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Glamping at Warwick Castle

Glamping at Warwick Castle was so much fun! We decided to go for my daughters 5th birthday and we find days out a always a big hit. It was our first experience of glamping and we had a really great time! After our night of fun we headed home for a little bit of a birthday party with friends and family.

Why Warwick Castle

We like to try and do something different each year for my daughters birthday and we booked Warwick Castle in June to visit this September when she turned 5. We thought it would be good for her age and a nice way to celebrate her birthday before she starts school. I like that Tussauds are bringing in more hotel or overnight options to their attractions as I think you get more out of visiting for two days and arrival and departure times can be a little more relaxed. We took a good look at what was on so we had an idea of what we wanted to see and do before our trip.

Warwick Castle is situated in Warwick, Warwickshire and really is a beautiful place to visit. There is plenty of parking which comes at a cost however we came by train. The train station is about fifteen minutes walk from the castle itself and it’s a relatively easy walk through the town centre and quite clearly signposted.

Arrival & Activity

When we got there I displayed my email confirmation at the ticket office and we were allowed straight through to enjoy the day. Check in for the glamping village wasn’t until 4pm so we went straight into the main grounds where a fire alarm had just gone off so we needed to wait a bit before going into the actual castle courtyard. We arrived at around 12noon so first headed off to the Horrible Histories live stage show which is situated at the Riverside Arena. There isn’t any seating so we had to sit on the grass on a hill, we were quite close to the top and had a good enough view.

After this we watched the Birds of Prey show at 1.30pm and 3.30pm, having lunch in between and then checking in. We walked through the Peacock garden to get to the glamping village which was very pretty. The second day we spent at Princess Tower, Bear Tower, watched the Bowman Show, had a bit of fun in the medieval village and had a walk along the ramparts. We didn’t take part in the dungeons tour as my daughter was a bit too young and missed out on Time Tower but that’s just another excuse to go again. There is also the Rose Garden which looked beautiful and a playground for children.

Shows & Towers
The first show we saw was the Horrible Histories show which was brilliant. It was a really fun way of educating guests old and young about the history of Warwick Castle incorporating many daytime TV celebrities. The actors were very funny and got the crowd involved nicely. It kept my daughter occupied for the duration of the show as well even though she didn’t know who was being impersonated, I think she laughed because we were laughing but she was mesmerised by the music and activity on stage.

The Birds of Prey show was really fantastic. We watched both because each has different birds flying and it was great to learn a little bit about them and watch them in flight. There were vultures, stellar sea eagles, bald eagles, and owls. Each show displayed about five birds and showed them flying quite incredibly in and out of the arena.

We caught the Bowman show the next morning which was brilliant and the whole crowd got involved with shouting commands. The resident Bowman is an excellent shot shooting at a target across the river. He gave a nice little history lesson on Longbows too which was really interesting.

The Princess Tower is just perfect for children and my daughter loved it. It is on a one child to one adult ratio and you go in small groups. The tower is beautifully decorated and tells you the story of Guy of Warwick. You need to solve the mystery with the princess and my daughter loved this especially. It was a nice birthday treat for her to be called Princess for twenty minutes. They had a beautiful photo album available for £15 which I would have loved to get and will have to get it again next time.

The Bear Tower is really interesting and a small piece of history too with a little surprise waiting for you underneath.

My partner and daughter walked up along the ramparts and up and down the tower which was amazing as it was over 500 steep steps and they both came out sweating. This isn’t really suitable for wheelchairs and prams and guests need to be able to walk unaided. There are plenty of warnings for this and it is a one-way road so once you’re up you can only keep going forward. I was amazed my daughter did the whole walk to be honest as it’s quite a big ask for a five-year-old but she enjoyed the views from the top.

On the first day we had lunch at the Coach House Resturant in the Stables Courtyard at the entrance which was really good value and had things like burgers, sandwiches, jacket potatoes and other light bites on offer. For the four of us it was less than £30 which was ideal for lunch. Some of the food carts were quite expensive when it came to drinks so it made the Quencher really good value at only £5. I believe there is also an All Day Dining option which allows you to eat wherever you want throughout the day.

