Visit Essex – Weekend break In Southend Review

Reviewed by Michelle M

 

I was delighted to be offered the chance to stay in Southend-On-Sea and explore some of the great attractions and sights the area has to offer, thanks to Visit Essex @visitessex, Holiday Inn Southend @hisouthend and Adventure Island @adv_island. I had never considered Southend-on-Sea as a destination because we don’t live close enough for a day visit and I hadn’t considered staying over as an option.

As the weather was extremely wet on the Saturday we were visiting we set off after lunch with the intention of getting to Southend in time to check in at 2pm, choose an indoor activity for the children, maybe one of the museums or the Sealife Zooquarium (what’s one of those?) and a short time in the amusement arcades which they love. We were unsure if we would eat in the hotel restaurant or find somewhere whilst we were out before returning, relaxing in our room and putting the children to bed at the normal time hoping they’d settle well and sleep ready for an exciting day at Adventure Island Fun Park on Sunday! Unfortunately roadworks and traffic jams delayed us greatly on our journey so Saturday afternoon exploring followed by a leisurely dinner had to be scrapped, much to our disappointment, and we arrived much, much later than we had planned.

We stayed at Holiday Inn Southend, an IHG Hotel. It’s a four star 129 room, pet and family friendly hotel located approximately a ten minute drive away from the beach and pier of Southend-on-Sea. I used the postcode from their website for my satnav and had no trouble finding the car park, which has 200 spaces. We had no trouble finding a space, even arriving later on in the evening. Our stay included parking however there is normally a charge of £10 per day for overnight guests, which I feel is very reasonable given the location and easy access to both Southend itself, central London and even Europe with the hotel being a short walk from both Southend Airport and the train station there. Even without a car the proximity to the train station makes this hotel a great option for a visit to Southend. With Stay and Visit Adventure Island packages, and B&B plus Parking included packages available and kids staying and eating free too this is a great hotel to choose for a visit to Southend. Visit their website Here for further information.

The reception area was spacious, uncluttered and clean. There was seating available should we have needed to wait or wanted to relax with a drink, but with three tired children who needed to get into bed we didn’t linger. Despite another guest being at the reception desk we were immediately acknowledged and served by a member of staff. The check in process was straightforward and after filling in the standard personal details and car registration form we were given the important information needed for our stay, including how to validate a parking ticket, and how to exit the car park without a validated parking ticket since I hadn’t obtained one. Armed with our room keys and directions we headed up in the lift and found our room.

Our room contained a king size bed and three small single beds as well as chairs and a desk. I was impressed that even the single beds had headboards! The bathroom had a bath with a shower over. A large bottle of shower gel and shampoo in one was conveniently attached to the wall. Shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and moisturiser were also provided in little bottles by the sink. The room also contained the other amenities one expects, television, hairdryer, safe, mini fridge and a small kettle with tea, instant coffee, instant hot chocolate and biscuits provided too. We did ask for extra decaffeinated coffee and milk which were provided. We quickly decided where everyone was sleeping and got the children ready and settled into their beds whilst we made a cuppa and relaxed with the tv on and our tablets connected to the free hotel WiFi. Our beds were lovely and comfortable and we all had a good nights sleep and awoke nice and refreshed. The shower controls were easy to use and we all enjoyed our hot showers, and snuggling in the lovely fluffy towels provided.

Our stay at Holiday Inn Southend included breakfast so once everyone was awake and dressed we headed to the 1935 Rooftop Restaurant on the fifth floor. This restaurant is open to non residents too and visitors park free for up to three hours. Unfortunately with arriving so late we didn’t get to sample the dinner menu. Breakfast is served from 6am to 10am on weekends and is a self service buffet. We were shown to our table and orders for tea and coffee were taken. Orange juice, apple juice and cold milk were freely available. There was a range of single serve cereal boxes, the typical selection of cooked breakfast foods all of which were nice and hot, a selection of fruit, a variety of bread for toasting as well as the more continental style breakfast options of croissants, pastries and a cold meat selection. Whilst eating our breakfast, and also from our room, the children were excited that we had a lovely view of Southend Airport runway. They particularly enjoyed watching the activity taking place here and spotted the airport fire engine too. Despite being so close to the airport we were not disturbed by noise, the bedrooms and the restaurant are all soundproofed very effectively.

