Half Term

After a day spent walking around Alton Towers, I was happy to be spending the night in their iconic hotel on the resort – here’s my honest review of a stay for our family of four

A day at a theme park is knackering, especially with two kids in tow who can seemingly have the best day of their lives while also complaining every single second. Nothing is worse than getting to the end of a day out and facing the drive home exhausted.

So, if you’ve got a day at a theme park planned, you may be considering staying in one of the park’s onsite hotels. Arguably, Alton Towers has one of the best selections of accommodation out of any UK theme park. It has hotels, woodland lodges, treehouses, and stargazing pods, so there’s all sorts of places to stay, and you’re right on the park’s doorstep so you’ve got somewhere to rest after a long day.

Recently, I stayed with my two kids at the Alton Towers Hotel, a three-star property that’s one of the park’s three hotels. Themed around a fictional Victorian explorer, Sir Algenon, the hotel has a sort of steampunk, historic look, although my kids thought it was pirate-y more than anything, but either way, the detail that has gone into it is impressive.

Stepping into the hotel, there’s a huge atrium with a large ship-shaped stage, and checking in late afternoon there was already entertainment and live music in full-swing. We went back later and the entertainers were playing some fun games with the kids, and it had a really joyful, slightly chaotic atmosphere around the bar.

We stayed in a Moon Voyage room, which had a similar theme to the hotel with lamps that looked like Victorian gaslights, lots of gears and levers, and explorer-themed murals. The room was clean and the beds comfy, and I liked that the kids sleeping area with bunk beds was slightly sectioned off and had their own TV. It meant we could lie in bed and watch some grown up TV while they could watch a bit of CBBC before dinner.

For dinner, we headed to the Splash Landings Hotel to try Flambo’s Jambo, an all-you-can eat buffet that had a bit of everything from peri peri to tacos, roast dinners, and Chinese dishes. The atmosphere was fun, with a giant waterwheel and the sounds of some very lively entertainment going on in the background, and the food was OK, with the kids more excited about the ice cream machine than anything else.

While we slept well and the room was comfortable, I woke up early to find the bathroom door had locked itself from the outside. I had to run down to use the loo in the lobby and find hotel staff, still in my pyjama bottoms and my hair looking even more dishevelled than usual. It did get fixed within an hour, but obviously that kind of thing is a pain when you’re up early with kids.

Breakfast was included and is served buffet style at the Secret Garden Restaurant. It had quite a basic selection of hot food, plus some cereal, pastries, and pancakes, which the kids were happy with. Again, the food wasn’t amazing, but it kept us going on the way home.

If you’re visiting Alton Towers and have a long drive, a stay at the hotel or its other accommodation is worth considering. For us, driving there and back would mean five hours in the car as well as the long day exploring the park, so it was nice to crash overnight and split the journey up.

I’ll admit, the hotel is expensive, and some parts felt more worth the price than the others. Packages include one day at the theme park, 9-hole golf, and breakfast, and there are deals on such as free child entry to the waterpark if you book an adult ticket. The hotel does have an incredibly fun style and is well-maintained, and kids are enchanted by the style.

But other things felt like they needed a little work. The themed rooms feel a little basic, and while they have nice décor it felt a little like they were missing something. I would have liked to have some bottled water in the rooms for example, as there were no refill points in the hotel and at £3 a pop, it’s expensive to rehydrate after a day in the sun. But I think most visitors know to expect theme park prices when they stay somewhere like this, and really, it’s the location that’s the main draw when you’ve spent all day on your feet in the summer.

Rooms start from £106pp for an Explorer Room at the Alton Towers Hotel this summer. You can currently book and take advantage of their Kids Swim Free offer. Find out more and book at altontowers.com.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

As 6.3 million people embark on road trips, the UKHSA has issued a yellow heat health alert with a risk to life for the elderly and vulnerable

More than six million people are hitting the roads as the summer holidays begin – battling 30C temperatures and nose-to-tail traffic jams.

The AA predicts 6.3 million of us will make journeys between now and Thursday. Yellow heat health alerts are in place across much of the country until tomorrow morning and the UK Health Security Agency is warning of minor impacts on health and social care services and an increased risk to life for vulnerable people.

The Port of Dover is braced for its busiest weekend of the summer. Holidaymakers faced gridlock as they waited for ferries today, and tomorrow is set to be the same. Ferry company DFDS said its wait times at Dover were up to 60 minutes at border controls.

But officials hope it will be smooth sailing compared to the May half-term getaway, when waiting times hit four-and-a-half hours due to technical issues with thenew border check Entry Exit System.

The RAC’s Simon Williams warned: “Drivers should be ready for some very busy roads this weekend and expect delays. The best advice is to plan journeys and think about setting off earlier or later in the day to avoid traffic jams.”

