We had a really fun day in Greenwood in North Wales. I really recommend a visit if you have kids (you can’t get in if you don’t). I was totally impressed that ALL the rides are people powered or run by solar energy – very in-keeping with our eco-trip.

First of all, if you’ve read my other post, I have an obsession with signage. The overflow car park wasn’t so well signed (we ended up going in to the normal one and turning around) but I loved the signs once in the park itself – really fun and colourful and easy to read! I was, however, still reading the Welsh before the English after a whole day there and a few days in Wales. So nice to see the Welsh language being used so much everywhere. We only found one water refill station but it was well signed – and was being used a lot!

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We absolutely loved the Solar Water ride – there was the orange slides where you could race someone else and the enclosed yellow slides – both were fast and a bonus you didn’t get wet like a lot of water rides! What was brilliant was the way the photos worked – no £15 a photo – you just paid £2 / photo to be emailed to you which is a great idea. You could, on the water ride, pay a bit more for a print out – I didn’t notice the price but it wasn’t as much as other theme parks.

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The other highlight was the people powered rollercoaster where the weight of the guests bring the coaster to the start. You all climb in the Funicular and then it descends to the bottom of the hill where you then need to climb up again (great for fitness!) to then ride the coaster. Top tip – we went on in the middle of the day and the queue was huge – we walked on several times just as it was closing (the same with the water ride) – if you wait until the last hour you can save lots of time – the boys went on it about 4 times just before it closed!

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Something else which we all loved was the boats – you used an oar or pulled the boat along with ropes – all of us could help propel us forward. We didn’t take a photo as we were too busy moving ourselves!

The big slides were also tonnes of fun – they were much quicker than they looked!

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What we noticed is when it rained, there was plenty of shelter and when it was sunny there was plenty of shade – we went on a mixed weather day but if you had been there on a hot day all the trees would have helped stop you overheating. There was a big wooden play area which appealed to all ages – the boys could easily have spent ages there playing, running and sliding.

There was a couple of zip wires amongst the trees which annoyingly didn’t work too well but the boys still loved them once we had managed to give them a bit of a push off.

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The most disappointing part for us was the barefoot trail – it was what I would say was very challenging- ie quite unpleasant and hurt our feet a lot! There were handy taps to wash our feet after but on the whole we wouldn’t rush back to do it again. Some people seemed to be enjoying it more than us though.

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We caught most of a magic show and the boys are still talking about it now – great entertainment especially as it was raining at the time! There were other shows on – we chose to go on some of the rides again instead of watching them though if we’d been there another day or a bit longer we would definitely have taken the time to see the other magician. Alongside the seating area was a hut selling food – we loved the veggie dogs & chips which were sold there – I don’t think I’ve ever had the option of a vegetarian hot dog before so was very impressed! It was also great as it was raining so we could shelter where the magic show had been.

There were lots of other things to keep the kids entertained – the go karts were great but tricky to get the hang of (if you are 6 anyway!) – you can go on as an adult and take a child around too – the adults looked exhausted!

There was a nice shop at the end – my boys would easily have taken home half of it if they’d been allowed! There was also an indoor play area which we didn’t get time to investigate and a cafe near the entrance. There were enough toilets that there weren’t queues too which is always a bonus! All in all we had a great day – if you’re in North Wales I really recommend it as a nice family day out and alternative to busier and more expensive theme parks (though there are no ‘big’ rides as all the rides are aimed at kids).