Two of Staffordshire’s top attractions, Drayton Manor Park and Alton Towers, are up there with Disney World and Universal Studios as Meccas for the young and for the young at heart. The county also has a wide range and variety of other child-friendly diversions. You can snow-board on real snow, visit working farms, ride on steam railways, enjoy interactive museums, or spend the day bowling, laser-zapping, swimming, dry-slope skiing or just watching movies.

1 Drayton Manor Park and Zoo
Set in 250 acres of beautiful countryside just a stone’s throw from the M42, award-winning Drayton Manor Park offers a huge array of rides, from the fairground dodgems, carousel and big wheel to the stomach-churning mega-monsters – Apocalypse, Maelstrom, Shockwave and Pandemonium. You can survey the park from a boat, a train, or a chair lift. In between, there are numerous places to eat and shop, and an abundance of slot machines and funfair games.
At no extra charge, there’s also the zoo, with tigers, panthers, monkeys, meercats, penguins, sealions, and a range of British wild and farmyard animals.
And if you can’t cram everything into one day, you can buy a season ticket – call the ticket hotline on 0870 2406950 – and stay at the park’s caravan site.

2 The Snowdome, Tamworth
There’s something surreal about entering a sports complex on a summer’s day, looking through an internal window and seeing a 170-metre ski slope. This is the Snowdome in Tamworth, one of only three centres in the country offering real-snow sports all year. The complex, housed in Tamworth Leisure Island, consists of three snow slopes, a skating rink, licensed bars and restaurants (including one with a balcony overlooking the main slope) and a shop. And what a range of activities they offer – sledging, tobogganing, skiing, ice-skating, snow-blading, snow-tubing and snowboarding. Activities are adapted for different ages. Skill-graded skiing and snowboarding lessons are also available.
Contact the snowdome for its varied and flexible price structure – and remember to wear warm clothing.

3 Amerton Farm
There’s something for everybody in well-planned farm centres – and Amerton Farm is one of the best. While children will head for the farm animals, the on-site wildlife rescue centre, the narrow-gauge railway, the play barn, or the climbing tower, adults will enjoy browsing the farm and cook shops, the garden centre, or the gift and craft centre. And in the latter you can see the pottery on sale actually being made. Jamie Gauge sits at his wheel, flanked by his kilns and surrounded by the fruits of his labour, chatting to the customers. Other small shops on site sell bread, dolls’ houses, and piano and music supplies, and there’s a complementary therapy centre.
If you have a party of children you want to entertain there are activities such as mug-decoration, magic, clay-modelling and jewellery-making, which are available for pre-booked parties of at least 10 kids.

4 Alton Towers
Last year Alton Towers was the overall winner in the Good Britain Guide’s Best Theme Park award. Every year, new state-of-the-art rides are added to the world-class amusements: for 2004, Spinball Whizzer takes its place beside Air, Nemesis, Ripsaw, Oblivion, Submission, Blade, Black Hole, Enterprise.
The Park, recognising what a turn-off enormous queues can be, advises you to plan your visit – avoid the most popular days, lunch early or late, watch out for the electronic signs that tell you the waiting times, use Fastrack to book time-slots, or use Parent Q-share which allows one parent to queue while the other amuses the kids. At the end of your visit the magnificent gardens are a haven of peace.

5 Churnet Valley Railway
The Churnet Valley Railway runs from Cheddleton through the lovely Churnet Valley south of Leek to Froghall. It started as a small railway museum in the 1970s and took advantage of the closure of a nearby mineral line in 1988 to secure just over a mile of operational track, which opened in August 1996. Further extensions have since been added and it now offers steam and diesel services along its 5.5 mile track. A variety of special events are mounted, including Wizard Weekends for kids, combined rail and canal cruises, dining experiences, and courses in driving diesel and steam engines. The railway isn’t open every day, so visitors are advised to phone or check the website for details.

6 Ceramica, Burslem
Ceramica is based in Burslem’s Victorian town hall and is a total hands-on experience, which explores the art and making of pottery from every angle.
Upstairs floors contain pavilions sponsored by local pottery manufacturers. Here you can learn about bottle kilns, admire a spectacular glass tower, or read the news on Ceramica TV.
But with children, your best bet is Bizzareland, on the ground floor. It offers a chance to interact with the whole world of pottery production. You can make pots, hear how people in the Potteries region lived, ‘leg’ a narrow boat through a tunnel, take a magic-carpet ride across The Potteries, or recreate the archaeological dig that preceded the building of the Ceramica shop.

7 Festival Park
For a variety of uncomplicated modern diversions for children of all ages, head for the Festival Park leisure centre in Etruria. Who could resist it? The kids can go bowling at Mega Bowl, then zap each other at Quasar. Next door they can catch a film at a multiplex cinema, before heading for the dry ski slope of the Ski Centre, or the massive leisure pool of Water World. Finally, you can grab a burger or hot dog, or head for the relative tranquillity of a pub-meal at the China Garden, overlooking the massed narrow-boats of the canal basin.