Here’s a Pitchup.com tip to guarantee good behaviour on hol with the sprogs. Book a Staffordshire campsite to be close to the wild rides and thrills of Alton Towers – while cleverly saving money on your accommodation costs and so having more to spend on being hurled up into the air while your knuckles whiten on a sky-high rollercoaster. Clever.
Monkey Forest at the Trentham Estate is also a cheeky little option for little monkeys while Staffordshire camping – swing by the high ropes of Aerial Extreme while you’re at it – and offspring can additionally be kept on the straight and narrow/bribed with days out at Drayton Manor Theme Park in Tamworth (stand-up rollercoaster; ulp) and riding the flumes at Waterworld Stoke (water rollercoaster; doable).
And now for the grownups (accompanied or not by newly well-behaved offspring). Staffordshire’s a peak place for outdoorsy pursuits as the Peak District National Park and the National Forest are both within the county borders; and the 13-mile Manifold Way is flat enough to cycle for most ages. Have a day in Stafford too to see England’s biggest timber-framed townhouse, the Ancient High House, and a Shakespeare production in the grounds of Stafford Castle – we’re sure the sprogs will be thrilled.