Need to Know

We visited Warwick Castle 02.09.2015-03.09.2015 staying in the glamping village.

Price Paid: £218.80 for 3 adults and 1 child (5 years old)

Price Included: One night stay in a glamping tent (beds, linen, fluffy blankets, storage chest, entertainment, all you can eat buffet dinner and breakfast, two days entry in the castle, parking – although we went by train)

Opening Times: 10am-5pm

Extra’s – Dungeons tour, similar to the London/Blackpool/Edinburgh Dungeons – £9 per ticket holder. Not suitable for under 10’s.

Glamping – Bird of Prey experience £5 each.
Archery, Knight School – up to £5 per ticket holder, free at Glamping Village if staying overnight.

Facilities – Plenty of toilets, some with ramp access, fairly clean.

Food & Drink – Can get a Quencher for £5 for unlimited soft drink refills throughout the day. Restaurants and food carts all around, some better value for money than others.

Shopping – One large gift shop at the entrance and a few tents in the courtyard and on the way to the Riverside Arena.

Glamping
I’ve never been glamping before and I haven’t been in a tent for a very long time so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. What we found was the tents sleep four people very comfortably with space for a travel cot and air bed on the floor too. We had a storage chest, mirror, table and two stalls to use as well as a bin. We were situated at the farthest point in the glamping village but still close enough to toilets and the banquet tent. If you want to see more photos and another review on Glamping at Warwick Castle see what Zena’s Suitcase had to say.

Check In
Checking in is very simple you just need your name and they give you your tent number. A member of staff walks you to the tent and unzips it for you, pointing out where everything is on the way. There are toilets, showers and a designated smoking area. The staff were really friendly and helpful as we booked our Bird of Prey experience for the evening and confirmed our sitting for dinner that night.

The Tent
We were really happy with the size of the tent and found the beds very comfortable. An extra fluffy blanket was provided too for added warmth although it was very, very cold. It rained, which didn’t help keep the cold out but the tents are completely waterproof so nothing got wet. If we had travelled by car I probably would have brought slippers, extra blankets and dressing gowns too to keep warm at night.

Entertainment
The entertainment was really fantastic. The only thing we paid for was to hold an owl which was amazing. His name was Alan and he was 14 weeks old. I loved this and thought it was well worth the £5 each as he flew straight on my arm and we had plenty of pictures taken.

We also had a go at Archery. Evie hit all four of her arrows on the target with a little help from the staff and I had a go on the Crossbow which is for over 16’s. I had two bolts to use and was the first one to explode the apple that night prompting my boyfriend to become a little fearful of me…should a crossbow ever be in reach! He had a go with the Longbow and had four arrows to shoot. Knight School and Jester School was also available and looked like a lot of fun.

Food
The banquet tent has a huge range of food. A nice soup and plenty of choices for children and adults. I had some roast pork with apple sauce, piri piri chicken, chips, bread rolls and some soup too. All really delicious. There was soft drinks, water, juice and tea and coffee available 24 hours as well which was great when you needed to warm up in the tent or a midnight sip of water.

We had a fantastic time at Warwick Castle and I loved how attentive the staff were. Evangeline had happy birthday sung to her at dinner, where a pudding pile was brought out to her without any prompting, at breakfast on her birthday, in the medieval village by the Cook, Jester and Maud (who took a liking to Evie’s toy dog and Princess Sword) and was wished a happy birthday by the Princess in the tower which she loved. Everyone made her feel very special which was just fantastic and the experience of seeing her so happy was incredible. Well worth every penny spent.

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September 5, 2015
How To Make Fairy Dough

Kids are pretty hard to entertain all the time and so I find I am always looking for something for us to do at home. I wanted to learn how to make a quick and easy play dough for my daughter now that we have more time together and I’m working at home.

A scroll through Facebook brought me to this wonderful blog Laughing Kids Learn with this page in particular…a recipe for fairy dough using only three ingredients. Brilliant, because I am pretty rubbish at doing the home making/baking kinda stuff so this sounded fab and I couldn’t wait to try it out with Mini Kat.

