Legoland

One of the best-known and longest-running toy brands in the world has a theme park just outside London. Convenient? Yes. Dangerous? Also yes.

Easy access means most people treat it as a day trip, which is exactly the wrong way to do it. The park gets incredibly crowded, and you can easily spend more time queueing than actually enjoying the rides.

Our solution was simple: stay at the Legoland Hotel next door. We booked one of the cute woodland barrel rooms and turned the visit into a two-day trip. More importantly, hotel guests get one hour of early access before the park opens to everyone else.

That single hour is worth its weight in gold. You can tick off half the major rides while everyone else is still sitting in traffic on the M25.

The kids loved it, the adults survived it, and another family attraction has officially been ticked off the list.