A Family Day Out: Diggerland, Kent

Posted on the 20 October 2017 by Alex_bumptobaby @bumptobaby_blog
My Husband Adam celebrated his 29th birthday at the beginning of the month and when I asked him what he'd like to do for it with our boys he said he'd quite like to do something that he'd always wanted to do since he was a little boy - ride and control a real digger. I'd seen and heard of a few friends visiting a place called Diggerland in Kent, so we looked it up online and found that it seemed to appeal to the entire family both adults and children. So we decided on Diggerland and went on the Saturday after his birthday with the boys, Adam's parents, his brother and sister and their partners. 

The first ride we came across was Spindizzy and though it definitely didn't look for the faint hearted, our four-year-old Ethan was the first in line! They got strapped into a super-sized digger bucket, holstered up and then spun around and by the looks of Grandma's face - it was quite intense! Haha! ;) 

After that Logan and his Grandpop had a go on Dippy Ducks where they tried to hook a little duck out of the water using the digger. Logan absolutely loved being able to use the controls and operate the digger himself!There's a really fun Diggerland Train just next to the Dippy Ducks which is a lot of fun and is a great way to see what else is at Diggerland, you can either enjoy the train ride as a family, with all of you in a main carriage, or let the little ones ride in their own, personal follow cart where they can spin the steering wheel and beep the horn. As there were a few of us, my Husband rode in one of the follow carts behind the main carriage, he looked hilarious but he totally loved it! 

The dumper trucks are really fun to ride - they're the real but their engines have been changed to keep their maximum speed down so they're safe for little ones to ride with you (or alone if they're tall enough to).

It felt so weird to be riding what to me, looked like quite big, scary machinery, but it's all been made safe for children to be able to ride so you can't really go wrong. Which is great if you're a little bit nervous and a bit of a big baby like I am! ;)

The Dirt Diggers are a lot of fun! It's pretty cool to be able to dig, scoop, move and dump dirt around with you as the controller! The controls are really easy to learn and our boys had a lot of fun scooping and digging in the mud!

It's not everyday that I find myself behind the controls of a Digger! 

There are absolutely loads of rides and drives that are included in the price of the ticket (more than enough to fill up the day), but there are also a couple of coin-operated rides dotted around too such as the Dodgems which we had so much fun on! 
There are also activities available for under 5's accompanied by an adult at the Little Tikes Wheelz Play Zones (a new addition to all four of the Diggerland parks). We passed these but didn't get a chance to do any of them, I believe these are included in the cost of the ticket. 

There was also a children's indoor play area (which is included in the cost of admission) which had a soft play equipment in, a bouncy castle, arcade games, a sandpit and pedal tractors.

In terms of just some of the other rides and drives, there's a fun Safari where you are driven around in an SUV and the children can spot the cardboard animal cutouts that are dotted around. There are also mini tractors that you can drive around a little course. There's a ride called Dig-A-Round which is a carousel type ride that's made out of a specially adapted JCB. There's also a sky shuttle, which we didn't get around to going on, but it takes you up 50 feet in the air to give you a bird's eye view of the park.

We loved driving the Robots which are JCB Skid Steer Loaders that you get to control around a muddy course. They're a lot of fun!

We found that there was so much to do at Diggerland and so much to enjoy as a family as it was aimed at both children and adults. If you're 17 or over then you can pre-book experience days such as Dumper Truck racing, formula JCB racing, JCB experiences and also a monster digger excavator experience, but these must be booked beforehand. In terms of locations, they are actually four different locations - Kent (which we visited as it's our closest), Devon, Durham and also Yorkshire and I think that there will be a Diggerland opening soon in Worcestershire.

Ticket prices are just under £20 each for adults and children who are over 90cm and if you're children are under 90cm then they can go in for free. We had a really lovely day out as a family and I'd definitely recommend a visit, especially if you love diggers yourself or have digger-mad children or partners like mine! Visit www.diggerland.com to find out more. 
Thank you for reading. Alex xo

Please don't forget to leave me a comment below and share this post if you've enjoyed it. 

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave