I think also that the park is good if you go as a group wanting to chill, have a picnic, but only if the weather is great unfortunatley. Now having said all that the council probable Coventry or Warwickshire does not want to support the owner and his facility, not everybody can afford to travel to the coast, and now with the current economic climate I think many people who have been there or know about the situation should offer there support. While I was there I observed many families and they didn’t seem too bothered about everything, kids enjoyed building sand castles, splashing in the water and others sun-​bathing. If you fancy some where different with the kids on a lovely hot day and not too far then I think the Country Park and Beach is pretty good.

I went to this beach with my two children as we had a deal on a trip which only cost us £1 each to get in. Normal prices are £7 each for children (with under 5’s free), £9 each for adults and £5 each for senior citizens and people with disabilities. Family ticket for up to 2 adults and up to 3 children is £25. I have to say I was glad I didn’t pay full price to get in.
The place is pretty and well kept (apart from the toilets which weren’t very nice) and there is a train around the park which is included in the admission price as are all the soft play areas. However, the soft play is not really suitable for older children (I had a 5 year old and a 10 year old with me and my 10 year old spent a lot of time waiting for my 5 year old to come off the soft play). There are boats, «quad pods» and a couple of other truck type rides around the park which looked good BUT you have to get tokens which cost £1 each and then you have to pay 2 tokens EACH for all of these things so, with 3 of us, it would have cost £6 for each thing. We did go on a boat (although my 5 year old was allowed on for free so that only cost £4 instead of £6). There is one coin-​operated ride and one manually operated ride (which was not manned when my children wanted to go on it).
I think it’s a shame in a way because with better organisation and a fairer price (either including more or reducing the cost of rides) it could be really good. And, personally, I would like to see a few things suitable for more ages as the soft play was suitable for my 5 year old and the paid for rides were suitable for my 10 year old and, other than the train and boats, there wasn’t much they could do together.
To be honest, if you live in the Midlands and don’t want to travel to the seaside and don’t mind paying to go to a beach then it’s ok but, personally, I think I’d rather take the 4 hour round trip to the seaside.