[Holidays] Legoland & Chessington Park

alanceltic

Managed to get a great deal for anyone who is interested but involves doing a DIY booking. It cost me under €400 for 2 adults & 2 children for the following ;

Return flights Dub-Gatwick
2 day park passes (one day Legoland & one day Chessington Park)
Overnight stay in Quad room in 4 star hotel with full breakfast
Car Hire for 2 days

Pretty good going I taught as it works out €100 quid a head which is super value.

Flights - Dublin to Gatwick I managed to book yesterday and it cost €80 for 4 - includes ALL charges, prices have increased slightly now to around €120 but ryanair are always changing their offers & there is always loads of availability on the london routes. Fly out at 08.00 and return following day at 21.00 giving 2 full days.

Hotel & Park Passes - theres a few options here but I booked on this site
http://www.budgetfamilybreaks.co.uk/?adcode=LLUK-G-BFB-ALL&agent=LBB03 as they offer a 2 day pass for both parks. Worked out at £228 (€268) for Holiday Inn in reading which also has a leisure centre. If you are only interested in legoland i suggest booking through this site (same hotel but direct) http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/925/en/advancedsearch?roomResult=none&hotelCode=REASO&rateCode=IKHD1&quickRes=city as it works out at £188 (€221) but the 2 day pass is for Legoland only.

Car Hire - suggest using this site http://www.carrentals.co.uk/car-hire/gatwick-guide.html as I booked a car for 2 days ftom Gatwick for €64.

As you are self booking you can tweak things to suit yourself and there seems to be plenty of availability on filghts & hotels (I booked late august).

Enjoy......:)

Balfey1972

Alan what dates and times are your flights with Ryanair?
Getting crazy prices when i try and book midweek.

Great post. Thanks for the share.

onemanband

Hi,

Just be aware the queues in legoland are a disaster. Personally found it the most dissapointing of the uk parks. Thorpe Park and Alton Towers are the best by a mile, even for small kids. Never been to chessington.

Balfey1972

Yeah been yo legoland before and alton towers. agree with you on the queues. Never been to chessington. Been looking at it there, seems to have got some good reviews.

strongbluebell

I've been to Legoland a few times and my kids have very happy memories of it, however I went once in august and queues were up to 2 hours for some of the rides. Last few times I went the first 2 weeks in July before the english schools get their holidays. Legoland more geared to the under 10s.

Do-more

Ryanair fly to Billund airport in Denmark from Dublin which is right next door to the Original Legoland which I'm told is a good bit bigger than Legoland Windsor good deals at the Zleep Hotel if you book in advance. Booked for a few days there at the end of July.

deisemum

Chessington is great especially for families. My lot much prefered it to Legoland which they also enjoyed.

Just a tip for anyone staying in London and using public transport, you can get a train from Waterloo to Chessington South which is in zone 6 so a one day travelcard will cover getting there, when you get out at Chessington South you can walk or get the bus to the park. Children can travel free on most London public transport.

Alton Towers we wouldn't rush back to as it's so spaced out with a couple of rides near each other then a trek round the park to another set of rides. All that walking is tiring. There are good white knuckle rides but the queues are horrendous.

Our favourite park is Pleasure Beach in Blackpool. There are loads of rides and they're all close to each other so you get off one ride and a few steps away you're at the next ride. Also the queues aren't bad.


Also like Oakwood and most summers go there once or twice on day trips.

For the last few years every summer to coincide with the UK school holidays www.lastminute.com have great reductions on UK theme park tickets often up to 50% off or second day for £5 so it may be worth keeping an eye out for this.

alanceltic

Balfey I booked my flights for 26 Aug (GATWICK) and there was loads of availability for nearly all days & all times, london routes are usually quite good for availability. Just keep a look out for when their current promotion runs out as they usually have promos running back to back.

Been meaning to do Legoland for a while and im not expecting too much from it to be honest, i just couldnt resist at these prices and to do chessington on the same trip is a bonus - more looking forward to this park than legoland to be honest. Went to Alton towers last year and taught it was great but we went on the halloween mid term and it was busy but expected that but it was FREEZING cold, found alton towers to be more geared towards adults & over 16s. Went to blackpool and to be honest didnt hang around the pleasure beach too long as i found the place to be a run down dirty decrepid kip but horses for courses i suppose.

karltimber

Is Gatwick the best location to fly into as Heathrow looks closer.

Any other airports to try - as Ryana is coming in at €600 for 2 + " for this sunday.

any ideas - €1400 for 3 days -flights/hotel/car !!

thx

K

alanceltic

you are right heathrow is closer but ryanair dont fly to LHR, you are never going to get cheap flights at such short notice, dont know if you are prepared to drive from a distance? if you are you could check ryanairs flights to bournemouth??? just a taught. 1,400 seems nuts for what you are getting but your paying a premium for short notice im afraid

Balfey1972

Karl,
Booked my flights to Bristol. €100 return for 4 of us incl €40 fee for paying with a Credit Card.

Check the free online check in and the special prices.
Got 3 nights Hotel and tickets for 4 incl Breakfast €400, 4 days car hire €85 and return flights €100. Good going I reckon and mucho kudos to Alan for the original post. Wife and Kids are delighted and can't wait.

D.

brosna

Balfey1972 wrote: »

Karl,
Booked my flights to Bristol. €100 return for 4 of us incl €40 fee for paying with a Credit Card.

D.

Check out this blog if you don't want to pay the €40 credit card charge next time around with Ryanair.

http://irishdeals.blogspot.com/2009/07/ryanir-cheap-flights-how-to-save-on.html

Jean4711

Hi there, I'm going to legoland and chessington in September and will be flying out from Dublin. How long did it take to drive from Gatwick to Legoland and was it easy enough to find?? Also when driving to Chessington was it easy enough to find? Which is the better place to stay...windsor or chessington?? Sorry for all the questions but any help would be much appreciated!

Davy

Jean4711 wrote: »

Hi there, I'm going to legoland and chessington in September and will be flying out from Dublin. How long did it take to drive from Gatwick to Legoland and was it easy enough to find?? Also when driving to Chessington was it easy enough to find? Which is the better place to stay...windsor or chessington?? Sorry for all the questions but any help would be much appreciated!

This is a bargain alerts forum, and this thread is two years old. Please dont bump old threads without good reason. I suggest you try the trvel forums:> http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=37

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