Narberth, near Tenby, Pembrokeshire, UK

Date of last visit: 2001 (update and pictures coming in 2006). Sorry, haven't got a gate map any more so can't tell you the height restrictions at the moment.

Age of kids at the time: 6 and 3. Free entry for children under 3.

Travel: Take the M4 west all the way to the end, then the A48 towards Carmarthen and follow the brown road signs. Doesn't have its own hotel, but there are plenty of hotels, B&Bs and caravan parks in the Tenby area.

The Scores… (details below):


Family Factor: 8/10

Rides for Kids:  7/10

Rides for Parents: 7/10

The Big Ride: 8/10 (Megafobia)

Cleanliness: 8/10

Food: 7/10


OVERALL TPX SCORE: 8/10

Oakwood is quite a small park in a rather out of the way place (although improvements to the M4 have helped its connections to the rest of the UK over the years). It prides itself on its rural location, is attractive and well kept and has a gigantic ace up its sleeve - Megafobia, a huge, fast, bang up-to-date wooden roller coaster.  This incredible ride made Oakwood world famous amongst coaster enthusiasts, but the rest of civilization seems not to have found the place yet - pick your day carefully and there aren't any queues. Come on, everyone - ignore Blackpool for once, get down to Oakwood and put a few quid into the Welsh economy (and see some nice scenery whilst you're at it)!

First impressions count, though, and the station for the miniature train that ferries you to the park itself was a bit dismal (reminded me of Victoria Coach Station). Maybe this will have been smartened up in the few years since our last visit - we'll hopefully find out in 2006.

Official web site

Oakwood's compact size, attractive location and reasonable selection of kids' rides get it off to a good start for families. You can paddle the boats out on the lake, watch the action on Megafobia and Snake River Falls or get stuck in yourself, and the family-run park has a great atmosphere. The food was acceptable (but we always suggest taking a picnic), and there's only one main restaurant (at the top of the hill near the train station). The entrance price is worth a mention as it's really pretty reasonable - about half the cost of Legoland or Tivoli Gardens for a family of four, which makes up for the relatively low number of rides. There is quite a lot for children to do, though, and coaster lovers are well catered for. It's adults who don't like rides with big drops who lose out - my wife comes into that category. A suggestion or two on this is in the "Rides for Parents" section below, should the nice people at Oakwood happen to be listening...

We've never noticed any shows at Oakwood. To be honest, this is probably for the best - unless they're done with a Disney-type budget they're usually pretty embarrassing.

Oakwood have put some thought into what will keep kids amused without just shelling out vast sums of money on expensive rides. There are huge soft play areas, an excellent room where they can blast foam rubber balls at each other, and even a small branch of Techniquest (the superb hands-on science centre that has its main exhibition in Cardiff). Most of these are usefully concentrated in one area near the top of the park, although this means that anyone going on the more thrilling stuff will be a bit separated from the rest of the family.

A few mini-reviews of some of the rides and attractions from the point of view of how the kids got on with them:

Clown Coaster Tiny roller coaster which is OK for the little ones. Goes through the middle of a broken bass drum, which is different. Don't let kids look at the front of the train if they think clowns are weird, like I do

Plane Crazy Suspended plane ride that was installed after our last visit Not ridden

Ferris Wheel Miniscule ferris wheel for tots

Carousel/Mini Trucks/Pirate Ships The kind of little kids' rides that show up in city centres at Christmas

Techniquest A scaled-down version of the big Techniquest in Cardiff Bay. Just gives you a taster of the kind of thing TQ does - well designed hands-on science exhibits of interest to all the family

Spooky 3D We assume this is a re-vamp of the ghost train ride that was at the park when we visited. The old version was a bit of fun, but nothing special

Wacky Factory A room with thousands of brightly coloured foam rubber balls which kids can hoover up, shoot at each other and into big troughs which eventually upend and dump the balls over everyone. The kids thought this was fantastic once they got the idea; our youngest spent about 20 minutes happily just vacuuming up the balls. There isn't very much space for adults to sit in, but vending machines are on hand to grab a snack from. Extending it a bit to put in a cafe that parents could keep an eye on their kids from would be good

The Lost Kingdom Massive indoor soft play area. You could genuinely lose your kids in this place, so it's well named

Brer Rabbit's Burrow Cutesie themed indoor ride in little cars. Our kids wanted to go on this several times, resulting in me thinking seriously about rabbit stew

