Sleep under the stars in Alton Towers’ Stargazing Pods for a fun family break
ALTON Towers promises an out of this world experience but asking visitors to spend a cold night out in the open gazing at the sky? Could they be Sirius? We were at the Staffordshire theme park for the opening weekend of its Stargazing Pods — 102 newly built tiny houses with telescopes dotted around. The […]
ALTON Towers promises an out of this world experience but asking visitors to spend a cold night out in the open gazing at the sky? Could they be Sirius?
We were at the Staffordshire theme park for the opening weekend of its Stargazing Pods — 102 newly built tiny houses with telescopes dotted around.
The idea is to give families a chance to stay at Alton Towers on a budget while getting kids enthused about astronomy.
Think glamping meets The Sky At Night with roller coasters thrown in.
My girls Alice, 9, and Harriet, 7, were entranced with our humble home. Built out of Finnish whitewood, the curved roofs look otherworldly.
Once inside you’re hit by that fresh woody smell as well as a double bed, two singles for the girls, a heated towel rail and phone charging socket.
Toilets and showers are provided in a new block a short walk away. No TV or kettle, but then the whole ethos of Stargazing is to get you outdoors.
After stowing our bags under the beds it was time to start looking at the heavens.
According to a recent survey, one in four of us don’t regularly look at the stars and 50 per cent are unable to identify the Milky Way. I was firmly in the wrong 50 per cent.
Luckily Mark Thompson, presenter of BBC’s Stargazing Live, was on hand to officially open the attraction and enthuse us with his knowledge on astronomy.
Alice and Hattie were enthralled when he told them how he first saw a shooting star as a child. And they were amazed when he let them hold a tiny meteorite he had found in the Arctic.
Thankfully it was a clear, if bitterly cold night, and with the help of his torch he picked out Orion’s Belt and a new constellation forming underneath it. (That is now two I can identify.)
In between we were able to enjoy live music at an outdoor tipi, which provided refreshments and a mechanical self-playing piano.
Amid the newly planted 900 trees and bushes, there was plenty of room for the kids to run around.
They also got to meet some of the fictional inhabitants of the village, Darwin the Dodo and Sir Algernon — the fictional owner of Alton Towers.
The whole family tumbled into our pod chilly but elated. Despite the cold outside, we were snug as bugs in our pods and had a good night’s sleep.
The next day we picked up our breakfast of a hot drink and warm bacon roll from reception in preparation for a day in the park.
One of the perks of staying at the pods is that you get the rides to yourself for the best part of an hour before they open to the general public.
I have been coming to Alton Towers since 1986, but this was our first visit as a family.
In the queue to the terrifying Wicker Man ride, Alice tried to back out begging: “Don’t make me do it.”
But with a burst of courage she changed her mind, followed by a trip to the terrifying Alton Towers Dungeon. That’s my girl!
Harriet, being younger, was a bit more cautious so we went on some of the gentler rides together: the Runaway Mine Train, the Congo River Rapids and the Marauder’s Mayhem pirate barrels.
Go: Alton Towers
Staying there: Pods start from £88 for four sharing off peak and £123 in peak.
The Kids Play Free offer on May half-term short breaks at all Alton Towers accommodation, includes free theme park entry for one under 11 with every full-paying adult, breakfast, early ride access, car parking and Extraordinary Golf.
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Finally they insisted that daddy went on the Nemesis, although none of them wanted to join me.
I spent most of the 90mph two-minute ride yelling through the G-Force, “Please make it stop” .
This was a weekend of thrills, spills with a bit of star-dust thrown in. Where else can you go to the moon and back with a price that’s far from astronomical.