Opting to stay at home this week will also come with its challenges. Millions of Brits are now subject to hosepipe bans and a drought has been officially declared for large parts of north and mid-Wales.

The rest of Wales, along with much of central, southern and eastern England, is in the “prolonged dry weather” ­category – one stage below a drought. But parts of Britain might be in for some light relief from Sunday, as high pressure retreats and brings outbreaks of rain.

Showers could be heavy in the north and the west of the UK, with 20mm possible in parts of north west Scotland. The rain will be much patchier further south and east, with large swathes of England and Wales forecast to get just a few millimetres at most. And it’s likely some locations in the south of England will not see a drop.

The Met Office’s Dan Suri said: “After a prolonged spell of hot, dry and settled weather, some will see a temporary change this weekend as weather fronts move south east across the UK. While some areas, particularly in the north and west, will see rain and showers, many places are likely to receive ­relatively little rainfall.

“For much of southern England, dry conditions are expected to remain the ­dominant feature, with ­temperatures recovering quickly next week and the potential for very warm or locally hot weather to return.”

Meanwhile, British holidaymakers were among thousands evacuated from the Cap Ferret peninsula as wildfires raged across south-west France. Tens of thousands are being forced to leave the upmarket resort, including hundreds escaping by boat.

Headmaster David Morton, 53, from Gloucester, was holidaying in the coastal village of Petit Piquey with his wife and sons when they received an emergency text message at 3am.

He said: “We got in our car, packed everything up as quickly as we could… and then set off and joined a very long, slow-moving queue of traffic. We could see several fires in the distance. The whole forest was on fire.”

The fire has so far consumed around 10,000 hectares – nearly the size of the city of Manchester – with water-bombing planes deployed in a bid to keep the flames under control. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 40,000 people either had been or were preparing to evacuate from the Cap Ferret peninsula.

Firefighters also battled blazes in Le Porge and Lacanau in the Gironde department of south-west France, while smoke from the fires dominated the skyline in nearby Biscarrosse.

Elsewhere in Europe, Spain has declared a national emergency after 20,000 people were forced to flee due to fires near Madrid, while the Italian island of Sicily has also been hit.

Many Brits heading to the EU are dreading their journey through the airport due to the new European Entry/Exit System (EES), but many don’t realise there’s an app available to cut waiting times at certain destinations

Peak holiday season is upon us, and the launch of the European Entry/Exit System (EES) is reportedly causing queues at destinations such as Spain, Greece, and France.

Local media in Spain has warned that Brits could face six-hour queues, and there have been reports of passengers missing flights, with airports blaming “additional processing requirements”. All non-EU visitors to the European Union, including Brits, are now required to have biometric information such as facial images and fingerprints taken on arrival, and must also use the machines on departure to help the EU flag overstays.

One of the reasons why Brits often face longer queues at the airport is that, while EU passport holders have their own lanes, Brits have to queue alongside other non-EU nationalities. But for those going to Portugal or Sweden this summer, there is a way to speed up the process.

An official (but not very well-known) app could potentially get you through the airport quicker. At the moment, the Travel to Europe app is only available for visitors to two EU countries, but it could be rolled out to other destinations in the future, according to its developers.

Brits heading to these countries can download the app on the App Store or Google Play – making sure you download the right app and not a third-party one.

Create a new journey by selecting the country you’re arriving in or departing from, this can be done up to 72 hours before your travels begin. You can then add a border crossing point and your estimated time of arrival.

Travellers can then scan the personal details page and chip of their passport, take a selfie to confirm their identity, and answer a few questions about their plans. Normally, these steps would be done at the EES kiosks, so by doing them on the app at home, you can save time at the airport.

Families travelling together can also add other passengers before submitting their journey. Once registered, you’ll get confirmation that your journey has been accepted. Then you simply need to follow the signs at the airport to make your way through security. The app developers are careful to point out that using the app doesn’t guarantee border entry, and that anyone passing through the airport can still be flagged for additional checks.

But for the majority of holidaymakers, this could cut down on the time they spend queuing and waiting to enjoy the Portuguese sunshine.

Reviews of the app have been mixed so far. One user said: “Pointless to have an app that supports only one country – I understand it is optional for Member States to incorporate the app into their systems, but it doesn’t mean this couldn’t have been arranged better.” But there were success stories, with one user saying: “I went to Stockholm…. long queues for UK passports. I had already used the app, and used the pre-registered lane. Two people in front of me. The whole process took about three minutes. Very impressed!!”

Around 2.4 million British tourists visit Portugal every year, making up the majority of the country’s tourism, although this is a fraction of the 19 million British visitors Spain saw in 2025. Overall, foreign tourists contribute €5.2 billion a year to the country’s economy (about £4.5 billion), with Brits as the biggest spenders followed by Germans.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com