The hotel had plenty of hand sanitiser points strategically placed at high traffic areas and touch points and various signs reminding us of safety measures that still need to be taken because of COVID-19. Housekeeping would service the room if asked but are not currently routinely entering rooms daily. I felt they are doing all they can to mitigate the risks of catching or spreading covid unwittingly whilst staying. We didn’t use room service or the restaurant apart from breakfast so didn’t notice the impact of the recruitment and supply chain issues which mean the hotel presently has a reduced and streamlined menu for these. We also didn’t visit the mini gym or the lounge bar.

Checking out was quick and the staff were very friendly, especially with our very excited children. Check out is before 11am and as Adventure Island opens at 11am on Sunday we wanted to arrive in time for this. It is approximately a ten minute drive and we managed to find pay and display parking on the road opposite the park without difficulty. However as we left at teatime we had people waiting for us to exit our space. The Adventure Island website here gives all the information you need about parking and other transport routes to get there.

Adventure Island is a theme park right on the seafront of Southend. They have over forty rides and attractions so there is something to suit everybody. We arrived and joined the very small queue of people waiting just before the gates opened. Admission to the park is free, so if a member of your group doesn’t like rides they don’t have to pay to accompany you onto the grounds. Once you’re inside you can purchase, or collect a pre-ordered, wristband which you will need to show to ride operators to get onto the rides. Wristbands can be bought online or can be bought on the day once you have entered the park. On open late days they offer half price wristbands in the afternoon too. The parks “go on together” policy means a person over 14 can accompany a child under 1.2m tall onto rides with only the child’s wrist band needing to be purchased. This is a great saving if your not inclined to go on anything by yourself or any rides that the minimum height is 120cm.

Upon entry children’s heights were measured and their hands stamped to easily show ride operators they were tall enough to ride. Between hand washing and hand sanitiser we found these stamps washed off very quickly. Our eldest was over 1.2m so would be able to go on most things with the exception of Axis which requires riders to be over 1.3m and over 10 years. I wasn’t brave enough to try that one myself. The twins were both just a little under 120cm so needed accompanied on some rides and couldn’t go on some of the bigger rides. Without the hand stamps ride operators measured any child that might be too short before letting them on. The adventure island website contains all the information about requirements for each ride here. There are a few things that cost extra, namely the go carts, dodgems, hook a duck, adventure golf, coin operated rides and arcades. You can purchase some of these online before you arrive.

Once we had our wristbands we headed to our first ride, The Green Scream rollercoaster. We all went on and this became their second favourite ride of the day, with only the Mighty Mini Mega later being declared better! We then proceeded around the park going on quite a few other rides as we came to them. Very few rides had queues longer than the length of time it took for the ride to run. The slightly bigger queues were mostly for the faster rides and still only five or ten minutes long there was little waiting around. The website states that even at peak capacity the queues rarely get longer than twenty minutes. As I have a hidden disability that makes standing in queues difficult I’d already found the, slightly hard to find, Accessibility policy here and checked if there was a queue assist policy however with the queues so short I didn’t need this information.

For a few rides, including the Big Wheel we were asked to let people behind us on first to allow for proper balancing. The ride operators were great at ensuring the kids understood they weren’t being ignored and would get on next each time this happened. Whilst the children snacked on some freshly made hot doughnuts I snuck off on my own to go on Rage as it’s the biggest rollercoaster in the park and I love loop coasters. It didn’t disappoint. I will admit to feeling nervous when the seats tipped back and it started the climb up, but as it whizzed through the twists, turns and loops shortly after I was exhilarated.

