trick

FORGOT Halloween is this week and the kids are nagging to do something?

Well, fortunately there are still tickets available to Halloween events at the UK’s biggest and best theme parks.

Whether you have little ones and want something more tame, or older kids desperate to head on thrill rides in the dark, there are plenty of Halloween events with availability still for this week.

Here’s a roundup of the best theme park Halloween events with tickets still available:

Legoland

Legoland Windsor Resort’s Brick or Treat event still has tickets available, where you will be able to see different Lego models as well as Lego Monsters.

There’s a huge party for visitors to enjoy as well as live entertainment and of course, visitors can head to the 55 rides and attractions across the park as well.

Read more on travel inspo

SO FLY

Our fave beach hols under 5 hours from UK with Caribbean dupes & £2 bottles of wine

BOOK IT

20 ultra cheap girly hols – UK trips, city breaks & all inclusive stays from £59

Returning this year is also the Lord Vampyre’s House Party show, where everyone can have a boogie.

Tickets cost from £37 per person.

Thorpe Park

This year Thorpe Park is marking ’25 Years of Fear’ and is known for its award-winning theme park scare event with a new maze for this year called Tenement.

There’s a 4D cinema experience and a number of shows as well.

Guests will also be able to head on the different rides at the park in the dark.

A day ticket including Fright Nights costs from £39 per person or a Fright Nights ticket including the Scare Mazes costs from £71 per person.

Gulliver’s

Across Gulliver’s Theme Park Resorts you can still snap up tickets to Fright Fiesta.

There will be a festival-style atmosphere with costumes, music and meet and greets.

And at both Gulliver’s Valley in Rotherham and Gulliver’s Land in Milton Keynes, visitors can step onto the ‘Ghouliver’s Travelator’ for an immersive journey across a Halloween landscape before arriving at the Midnight Manor Hotel (Gulliver’s Valley) or the Wicked Woods (Gulliver’s Land).

Tickets cost from just £19 per person.

Alton Towers

Alton Towers Scarefest still has tickets available, with scare mazes, family spook attractions and rides open in the dark until 9pm.

There are six scare mazes in total including Compound and Dark Hollow, which is new for 2026.

Little ones can enjoy Amigos in the Afterlife with Dia de los Muertos celebrations and Trick O’ Treat Town.

Tickets cost from £37 per person for daytime Halloween events and entry to the park, or £80 per person for a day ticket as well as evening thrills.

Paultons Park

For families with younger children, Paultons Park still has tickets available to its Halloween Spooktacular with spooky characters and late-night openings.

Visitors can enjoy the Little Monsters Ball as well as the Great Halloween Mystery/Spirit Squad Ghoul School shows.

There’s also the Ghostly Manor – an interactive dark ride.

Tickets cost from £46.75 per person.

Drayton Manor

Over at Drayton Manor, visitors can enjoy rides, two fireworks nights and a new Trick or Treat Trail ideal for little kids.

There’s loads of themed locations to snap a pic at too.

If you are feeling a little braver, you can head on the Revenge of the Haunted Express and catch a lake show at the end of the day.

Tickets cost from £39 per person, or £16 per child between the age of two and three-years-old. The Revenge of the Haunted Express is an additional £5 per person.

The Sleep Charity and Premier Inn share expert tips to help children sleep easily in unfamiliar environments this half term, keeping their bedtime routines smooth while away from home.

It can be tricky to get your little ones off to sleep when they’re away from home. Staying over in a new environment is exciting, but it’s also a change from their nightly routine, and that can make it difficult for them to drift off. So, we decided to ask the experts!

Here, The Sleep Charity – in partnership with Premier Inn – have given some top bedtime tips to help kids nod off in no time, wherever they are. As a charity that works extensively with families, they know the importance of a great night’s sleep.

Favourite teddy: Kids will always want something familiar in a new environment, so be sure to pack their favourite toy or blanket to help them feel comfortable and at home.

Bedtime routine: Although you won’t be able to do everything like you would at home, try to include an element of your usual routine, such as reading a bedtime story.

Colouring in: Fine motor skill activities help kids relax, so take advantage of the colouring packs in hotel restaurants like to get a head-start on bedtime!

No TV: Screens interfere with the production of melatonin, a hormone that makes us sleepy. Switching off the TV an hour before bedtime can really help little ones nod off.

Bath time: A warm bath 30 minutes before bedtime can be very effective in helping kids wind down and getting them off to sleep.

Repetition: Staying away from home is exciting for kids, so you’ll need to be clear and firm with them when it’s time for bed. Try a calming phrase like ‘It’s night-time, go to sleep’ and repeat it.

