Conkers

I stumbled across this great day out, when searching the 'Derbyshire, great day out with the kids' website and thought we would give it a go. Conkers has its own website which is worth checking out before visiting as it has a list of special events that you may want to plan your trip around. Also before visiting it is worth typing 'Conkers' into Google, we found some 20% discount tickets, that off of the already reasonable price of £24.95 for a family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) makes it a very affordable day out. Conkers itself is located in the National forest, which means the surrounding scenery is very pleasant. If you are lucky enough to ...  Read the complete review

We first went to Conkers in 2005 and it was fantastic, great value, clean, fun - an all round excellent day out. but we returned this year to find that very little maintainence had been carried out and many of the, once excellent, attractions are now very tired and the majority are broken or faulty. I understand that a lot of the work is carried out by volunteers and it is all in a good cause, building forests for the future and teaching about environmental issues, but it cost us £25 to get in and it offered little more than a local park, woodland or playarea, there is another forestry centre nearby that is free of charge - I'll be going there next time!! It makes me ...  Read the complete review

What do you do when you are faced with three moaning kids, who are only two days into the school holidays and are already sitting po faced on the sofa complaining that they are bored? Well the answer to that is simple. Take them to Conkers. If I say the word conker to you, some of you will think about those lethal weapons on pieces of string that regularly threaten to take someones eye out. The rest of you will probably think of trees. Thinking of trees in this case would be a good start. Deep in the heart of the National forest, is a great family day out, that costs little and will have the children burning energy until by the end of the day they go ...  Read the complete review

There's a large sign on the M1 in Leicestershire proudly proclaiming "The National Forest", which is odd because there aren't any trees around. What's going on? A hoax? A cockup? Actually it's a sign 10 to 20 years ahead of its time. In 2020 this area will look very different. The key to the mystery lies in the area's industrial heritage. North west Leicestershire was once the coal mining heart of the midlands, with seams stretching all the way to Sheffield. When the industry collapsed in the 1990s, the countryside was left with an ugly legacy of slag heaps, rusting collieries and deep black slurry pits. But in a ...  Read the complete review

Kids bored and still 3 weeks of the summer holidays to go, can’t face going to Alton Towers, live in or close to the Midlands then why not give Conkers a try. Conkers is a new interactive museum/theme park that has just opened near Ashby in Derbyshire. It is set in the new National Forest and its focus is nature and trees in particular. It consists of an exhibition hall and several acres of walks, picnic areas, adventure playgrounds, restaurants, craft shops and many other outside activities. The exhibition hall is large and has loads of interactive exhibits looking at trees, plants and animal life. Practically every exhibit has ...  Read the complete review