We then entered the Adventure Inside area of the park. This is described as “the ultimate indoor play centre” and we could have happily spent more than the hour or two we did here. There are four rides inside, the Carousel and Dune Buggies can be ridden by children under 1m tall with an accompanying adult whilst Pirate Plunge and Smiles per Galleon need children to be over 1 meter and accompanied if they’re under 1.2m. There are some arcade machines and coin rides too. Upstairs there are two large soft play area entrances, The Paypod is a two story area for under 4s and the Playstak is a six story area for 4-10 year olds. Our children were delighted and quickly disappeared into its depths to run, climb, swing and slide so we took advantage of the chance to sit down with a coffee. Our day wristbands for the park included access to adventure inside but it is also possible to buy a wristband just for access to adventure inside or just the soft play.

Adventure Inside is open every day of the year except Christmas day and Boxing Day. For more information about Adventure Inside or annual passes only for this area of the park visit here.

We finally convinced the kids a pause for food was a good idea and approached the Island Eatery. As it was mid afternoon after the typical lunchtime rush the queue was relatively small. We chose hotdogs and fries though one of the children had a chicken nugget meal. There are quite a few options for food from snacks and fast food which we sampled, to sit down restaurant meals. We felt that the food and drinks were reasonably priced, actually slightly cheaper than we expected in a theme park. There were plenty of clean tables available to sit at while we ate and watched some of the rides we still hadn’t been on, a few of which we went on to enjoy. We used the toilets in the park at both entrances and also in adventure inside by the soft play entrances. These were all clean and well maintained with both soap and hand sanitiser readily available. There were extra hand sanitiser dispensers at various points around the park too and we even saw staff cleaning the bin surfaces that people might touch. There were at least two large “you are here” park map boards in the park but we only looked at one of these when we first arrived as its a small park with a surprising amount of rides and other things to do utilising the available space extremely well.

We hadn’t managed to go on all the rides available but we had been on a lot of things and had a great day. If we lived closer I would look at purchasing annual passes as a worthwhile investment, £50 gets 12 months unlimited access which starts the first day you activate it in the park, so they’d make great Christmas presents for next season! Annual Passes just for adventure inside are £15. Also available for online purchase are some upgrades to your wristband: unlimited dodgems all day for £5 and both adult and child meals for £6 and £4 respectively, and located on the Eastern Esplanade Sealife Adventure Zooquarium! tickets can be added for £6.50, which is another great saving!

Overall we had a fantastic weekend in Southend-On-Sea, we were fortunate to get a glorious day on Sunday for our visit to Adventure Island but I think even with light rain or showers our enjoyment wouldn’t have been dampened too much. It’s a shame our Saturday plans fell apart however that does give us more reason to return. There is plenty to do indoors and outdoors in and around Southend including the Southend Pier which has a museum and a train running its length, Southend Central museum which contains the planetarium, Art Galleries, stately homes, historic buildings. There are also parks and gardens to explore and of course the usual arcades, amusements, beaches and promenades found in sea side towns.. The Visit Essex website here is an excellent place to start looking for local attractions, accommodation and places to eat. You can filter search results to only find things in the area you wish to visit and also by type of activity you are looking for. I found it a great source of information about the area so do check it out. With so much to do and see, including indoor attractions, the seven miles of coastline and a number of beaches to walk or play on Southend-On-Sea is, in my opinion, a great destination for a short break or a weekend stay at any time of the year.

Rating: 5/5

Visit Essex Website here , Socials: instagram, Facebook.

Holiday Inn Southend Website here, book a room here, Socials: Instagram.
Address: 77 Eastwoodbury Crescent, Southend-on-Sea, SS2 6XG|
Phone: 01702 543001
Room price depends on package, number if guests and other variables.

Adventure Island Fun Park Website here, Socials: Instagram, Facebook.
Address: Sunken Garden, Western Esplanade, Southend on Sea,Essex, SS1 1EE
Phone: 01702 443400
Wrist Bands start at £22.50 for full park access if bought online, £25 in the park.