Making Fairy Dough is so simple and great to do together. The measurements are in ‘cups’ and we have a measurement that allows us to do cups but the recipe is pretty flexible in that you can add more if it needs more.
You will need one cup of conditioner, 2.5 cups of cornflour and a little food colouring. You can even add a little glitter if you want to make it really sparkly, like we did. I didn’t get many great pics of the progress but do head over to the blog I found the activity on so you can see fantastic images of what the dough is supposed to look like! Our experience is below.

Mini Kat absolutely loved getting hands on with this one. We used the Alberto Balsam pomegranate shampoo because it was pink in colour and smelled really nice and fruity.

Mini Kat got really involved which is just great as she was ale to feel the texture changing from wet to crumbly as she added the cornflour to the conditioner and gave it a good mix.

You need to give the dough a really good knead here and make sure the ingredients are fully combined. Then if you need to make it a little more wet and stick together better, add a touch more conditioner, if you want to dry it out, use more cornflour.

Mini Kat absolutely loved this activity and we need to do it again, perhaps with some different colours and different smells. It probably hasn’t turned out perfect, but it was our first attempt at doing something special together and I am looking forward to the summer months being full of fun activities for us to do both inside and out. I will be going back to Laughing Kids Learn to check out more activities for us to do together.

May 5, 2015
Thai Style Coconut Soup

One of my favourite places to eat in my hometown of Andover is Siam Orchid which is a tiny hidden gem of a Thai Resturant. The food they make is fresh, tasty, vibrant and delicious. The staff are friendly and it’s pretty reasonably priced to be honest. We haven’t been for a while but when we do go we opt for the all you can eat menu which is four amazing courses for about £20 per person and you can have as much as you like per course. The courses include starters, shredded duck, soup and then a main course. My favourite on the menu is the Coconut Soup which comes with either chicken, prawns or vegetables. It is delicious. I have been back several times trying a few new things but always enjoying the soup.

Just after Christmas I went around clearing my kitchen cupboards and moving things around and found a recipe book for soups and amongst these recipes was a Thai-style coconut chicken noodle soup. Yesterday I decided to take it upon myself to try this recipe out and see if it tasted the same. None of the ingredients seemed like they would be very expensive and some of them are key ingredients in other Asian flavours. I am looking forward to trying new foods this year as part of project 52. I did have to adapt the recipe a little as couldn’t find Spring Onions, Coriander, Lemongrass or Lime Leaves and I substituted the chicken for turkey, just because it’s cheaper and used the grind of a lime and a lemon, plus the juice. I also used dry noodles rather than the straight to wok kind and didn’t make my own stock but even with those few shortcuts it was still pretty much made fresh and was very, very tasty.

Elli O.

To make you need:
2tbsps sunflower oil,
3 shallots finely chopped,
4 green chillies seeded and chopped,
2 tsp grated fresh root ginger (I used ‘sushi ginger’),
2 garlic cloves crushed,
2 lemongrass stalks chopped,
4 kaffir lime leaves shredded,
400ml coconut milk,
800 ml chicken stock,
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces or your choice of protein – I used turkey
85g baby corn quartered lengthways,
200g fine wheat noodles,
1-2tbsp Thai fish sauce (smells a bit like feet – but doesn’t taste bad, I promise!)
Juice of 1 lime,
bunch of spring onions sliced
and a handful of fresh coriander.

Method
I added the oil to a saucepan and then added the chopped garlic and shallots with the turkey whilst cooking the noodles in the stock – I used a stock cube to make this with boiling water. I then added the chillies, ginger and vegetables to the chicken or turkey, juice and rind of the lemon and lime and once the noodles were fully cooked I added the stock and noodles to the turkey.

I then added the fish sauce and coconut milk and gave it a good stir keeping it simmering the whole time. All together it probably took about 45 minutes to prepare and cook and I was incredibly pleased with the result.

It tasted very nice and I went on to have seconds, and then thirds later that night. Ours was enough for about four servings however the recipe can be very easily adapted to serve more people. I’m going to experiment a bit more and then come up with a perfect Thai menu to share with some family and friends.

January 5, 2014