We’ve just bought tickets for a family visit to Santa this Christmas and will be staying overnight near the motorway (to split the journey up having young kids) and can’t decide which is going to be the least painful route ( in order that I can book a cheap Premier Inn straight away whilst prices are cheap).

So – what is the best way back? M4 > M25 > M40 to Brum then catch the M1 or carry on around the M25 to the M1 all the way or further round the M25 to the A1 (which is my usual route into London). Experience tells me that the A1 is better than the M1 but it just means more time on the M25 which I am not at all familiar with.

I don’t trust Google Maps at the moment as it always says the M1 is best but all the roadworks at the moment has made it hell every time I have used it.

Cheers.

brave man. Dont these things always turn out as a mange-ridden reindeer in a muddy field with tinsel in his horns, surly students in elf hats and a whisky-soaked santa with a pile of chinese tat to give away? Then it gets shut down in the first week in December by local trading standards. OR is my cynicism showing? 😉

^ this.
Hope it works out OK. 😐

No this particular one is meant to be amazing – it’s on the Queen’s estate and the best tickets sell out in minutes.

It had better be good for the money we have spent on it.

http://www.laplanduk.co.uk/your-experience/reviews/

In it’s defense IIRC there were at least two “lapland UK” and not all of them were shut down.

90 quid per person???? 😯

Just tell them Santa doesn’t exist… Far cheaper.

*clicks link*

HIPSTER ELVES WTF!!!111

I’m out.

90 quid per person????

We paid £60 per person (beginning of December).

As my wife says (and I 100% agree), we have two or three years (max of four) before our twin girls don’t believe anymore. We ain’t having any more so let’s enjoy it whilst we can. They have got to being 6 years old in the blink of an eye so I want to maximise the enjoyment we have with them at this age. We’re not well off, but we’re not broke either so why not?

I frequently do Surrey to ‘Up North’ and back, and without exception would say that M40/M42 is better. It’s maybe 15 miles further but the road is better, less time on the M25, less freight traffic, and you don’t have a gazillion miles of roadworks between London and Nottingham.

You just need to try to avoid doing the M42 around Brum in rush hour.

Cheers theotherjonv – I was thinking that – we often do the M42 so I know that road (and the nightmare of rushhour on it). I just didn’t know what the M40 bit would be like.

Cheers.

M40 is generally great. Can get a bit busy around the A43 junction near Oxford / Cherwell Valley. Which has a service station with a Greggs, in case you were interested.

Oh, and don’t do M4 / M25 / M40, there’s a direct link road from Maidenhead to Wycombe (A404M), or even go M4 / A34 rather than head back towards the M25

I did the Lapland UK ( Kent somewhere) thing about 4 years ago….my little boy loved it…it was a truly believable place for a 4 year old

Yeah that’s the one we are going to I believe.

Hmm, that’s the place just up from Swinley where there was a lot of fuss and protests about it. It’s land leased off the Crown Estate which doesn’t give it any particular status. CE land is owned and run by the state, not the Queen. This area is basically just a scrap of forestry land providing income to the treasury.

Personally I’d not trust reviews at all that come from their own site.

Hope it works out okay in this case. Seems a long way to go for a place like this and for that money!

I’m sure it is/will be great and that you’ve paid already, but we did a day trip to [the real] lapland about 8 years ago with our three girls.
Cost was about £200 each and it really was a fantastic day with snowmobiles, reindeer, sledging and each family being taken across a frozen lake on a sledge pulled by huskies to see FC in his log cabin in the middle of a wood on an island – jesus even I believed he was the real deal!
Yes it cost twice as much but the kids still talk about it. Loooong day though.

(makes me smile that Lapland is at the end of the M40!)

Yeah my wife has mentioned about going to the real Lapland too, but finances won’t stretch that far this year as we are just about to undertake a pretty big kitchen refit / double glazing / wall knocking down exercise at home too….

I’ve been (twice) to the previous location down in Bedgebury. It really is very well done, as long as you’re prepared to play along with it. They use stuff like Hollywood special effect blown paper snow, and transport you through special tunnels and the like so you can get to the North Pole without needing a plane. If you’re a curmudgeonly old bastard then yes, the snow isn’t the same as real snow and you can see the joins and if it matters that much then fork out and go to the real North pole instead.

My two were absolutely transfixed by the experience and if you play the game too, you’ll have a brilliant time watching them have a brilliant time.

I like that response – thanks 🙂

I am sure our girls will love it and I am happy to play along (mainly as I love Christmas still). I’ll be gutted when ours get too old for the joy of Christmas as it’s the end of the line – no friends or family have any other (significantly) younger kids nor any realistic expectation of any on the way so it’ll then be the long wait for my girls to (hopefully) have children of their own….

Hope it’s not like the one near us a few years back:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapland_New_Forest