You sometimes hear about theme parks being rated as the worst value day out you can have. This will only apply if you don’t think ahead – especially important if you have young kids in tow. Some tips for making the most of a theme park trip (apologies if any of these are too startlingly obvious):

- Try as hard as you can to avoid peak days – weekends in summer, bank and school holidays and so on. If you go on a quiet day you will obviously able to do more rides and less queuing. The parks also get very crowded in the last weeks of the summer term when there are a lot of school trips (which will clog up the big rides).  We find our school INSET days ideal for visiting UK theme parks.

- The official web sites usually have a map of the park – have a look and check out where the big rides and the kiddie rides are, and start thinking about a route to follow. Remember that the scales on the maps can be a bit misleading. Use web sites such as ours to check which rides are suitable for you and your kids – height restrictions, thrill factor and so on. Check in advance to see where the baby change facilities are and whether you can hire pushchairs (although we always took our own).

- Get to the park early if you can – it might pay to go on the major attractions first thing to get them out of the way before the queues get too big. Last thing in the evening can also be a good time go on one of the big rides, once the coach parties have started to leave.

- Be ready to queue – perhaps get the ice creams in on the way to a queue line, or have snacks ready to hand round once you’re there. Queue lines generally don’t have much to keep you entertained, although some are better themed than others and occasionally they will have TVs showing cartoons or park information. They aren't always covered, though - take sun cream and hats if the weather is likely to be good, even in the UK.

- Use the transport that’s laid on – cable cars, tractor trains, monorails, whatever. Kids love these anyway, so use anything to make your life easier. Some of the parks are huge, with the different themed areas very spread out, and you need to save some of your energy for yelling as you pull 4.5Gs on the roller coasters.

- Remember where you parked - identify a landmark near your car, or note the car park number or name. You don’t want to stagger out of the park after a heavy day’s queuing only to have to wait until everyone else has home gone before you can find your car.

Investigate and use any family-friendly features the park might have – some of the more popular rides will have facilities such as…

Fasttrack: you get a timed ticket at the ride; come back to the special Fasttrack entrance at your allotted time and you should have to wait a relatively short time to ride. Called Fast Pass at Disneyland Paris. Please note that this has morphed into the priority queue schemes Shortcut and Families First at Alton Towers, which you have to pay an extra charge for.

Parent Queue Share: Parents have a special pass so that one queues, then hands the pass to the other who can go straight onto the ride via the exit queue. This operates at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, and you have to pick up a special pass at Customer Services.

Single Rider Queue: If you are on your own, go straight to the ride exit and the ride operators will let you on without joining the main queue. Only operates on certain rides at certain times, and is never very well publicised – ring ahead to find out or ask at the information desk on arrival.

These options may only be available on peak days – check the official web sites or ring ahead for details.

You should also have a think about a few practical issues - are there lockers you can stow bags in, where the medical centre is, where the lavs are in case one of your party is caught a bit short.

I do this all the time, of course. Plan your meal breaks – the park restaurants will get ultra busy at lunch time, so take your own picnic or eat early or late. You don’t want to waste time queuing for Happy Meals when you could be queuing for a roller coaster. Fizzy drinks tend to be expensive, so bring some drink with you if you can carry it. Remember if it’s hot, you could be standing in queues with no shade for hours so have plenty of drink to hand, preferably plain water.

Don’t expect to eat healthily in the restaurants. Although the quality is variable, and you can't reckon on many vegetarian options, remember you are at a theme park and not a health farm. It’s only one day (maybe more if you’re lucky), so you’d might as well stuff your face and return to your healthy balanced diet when you get home. Legoland is the only exception we’ve come across; the main restaurant there allowed you to choose healthy grub if you felt the need.

If you can run to the cost of them, the on-park hotels can be a superb treat – you can get in the park early, and pace yourselves if you are coming back in the next day. The hotels are always expensive, but often four star standard (with swimming pools and comfy rooms) and a stay may include park tickets, early park access or passes for the exit queues on major attractions. We've only stayed in one on-park hotel; this is mentioned on the Alton Towers pages.