Football and fun at St George's Park, Staffordshire

We love travel and we're all big football fans too, so a trip to St George's Park sounded like a good fit for us! And you know what? It was. We all had a great time. Let Robert, aged 11, tell you more....

St George’s Park is in Staffordshire and is the English Football training ground, home to all 20 of our national teams. The site was bought by FA in 2001 but the actual project only started in 2005. It took fifteen months and £105 million to build St George’s Park and so everyone would be happy it is located right in the middle of the country. The whole site is 330 acres in size although only 130 acres are currently in use (there’s space for a golf course so the players will enjoy staying there even more in future!)

[kad_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_AyKod7WCc&t=3s" width=200 height=100 ]

 

The Hilton hotel is connected to St George’s and is where all the players stay. It’s not just English footballers who stay there though, as foreign teams might come when they are playing an English side. Most of the Premier League teams have stayed and Barcelona have been there on two occasions. There are eleven executive rooms used mainly by managers and important club staff and the England team stayed there at the beginning of November, ahead of the World Cup qualifier game against Scotland and the friendly against Spain.

When we went to St Georges Park, the Australian Rugby Team were there, which shows that it’s not just footballers who come and stay. During the Rugby World Cup last year both the Irish and Argentinian teams rested at the Hilton.

[caption id="attachment_3496" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Robert and Harry Kane![/caption]

We were given a tour around the site and were shown some really cool things like an autograph wall which had been signed by countless famous people. Geoff Hurst was the first to sign his name and the list now includes Messi, Suarez, Gerrard, David Cameron and Ollie Murs plus loads of other footballers and celebrities.

Throughout our tour we saw some of the thirteen full size pitches that were scattered about. There was an exact replica of the pitch at Wembley Stadium which was 96 percent real grass and only four percent artificial. There was also a full size indoor pitch which cost £1m and is made of elite fibre. The indoor pitch is temperature controlled and can be watered although it is artificial. When we came, the England under 16’s were playing on this pitch.

[caption id="attachment_3497" align="alignnone" width="1200"] All of us by the Wembley replica pitch[/caption]

England has so many different football teams, including a men’s and women’s team, under 21’s, under 16’s plus a team for the blind and a team for the disabled. There are quite a few others which I haven’t yet mentioned like the English Futsal team who play Futsal, a game with a smaller teams and a smaller pitch. They train in the blue indoor Futsal hall which was paid for by St George’s main sponsor Nike and can also be used for basketball and netball. There are also a number of other pitches including a 3G pitch and one made of elite fibresand.

[caption id="attachment_3493" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The changing rooms were all named after players (or people connected to football!)[/caption]

On our tour around St George’s, which opened in October 2012, we were shown all the training equipment that players would use. There is a massive gym full of cross trainers and weights as well as three normal pools, a plunge pool and an underwater treadmill which cost a quarter of a million pounds. We were shown inside the human performance lab and I was amazed by all the machinery inside like the treadmill that takes away gravity from your legs. The room is mainly used for testing players’ ability but can also be used for player medicals.

[caption id="attachment_3494" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The state of the art underwater treadmill[/caption]

St George’s Park is home to top physios who treat the top players, although members of the public can also come as part of their medical treatment.

There are seven changing rooms on site and we were let into the under 21’s changing room and the senior team’s one where all the top English players like Harry Kane, Deli Alli and Eric Dier would have changed into their kit or had an ice bath after a game.

I loved going on the tour and learning about English football and England’s national training ground. Our rooms in the Hilton Hotel were lovely too, there was a great swimming pool we enjoyed using, and overall I had a great day.

Sarah adds: We all enjoyed our St George's tour and also staying at the Hilton. We had interconnecting rooms (always brilliant for families) and the pool area was large and really lovely. It is a huge hotel which is football themed - the bar is called Crossbar and there is a Centre Circle coffee lounge! We were particularly impressed by the excellent breakfast where there was lots of choice. It's a good place to stay if you're in the area as it's quiet and very convenient for Drayton Manor (read Robert's piece here) and the National Memorial Arboretum (read my piece here).

Disclosure: We went on the St George's tour and stayed at the Hilton as part of a “Staffordsheerescape” package, courtesy of Enjoy Staffordshire, although they had no input at all into this blog post. You can find details of the St George's tours on their website and they cost £9 per person. We also visited Drayton Manor, on a package which starts at £170 for a family of four, and includes an overnight stay (hence our stay at the Hilton St George’s Park), plus admission to Drayton Manor Park and two other attractions. There’s a basket of 10 to choose from in all, including the Snow Dome and Trentham Monkey Forest – so you’ll have a fun packed time. You can see the details of the Drayton Manor package here. You can add on the tour as an extra if you like! Rooms at the Hilton vary from £90 to £110 per room per night.

Drayton Manor: not just for little ones (by Robert)

Robert, aged 11, writes:

In half term we went to Staffordshire for a short holiday and on the final day of our trip we went to Drayton Manor, which is a very cool theme park. There was loads to do for all different ages. Here’s what I thought.

