The Crocky Trail Chester | A Family Review

If you are looking for an action packed day out in the North West that the whole family can enjoy then how about a day at The Crocky Trail Chester? We recently visited with our kids for the first time and below id everything w think you need to know in order to decide if it’s the day out for you!

What is the Crocky Trail?

The Crocky Trail is an outdoor adventure play area situated on the outskirts of Chester in Waverton. It is made up of three main areas

The slides
The rides
The trail

The main area – slides

The main area is at the entrance of Crocky Trail. Here you will find the main attractions including lots of slides. Crocky trail is definitely the place to go if you, or your children, love slides as these are some the biggest and fastest we have ever experienced with gravity-defying slides reaching 10m tall! They are not for the faint hearted.

They have drop slides, small slides, high slides, very, very, very high slides and slides that throw you off into foam pits. This was the tiddlers highlight of the day. He could not get enough of all these slides and would have happily stayed in this area for the whole day.

Here you will also find an array of football related activities and a couple of balance games too. The big’un loved the football goal area the best and stayed in there for ages challenging other children as well as members of staff. The idea is to stand in front of a goal which also has another goal area either side and as people try and shoot you have to dive from the goal into the padded nets and save the ball. It looked a lot more fun than it sounds and is perfect for any football mad kid.

The rides

From the main area you can follow the path round to the left and walk into a second area that is similar to the first but instead of slides there are more ride type attractions. Things that make you spin, ninja warrior type activities, a haunted house and a very popular ride called the titanic.

Both of our boys favoured the titanic in this area, which is a ride that gets higher and higher, steeper and steeper and then starts to shake. The aim is to stay seated as long as possible although for the spectators it’s much more fun when people start to drop.

The haunted house also gets good reviews from older children. It is pitch black and contains moving objects and although both boys were brave enough to try it neither of them would go on again and I think that it was maybe a little to scary for them, especially the 5 year old.

The actual Crocky Trail

After we had completed both these areas several times we took to the third area which is the actual Crocky Trail itself. This is a circular path that is a mile long and has over 30 attractions dotted about along the route. Some are easier than others, such as thin bridges and stepping stones. Some are more fun and require less concentration such as the swings and the water blaster. And then there are those that are more difficult such as the chain crossing. All of the obstacles are great fun but don’t worry as the whole of the Crocky Trail route can be accessed by everyone and if you get to an obstacle you can’t complete, or simply don’t want to try, that is fine you can just walk round it. You wont get stuck.

Our overall review of The Cocky Trail

Overall we had a fantastic day out and think that the Crocky Trail ticks so many boxes for a family friendly day out. It is great value for money as you can stay for as long as you want and once inside all the rides, slides and the trail is unlimited and there is something so nice as a parent being able to say yes when your child wants to go on a ride without worrying about how much it will cost.

It’s a great place for children to just run free, have adventures and be daring (or not). If they like adrenaline then they will love the higher slides and faster rides and if that’s not heir thing then there is still plenty of fun to be had.

We also loved that apart from the ability to buy food and drink inside there was no hidden costs or upselling that we noticed, which again makes the day easier and less stressful.

We also found there to be a fantastic mix of activities for all ages, sizes, abilities and confidence levels and the fact that you don’t have to participate in everything on the trail was also a huge bonus.

Top Tips for the Crocky trail near Chester

Only take placid dogs that are okay with noise

You can take dogs to the Crocky Trail as long as they remain on a lead at all times. I think this is great however, I would point out that the park is noisy with lots of people and the mechanics of the rides and we saw one dog getting very distressed, shaking and barking at everyone and everything. So please consider this before you take your dog with you. We chose to leave our puppy at home and I am grateful that we did.

Take a picnic

The Crocky Trail encourages you to take your own food and they have a number of picnic areas dotted about that you can use, including one under cover should the weather turn. You can leave the park easily to retrieve lunch from the car and go back in the park to eat it too which saves you dragging it round with you all day. If you don’t want to take a picnic that is also fine as they do have food outlets and an ice cream stall.

Upgrade the small kids tickets

If you have a young child they can get in cheaper and be given a red wristband, however if you have an adventurous little one I would recommend asking for the upgrade and paying the extra for a yellow band as there is a lot that only yellow bands can use.

Take old clothes or spare clothes

Prepare to get a bit muddy, especially if the weather hasn’t been great recently as the trail can get muddy. Either go in old clothes or take a change of clothes for the ride home if you prefer. I wouldn’t recommend wellies as it will make some of the activities harder but if the kids have old trainers I would recommend them over any new ones.