Treetops Coaster Excellent junior coaster which speeds between the trees. The branches get extremely close in places. Good for kids and adults alike, although the train is a bit of a squeeze for a six-footer. One odd thing is that the train is so long that if you are in the front seats you seem to be almost back at the station whilst the back of the train is starting to accelerate down the first hill. Good fun, never seems to have any queue (so the friendly operator let our daughter stay in the train between rides, and you usually get a few circuits). One our eldest's favourite rides. The coaster is a Zierer Tivoli, much longer than the original one at Tivoli Gardens though

Boat Lake Paddle boats on the lake at the centre of the park. Good view of Megafobia from here

Bobsleigh One of the few rides at Oakwood that my wife liked. A chain lift takes your individual toboggan to the top of the steel run, then it's under your control all the way down, and you can get a fair bit of speed up

Oakwood grownups ride checklist:

Coaster with big drops: check.
Water rides with big drops: check.
Decent modern family ride: er, no.

Apart from Treetops (old) and the Bobsleigh (fun in a "going down a drainpipe on a baking tray" kind of way), Oakwood is lacking in the kind of "intermediate" rides that people like Pen enjoy - no long, steep drops or inversions (which make a lot of people feel ill), but rather a decent turn of speed and some fast corners. My suggestion to Oakwood would be to get in something like a nicely-themed Mack powered mine train. How about getting hold of Thorpe Park's Flying Fish, before it gets thrown away? As it happens, Oakwood are planning a Gerstlauer Eurofighter coaster for 2006, which will have inversions (the first in the park) and a very impressive (more than 90 degrees) first drop, so thrill seekers will be even better catered for (and it should be the first of its type in the UK). Won't help the missus much, but any investment in new rides is to be encouraged (as you'll see, the list coming up is pretty short...)

Megafobia See The Big Ride below.

Hydro A massive Intamin flume ride with a big boat that plummets 120ft down a 75 degree drop. Generates a colossal wave at the bottom of the drop and soaks everyone on board. A terrible accident meant that the ride was closed for most of 2004. It is due to be open again for 2005, but check with the park Not ridden

Pirate Ship Big ship-shaped swing ride. Get into the rear seats to feel like you're going to take off backwards

Waterfall A water slide on little rafts, not quite as big as Snake River Falls Not ridden

Snake River Falls A group of water slides, two of them outside with multiple dips and the other two in covered tubes of different twisty shapes.  I went on these with our six year old (two to a raft) and she was fine on them. If the Welsh weather hasn't already made you wet, this probably will as the rafts tend to spin round (or tip over) at the bottom

Vertigo Swing high in the air under a vast arch with two friends. Costs an extra thirty quid so I didn't bother. Not for the vertiginous, obviously  Not ridden

Bounce A tower ride that fires you up to the top, and fires you back down again, with a few extra bounces on the way. Not exactly neck-snappingly fast, but still good

I think everyone was taken aback when our "local" theme park announced Megafobia for the 1996 season. This monster wooden roller coaster completely dwarfed everything else in the park, and all of a sudden Oakwood was worth a visit. As with the rest of the park there isn't a theme to the ride as such - it pretty much has to speak for itself (the place is called Oakwood, and Megafobia has a lot of wood in it). The ride looks stunning and I've never had to queue for more than a few minutes (we've always tried to choose off peak days for our visits, mind). I'm not a huge wooden coaster fan but Megafobia is fast and smoother than my other recent wooden coaster experience (Tonnere de Zeus at Parc Asterix, which left me in serious need of paracetamols). It does rattle along a bit, but that's part of the character of this type of ride. It also gives a lot of that "flying backside" airtime feeling as you go over the crests of the hills, and is quite a long ride (two minutes, apparently). Because of the noise, speed and g forces some kids at the lower end of the height restriction might find it rather too intense, so they'll be stuck with the Treetops coaster. But if you haven't experienced a modern wooden coaster, you have to give this a go - preferably several times, one after the other. The park obviously knew exactly what they were doing when they chose to build Megafobia - it's often cited as one of the best wooden roller coasters in the world

Oakwood's staff keep the place looking good, and don't have the upkeep of a lot of detailed theming to worry about. We've always been there on quiet days so we can't comment on how they cope when its really busy

Food 7/10

There's one main restaurant (next to the station where the little train drops you off), and the food was quite good although the restaurant could have done with a new interior. Reasonably priced kids' meals and better than most UK tourist attractions