Cardiff Winter Wonderland 2019

Cardiff Winter Wonderland 2019

Disclosure - we were invited to the press preview of Cardiff Winter Wonderland 2019 so received free rides, ice skating and food. All opinions are honest and our own.

On Thursday we went on a little after school treat trip to Cardiff Winter Wonderland. We had such a lovely night, I thought I would share with you what we got up to. If you follow me on Instagram do pop over to look at my stories too, so you can see us in action over there!

Cardiff Winter Wonderland is set out really nicely this year. It is relatively small but well spaced out so you can easily see everything and you don't feel squashed in. There are plenty of rides for smaller children and there were new ones that I hadn't seen before that are great for all ages like the Funny Mirrors house. My eldest (12) also loved the Barrel of Laughs ride which I hadn't seen before.

Most of the rides are great for younger children, my middle two (8 and 5) loved going on them all. Some were typical fairground rides and there was also a festive reindeer ride that blew foam bubbles at the children that they really loved! You pay for the rides using tokens and most of the smaller rides were about 2 tokens a ride and tokens cost £1 each.

There is a big food van to get food from. The food is reasonably good value I think, although I did think the chips were expensive for the size that they were. It's nice to see that they have a vegan option this year, maybe next year they will have a vegetarian / vegan kids option too!

There is an outdoor seating area where you can eat and warm up with a hot chocolate and they have hot chocolate vans, donut vans and a crepe stall so you won't go hungry! It's encouraging to see them using biodegradable cups for the hot drinks and I also saw that they have green biodegradable single use cups for takeaway drinks from the bar too.

One of the big attractions is the ice skating rink and the eldest three went on the ice with their dad and they had a blast! We went ice skating a couple of times last year so it was nice to see that they hadn't forgotten the skills and were soon skating along happily! Little boy (5) had a penguin and there was no stopping him, Daddy even fell over trying to keep up with him! This year they have ramped up the ice skating element to a new level with the addition of the Alpine trail. This is a 250m long trail around the gardens and is a first for the UK (the nearest other one is in Vienna!). It really added an extra element to the skating, the gardens are lit up with fairy lights and it looked magical, so much better than just skating in a circle!

We finished off our evening with a ride on the big wheel - which this year is wheelchair accessible so no one has to miss out. This is fabulous and I'm so proud that Cardiff has such well thought out festive Winter Wonderland that everyone can enjoy. The views over Winter Wonderland and the whole city were amazing - definitely worth a trip up!

There was festive music playing and it was so cold we had a really festive evening and left feeling all Christmassy! There is also a festive bar where you can sit inside and enjoy a drink. It looks like it's from a picture postcard it looks so cosy and festive!

I don't think we've had such a nice evening out in a long time, I'd definitely recommend a visit for a bit of festive cheer! You can find out more about Cardiff Winter Wonderland 2019 by taking a look at their website here and you can also use that link to book tickets for ice skating. Let me know if you visit! We also made a little video of our evening there, I hope you like it!