Scary, Exhilarating Rides

Shockwave is one of the two main roller-coasters in the park. It is one of the few attractions that go upside down and is unlike any ride I’ve ever been on. It’s actually one of only two roller-coasters in Europe in which you stand up. The carriage adapts to your height, so your feet are on the ground, before sending you on a course of fast loops and turns. I really enjoyed Shockwave althoughI felt like I was going to fall out. This is only because I was one of the smallest people in the ride and the bar didn’t go any lower.

G Force is the other big rollercoaster in the park and was one of my favourite rides. At the beginning you slowly go up a large ramp before starting a loop the loop very slowly, which means you are dangling upside down for a small amount of time. Then you rush down quickly and go through a series of turns, twists and drops, not mentioning a few more loops. G Force is very popular and was one of the only rides at Drayton Manor that I had to queue for. I did really enjoy it though and it was worth the wait.

[caption id="attachment_3426" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The terrifying Maelstrom ride![/caption]

Maelstrom is a brilliant thing to go on if you’re a thrill seeker who isn’t scared of heights. The ride swings you up and down, every time escalating until it gets to the maximum height which is around 74 ft. Whilst spinning like a pendulum you are also spinning around so at some points you are falling forwards, sometimes falling backwards and sometimes falling sideways. I loved this ride and in my opinion it was one of the best attractions in the park.

The Bounty Pirate Ship is like a less scary version of Maelstrom. It still swings you up and down but it is not as high and you don’t spin around. There are people on both sides of the boat so you still go backwards and forwards but going backwards isn’t scary at all. The further to the side you are the higher you will go, so if your child forces you to go on you can let them go at the back and you can sit in the middle where it won’t be so scary.

Air race is a very fun ride which some could find quite scary. Don’t be fooled by the colourful aeroplanes: the ride basically spins you around for the entire time, one loop the loop after another. The ride gradually gets faster and fasters until you are whizzing around. Funnily enough it didn’t make me feel queasy at all although I’m sure some people didn’t get off so lucky!

There were a few of the scarier rides that I didn’t go on. Pandemonium looked very good but was closed when we went and In Stormforce 10 you get absolutely soaked, which I couldn’t face in the British winter time. Apocalypse was the only one of the big rides I chose not to go on as I couldn’t face a 177 ft drop.

Family Rides

I didn’t go on that many of these kinds of rides that weren’t very scary but one attraction that was very scary was The Haunting. Drayton Manor’s haunted house doesn’t actually have anything that should scare anyone over the age of six yet, after going to countless places like The London Tombs and The London dungeons I was expecting a different scenario than what actually happened. At the beginning we were shown a video in which a man told us “Some people see things, some people smell things and some people feel things.” I felt that implied that people were going to touch me and from then on was very scared. The whole thing actually turned out to be some models of ghosts and a chair that moved. Although it wasn’t that scary it was very fun and would recommend going. It is quite long so we had to queue for ten minutes or so.

I didn’t find Ben 10 Ultimate Mission Coaster that great or thrilling, but all the younger kids seemed to love it. In the ride you go quite fast at the beginning before reaching the end of the track and doing most of the ride again backwards. I did quite enjoy it and is perfect for younger children as it is fast but not too scary.

I enjoyed Yogi Bears 4D adventure as you can’t beat a free trip to the cinema. There wasn’t as many special effects as in ones I’ve seen before but we were still squirted with water and I found the film funny and a good way to let my queasiness go away from all the previous rides I had been on.

There are loads of other rides in the park that I didn’t go on. If you want to find out about them go to the Drayton Manor website  

Thomas Land

[caption id="attachment_3428" align="alignnone" width="675"] If you've got younger kids, they'll love Thomas Land![/caption]

A large chunk of the theme park was taken up by attractions all about Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. As you would’ve guessed I spent nearly all my time in Thomas Land going on Bertie the Bus and Harold the Helicopter. Just joking! There are loads of calm rides to go on and the toddlers and kids seemed to be having the time of their lives. We did pop in for 10 minutes or so and it was very enjoyable.

Overall,  Drayton Manor is a brilliant place to go. Most of the people who go are there for Thomas Land so most of the other rides had no queue. There was so many things to do including a zoo with monkeys and a great reptile house. I loved going and would definitely recommend it.

Drayton Manor is open from November 19th for for its "Magical Christmas season". A family ticket for the park costs £98.

Disclosure: We went to Drayton Manor as part of a "Staffordsheerescape" package, courtesy of Enjoy Staffordshire, although they had no input at all into this blog post. The Drayton Manor package starts at £170 for a family of four, and includes an overnight stay (we stayed at the fabulous Hilton St George's Park, which you will read about soon!), plus admission to Drayton Manor Park and two other attractions. There’s a basket of 10 to choose from in all, including the Snow Dome and Trentham Monkey Forest - so you'll have a fun packed time. You can see the details of the Drayton Manor package here. 

Read what I thought of:

Thorpe Park

Siam Park (the best waterpark in the world!)