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Lucinda heads to Littlehampton for a family-fun day out...
You would be forgiven for thinking ‘VisitBrighton’ is all about, well, Brighton. After all, it’s in the name. But ‘VisitBrightonandHoveandotherplacesinSussextoo’ just didn’t have the same slick marketing message you’re used to seeing. Even though I work for VisitBrighton I still use the website to choose things to do for the birthday ‘super-fun-happy-day’ out that I book for my niece & nephew as their birthday treat. This time, I chose Harbour Park in Littlehampton.
Alton Towers has ‘Saw – The Ride,’ Chessington has the ‘The Vampire’ & Thorpe Park has ‘Stealth’. In a wildly different pace of life of Harbour Park has…. ‘Dodgems!’ It might sound like I’m being a bit mean - I promise you that I’m not – I’m highlighting that Harbour Park is a wonderfully traditional British amusement park rather than a snazzy theme park. It has a nostalgic charm to it.
It’s not corporate or slick in its marketing, which is really rather refreshing. No two rides have the same style of signage. The various locations with ‘Harbour Park’ emblazoned across the roof/ceiling are all in entirely different colours and typefaces. The height chart next to a ride says ‘Tag us on Facebook’ but doesn’t include the Facebook handle in order to tag them - in case you're wondering it's @harbourparkuk. It’s not aligned in its marketing message at all – but that’s okay. It makes you realise that they haven’t hired a bigwig PR company to ‘move with the times’. You stick to the times you like, Harbour Park. They’re good times.
So, I took four kids under the age of eight at the end of the Summer. It rained. Heavily. I’m a glass half full type, which was appropriate because if you left a hi ball glass out it would have half-filled with rain water. Also, kids don’t care about wet weather. It’s the boring ol’ grown-ups who have a problem with it. They chose to go on ‘The Water Chute’ first. (Also – how cool – it’s a little log flume!). Kind made sense when you think about it. We were already drenched anyway!
I need to point out that they have a really great and dry INDOOR soft play. There’s ‘Baby Soft Play’ including bubble tube, soft play blocks, and mini slide. ‘Toddler Town’ where little ones can be a vet, shopkeeper, florist or builder. For kids up to age nine can use the ‘Under the Sea’ soft play with light-up tunnels, tumbling nets, a huge interactive gaming screen and giant slide. The sensible families attending Harbour Park that day were all in there. Did I mention the LIGHT UP tunnels?!? It looks great from what I could see from standing outside in the drizzle. DISCLAIMER: This is not Harbour Park’s fault. The blame is fully at the tiny feet of the small children I was with who wanted to go on all the outdoor rides regardless of the weather!
The huge benefit of being in an amusement park in the rain is that no one else was there. We had the whole of the outside to ourselves, which meant….no queues! Like having our own exclusive ‘Fast Pass’ tickets without the hefty price tag.
I have to say that I was impressed by how many rides & activities they had. The website guides you to spend half the day in Harbour Park and the rest on the award-winning sandy beach, where you can also go crabbing (Harbour Park also sell crab lines for exactly this reason!) But we had no problem spending the entire day going on ride after ride as we had purchased ‘unlimited wrist bands’ to go on everything as many times as we liked. In hindsight, I didn’t need to get one myself as it’s free entry to the park and you can buy ride tickets for the things you choose. I only went on the ‘Ocean Coaster’ and Dodgems. If they had let me I would have been on the Trampolines and ‘Kiddies Bumper Boats’ but, sadly, they had a ‘kid only’ policy.
The kids particularly loved the ‘Whirlpool Waltzer’ and used our (imaginary, yet effective) ‘fast passes’ to go on them three times in a row. It was a bit tense as the adults were torn between giving them the freedom to do as they liked and being concerned that there would be some form of clean-up required.
There are multiple places for food & snacks – Harbour Kitchen serving burgers, kids meals and light bites. The Galley restaurant with genuine naval memorabilia offering traditional British seaside favourites like fish & chips. Kelly’s Ice Cream Parlour has a great selection of including bubble gum ice cream. Riverfront Fresh Doughnuts serves yummy HOT doughnuts, and we ate a fair few of those. In fact, they were the reason for the Waltzer clean-up concerns.
You might not know this, but Harbour Park was once known as ‘Smarts’ and is still operated by the family of the great 1960’s Circus impresario, Billy Smart. Billy was buddies with Billy Butlin and in to 30’s he had a successful travelling funfair. Today they demonstrate social responsibility by providing days out for ‘Variety – the Children’s Charity,’ donating to the ‘Sea life Trust’ and ‘RNLI’ along with sponsoring the Chestnut Tree House 10k run and giving gifts prizes to many other local charities. That’s makes it all feel really rather lovely and wholesome.
The soft play and arcade is open year-round, and the rides will open again in March 2023. Just remember that the kids will have a great time no matter what, maybe you’ll get a ‘rainy day fast pass’ too.
Lucinda
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