Dim the lights: Switch off a few lights and make use of the Premier Inn blackout curtains to help with that all-important melatonin production.

Mealtimes: Plan your dinner time! Try not to eat so early that the kids are hungry by bedtime or so late that they’re uncomfortably full.

Avoid stimulants: Caffeine and sugar play havoc with sleep so in the evenings, try to steer little ones away from sugary desserts and opt for fruit and water instead.

*From breakfast to dinner, kids eat free at Premier Inn this autumn with a paying adult. Choose from over 600 hotel locations across the UK. Little ones can enjoy delicious and nutritious dishes like our 10-Veg Tomato Pasta and Oven Baked Poppin’ Chicken – and sweet treats like a Fresh Fruit Salad, Pancakes and more.

Valid at selected Premier Inn restaurants until 1st November, for participating restaurants see HERE

AUTUMN is theme park season in my house, as the time between summer season and October half-term is quiet with no queues – and I know how to get great deals.

The key to keeping costs down is using a technique I call ‘hack stacking’, and it’s really easy for everyone to do.

The way it works it to combine different deals to get entry for the individuals in your party and maximise the benefits that come with each.

We’ve already enjoyed cheap trips to Warwick Castle and have already lined up visits to Drayton Manor, Alton Towers and Legoland Discovery Centre.

One deal to take advantage of is with Merlin which is currently running an annual pass deal that includes the rest of this year if you pay for 2027.

A gold pass includes car parking, so the £239 cost of one pass could be well worth it just for that if you go once a month plus a couple of extra visits in the summer as lots of the theme parks charge £13 a day for parking.

BAG IT

Cheap summer 2027 holidays you should book NOW for under £60pp – before prices go up

STAY CHEAP

Bargains at Butlins & manor stays… incredible value UK hols from £2.50pp a night

The key to hack stacking is that not everyone uses the same deal to get in.

So someone else could use Tesco Clubcard vouchers or Nectar points to pay for individual entry and others could get parent and toddler tickets if you’ve got children the right age. 

It’s also important to keep an eye out for deals over the course of the year and work out how they could be combined to get the most bang for your buck.

In the spring, Merlin ran a stay and play deal that included annual passes if you booked an overnight stay at one of its parks.

That’s an amazing base for building your hack stacking on. I took two of my sons to stay overnight at Legoland Windsor in June for £270 and now the three of us can get free entry into multiple Merlin attractions until next summer.

If I add on a gold pass for my husband under the current 15 months for the price of 12 deal, I only have to find a final hack to get my third son a ticket to whichever attraction we plan to visit.

So for £510, split over two payments made six months apart, not only have I got annual passes plus car parking for four people, I’ve also enjoyed an overnight theme park stay and even got a little bit of cashback through Quidco.

I did much the same at Drayton Manor, starting with the tickets I claimed through the Sun Club earlier in the year and then using a Blue Light Card discount to buy more.

I could prebook two free tickets through my Sun Club membership over the summer and then buy two more for £20 each.

My final ticket to cover my family of five was £26 using our Blue Light Card and what’s great about this offer is that you can even book it on the day, saving almost £20 on the gate price.

Normally, Drayton Manor pricing is dynamic so it goes up the closer you get to the day of your visit, even if you’re booking online, whereas the Blue Light price is a flat rate.

We paid £66 for the five of us to visit Drayton Manor on a September weekend instead of £200 if we’d turned up and paid on the day.

You can even shave a couple of quid off the parking by prebooking that online too.

And if you visit during September, you get a return visit until the end of October included.

Teachers can get in free on October 3-4, so that’s something to consider if you work in a school.

My hack-stacking trick works at most theme parks as long as you take a bit of time to look at who you’re buying entry for and then work out how to combine deals.

We visited Pleasurewood Hills near Lowestoft, which has just been named theme park of the year, in April and there’s some great deals to be had for tickets there.

You can get a Blue Light discount, but it actually makes better financial sense to use a family ticket for four people for £70 or to buy early bird tickets at £16 each a month in advance.

People with local postcodes could get a reduced price ticket at the start of the season, so it’s worth keeping an eye out to see if that pops up again.

My final tip if you fancy giving hack stacking a go is to keep an eye on discount sites like Planet Offers, Groupon or Wowcher as you can make some great savings, as long as you read the small print to make sure what you’re buying is valid on the date you want to visit.

A family ticket on the Flamingo Land website costs £168 for four people, whereas it’s £98 for the same ticket on one of the discount sites.

And make sure you check rival sites too as there can be a big difference in what they are offering.