We visited ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure at Lenwade, near Norwich, and found a park with prehistoric fun for all ages
If you go down to the woods this Easter break you could find dinosaurs, Little Bo Peep and a teddy bear's picnic.
At least, that's what we found when we visited ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure, at Lenwade, near Norwich, on Easter Saturday.
I was there with my husband David and six-year-old daughter Clara for a return visit to what has become one of our favourite attractions.
The park is not only host to a menagerie of prehistoric creatures, but to a plethora of other attractions sure to enchant even the non-dinosaur fans – a category Clara falls into.
It is also home to Dippy, the bright yellow dinosaur mascot who pops up across the park, whether lending his name to its many attractions or through his live meet and greet sessions.
On Saturday, we stepped back in time to discover a world where dinosaurs roam, enjoy soft play, watch a movie and a live action show, experience a high ropes course, stroke a snake – and more.
ROARR! has a bit of everything, but even better, every year it seems to grow and change so no two visits are the same.
We have visited when Clara was aged one, four, five and now six – and have got something different out of it every time.
This year, we were keen to visit Dippy's Theatre.
The 228-seat auditorium opened in 2021 but we have never managed to persuade Clara to stop long enough to go before. This year, we marched straight there on arrival and sat down to watch the 15-minute animated adventure Return to the Lost World
I'll be honest, Clara is not great with even mild peril and this tested her limits, but dad and I loved the experience.
The seats were comfortable and the theatre offers an immersive experience, with stage lighting flicking on and off to add to the overall effect.
The film is shown daily at 11am, 11.30, noon and 12.30pm.
As we left we made a mental note to return later in the day for one of the live action Dippy and Friends shows (on at 1.30pm, 2.15 and 3) – we also discovered we could set reminders for activities we wanted to complete by downloading the ROARR! app, which provides detailed maps and timetables.
Our next stop was the extensive outdoor adventure play area.
This is probably Clara's favourite part of the entire park, with swings, slides, climbing nets and frames to discover.
From there we toured the Lost World A-mazing adventure trail – stopping along the way to collect the first of our stamps in the hope of securing a ROARR! medal by the end of the day – and made a beeline for Dippy's Raceway on our exit.
Clara loved zooming around the track on her little electric quad, trying to over and undertake the other participants.
Then – as David and I were feeling a little cold as we waited for the sun to come out – we persuaded our six-year-old to head over to Dippy-ville, where we knew some Easter crafting was afoot.
We were greeted at the entrance by Old MacDonald himself, who asked Clara to choose her coloured sugar paper to make a 'hand bunny'.
"I know how to do this, I've done this at school," said Clara as we happily settled down at a table for some crafting, colouring-in and to write an Easter message to add to a giant rainbow inside Dippy-ville.
As we left Dippy-ville we were just in time to say hello to Dippy and his friend Paris as they finished a meet and greet session by the outdoor stage. Perfect timing!
By then Clara was feeling peckish and a quick glance at my watch confirmed it was lunchtime.
We had taken our own picnic in an effort to enjoy the day on a budget, so we looked for a suitable picnic table.
There are plenty of options. As well as outdoor seating the park has two covered picnic areas – one is by the entrance and the second (which we don't remember noticing last year) is adjacent to the Dinomite soft play barn – it is called 'Cretaceous Cavern'.
It offers an atmospheric setting for lunch with a darkened interior illuminated by fairy lights, with several picnic tables. It was also spotlessly clean.
Fed and watered, it was time to venture into the Valley of the Dinosaurs and head down the hill to ROARR!'s valley, which is home to another set of attractions.
The Valley of the Dinosaurs is a pleasant wooded path, where you are only ever a few steps away from a prehistoric creature.
Some are animated and others are static, while speakers hidden in the trees emit the sounds of creatures from the lost world.
But this Easter, there are a few surprises lurking in the woods.
We soon turned a corner to see Little Miss Muffet wandering through the trees. At the next turn we discovered Little Bo Peep looking for her sheep – one of which was apparently called Brian.
"I like her," said Clara, having located the five lost sheep for an overjoyed Bo
Next we found some teddy bears picnicking underneath a gazebo.
And then all of a sudden we were at the bottom of the hill and right at the entrance to the Predator high ropes course.
I'd made a mental note to ensure we were all wearing suitable clothing for the course (having been caught out two summers ago, when I could not go on wearing flip flops). However, I had forgotten to take a hairband (and cursed the fact I did not have my usual handbag with me, as there's always a band lurking in its depths).
Long hair needs to be tied back for the Predator course so a word of advice to all long-haired lovelies – make sure you have a hairband handy.
It meant I had to sit it out this year, but that meant I could take a little breather and instead had the joy of witnessing my fearless daughter tackle the course with her usual gung-ho nature (following a safety briefing, of course).
Predator is suitable for those at least one metre tall, while all measuring 120cm or taller can go on unaccompanied if they wish.
Despite being tall enough to go it alone Clara was accompanied on Predator by her dad – and she loved it.
And for the final zip, she managed to take a good run up which sent her soaring along, unlike her first attempt back in 2021 when she got stuck half-way along (not that she even minded).
Back on firm ground, we headed over to the valley's animal encounters area – spotting chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, tarantulas, bearded dragons, rats and more in the Secret Animal Garden along the way – for the tail end of the afternoon snake encounter (all animal encounter timings are on the ROARR! app).
Clara first held a snake at ROARR! when she was 19 months old.
This time, she encountered Monty the constrictor, and none of us could resist giving the reptilian beauty a stroke.
We gave our hands a good wash before leaving the area – plenty of sinks with running water are available – and heading back up the hill for our second planned visit to Dippy's Theatre.
This proved to be a good mood as it was a chance for us all to sit down and relax a bit as we watched Dippy and his friends on stage in a live action adventure.
That rest was just what Clara needed to recharge for a frenzied hour spent in the Dinomite indoor soft play area.
There she made a friend who she tore around with – how she still had energy at 4pm I have no idea – and still wanted more when we dragged her away at 4.30pm.
There was just enough time for one more turn on Dippy's Raceway and some more adventure playground fun (while dad queued up to collect Clara's medal, having collected all the stamps required during the day) before we headed out through the gift shop for the drive back to Suffolk.
Despite being at ROARR! all day, we still hadn't made it to the adventure golf, while we had decided to give the splash pad a miss this time (although some hardy youngsters did brave the cold for splash pad fun).
By the time we got home Clara was exhausted, dad was dead on his feet and I was ready for bed.
Surely all signs of a day well spent?
Pre-booked tickets for ROARR! cost £19.95 for adults and children over 90cm (children under 90cm free) and £15.95 disabled adult/child/carer – book at www.roarr.co.uk – or £23.95 on the gate.
The park is open daily throughout the school holidays, 10am-5pm.
