littleknown

ONE little-known holiday park has scooped up two awards for its accommodation and it’s right next to a UK theme park.

Sundown Adventureland is a popular spot for families with over 30 rides and attractions as well as a huge soft play – and the adjoining holiday village is now award-winning.

Wild Acre Village in Retford won two awards at the recent Hoseasons’ Diamond Awards.

The accommodation came first place in the categories ‘Best in Britain – Holiday Park’ and ‘Relax & Explore – Heart of England – Small Park’.

Winners were chosen using reviews and ratings from Hoseasons’ own customers, who share their views after their visits.

Debs Griffin, director at Sundown Adventureland said: “When we opened the lodges, we knew there would be a demand for staying overnight at Sundown Adventureland.

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“But we never could’ve anticipated that three years on, we would be consistently fully booked with so many of our customers returning for repeat visits.

“Offering families a good value, very clean, comfortable and entertaining stay has been central to the success of Wild Acre Village, and our team works extremely hard to ensure every guest has a memorable stay, wants to keep coming back and laps up the magic and exciting nature of Sundown Adventureland.”

While Sundown Adventureland first opened its doors in 1968, Wild Acre Village just three years ago in 2022.

The self-accommodation style village was built after feedback from visitors who said they couldn’t fit all their exploring into one day.

As Sundown Adventureland is catered towards families with children 10 years old and under – the accommodation is too.

There are single cabins which sleep five people with a king-size bed for the adults and triple bunk beds for the kids.

Double cabins can sleep ten people and are ideal for multiple generations holidaying together with interconnecting doors.

Each cabin and lodge has a living and dining area, bathroom and well-equipped kitchen.

There are outdoor patio areas with picnic benches and disposable BBQ stand – some even have hot tubs.

Currently, Wild Acre Village has offers from £299 for a three-night break, which includes free park tickets for guests.

Over at Sundown Adventureland, families can enjoy over 30 rides and attractions that are specially designed for younger children.

It also has a huge soft play area called Crash Landings which is jungle-themed and over four storeys high.

Inside there’s also a newly extended cafe with hot food, snacks and drinks.

Rides include the Giddy Piggies to the Jolly Pirate Boat Ride to Robin Hood’s Merry Adventure.

The Lillipoppet Castle is a huge, sweet-inspired castle with an ice cream centrepiece, and it even smells of liquorice.

Storybook Village is based on popular fairytales like Humpty Dumpty and the Three Little Pigs.

Across the theme park are eight themed play areas like Shotgun City, a wild west town with a traditional saloon and an animatronic sing-song show.

Here’s the English theme park with world-first rides crowned best in the UK…

ThemeParks-UK.com announced the winners of this year’s best parks around the country with this one scooping up awards across 10 categories…

The theme park in question is Paultons Park which has over 70 rides and attractions, as well as Peppa Pig World.

Found in Hampshire just outside of the New Forest, the theme park has nine Peppa-themed rides as well as rollercoasters, splash parks and even an animal park.

At the recent UK Theme Park Awards 2025, Paultons Park was crowned Theme Park of the Year beating the likes of Thorpe Park and Legoland.

Not only that, but it also scooped up nine other awards including Best New Attraction for Ghostly Manor.

It also topped the two categories for Best Theme Park for Families and Best Theme Park for Toddlers.

Next year, the theme park will open a new land called Valgard – Realm of the Vikings.

It will be a viking-themed world with the park’s first inverting rollercoaster, called Drakon.

Drakon will be the park’s most thrilling ride with a vertical lift hill and two twists taking riders upside down.

Also in the Viking world will be the Vild Swing that swirls riders 12 metres in the air, two brand new thrill rides, retheming of Cobra – a famous ride at Paultons Park, into a bobsled adventure.

For more on family fun, here are six UK theme parks that you can easily reach by train – and how to find the cheapest fares.

Plus, hear more from one travel writer who went to one of Europe’s biggest theme parks with more than 40 attractions and record-breaking rollercoasters.

ONE lesser-visited region in Spain has been named as one of the best places to visit next year.

It has a main city that holds bull racing events along with huge valleys, mountains and even a desert.

Conde Nast Traveller declared Navarra, also called Navarre, as one of the ‘Best Places to Go in Spain and Portugal in 2026’.

The publication said: “We often make a point of covering lesser-known sites in every region and in 2026 we want to encourage readers to check out a new project focused on rural areas in Navarra.”

The landlocked region located in northern Spain, shares borders with the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain.

Its capital, Pamplona, is home to around 200,000 residents.

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And it’s famous for its San Fermín festival which is celebrated each year from July 6 to 14 with parades, music, dancing, and bullfights.

The most well-known event is called Encierro or Running of the Bulls.

It involves hundreds of people running in front of six bulls down a stretch of narrow streets which ends in Pamplona’s bullring.

The city also has a pretty Old Town, Cathedral, the Renaissance-like fort Ciudadela, Plaza del Castillo, and the Museum of Navarre.

It’s not just Pamplona, there are other smaller cities within the region, like Barañáin, Burlada, and Estella-Lizarra.

The region was even once an independent kingdom and known as the Kingdom of Navarre.

Eventually it as split with Lower Navarre merging into France, and Upper Navarre becoming a province of Spain.

Aside from the cities, Navarre also has a semi-desert region called Bardenas Reales which is around 162 square miles.

The desert has plenty of hiking trails and places to go biking – but unique rock formations aren’t to be climbed on themselves as they are part of an eco-system.

In contrast, part of Navarre encompasses the Pyrenean valleys.

It has high mountain peaks like Mesa de los Tres Reyes as well as green valleys, forests and even caves.

During the winter, the Pyrenean valleys become a great and popular spot for skiers.

From Navarre, travellers can easily get to other cities like San Sebastian and Bilbao, Madrid and Barcelona.

Here’s where to find the lesser-visited Spanish holiday destination that is now home to some of the best beer in the world…

A lesser-known holiday spot in Spain was last year declared home to the greatest beer in the world.

For four days last summer, professional beer sommeliers and experienced brewers gathered in Estoril, Portugal, for the World Beer Challenge.

The international contest declared which beers were the greatest in the world across a number of categories.

One of the winners of the 2024 gongs was Spanish beer Ambar Especial, which picked up a perfect 100/100 score from all 125 judges, who came from 29 different countries.

The beer is made in the city of Zaragoza in Spain and claimed the gold in the International Lager category at this year’s event.

It’s a city that is often overlooked by people heading to north Spain, with visitors more commonly heading to places like Barcelona, or the beaches of San Sebastian.

Plus, here’s another Spanish region undiscovered by Brits despite seaside views and ancient Roman cities.

And the Spanish coastal region with fewer than 2,000 Brits a year that has ‘endless’ beaches.