When we realised we would be staying so close to Oakwood Theme Park rated the ‘worst rated theme park in the UK’ I knew we just had to try it out!

This post contains affiliate links where I may be paid a small commission if you choose to purchase
Thank you for supporting my blog!

Where is Oakwood Theme Park?

Back in 1987 Oakwood Theme Park opened as a very small family park with BMXs, a 3D-style cinema experience show, a wooden fort, a go-karts area and a water chute ride.

It is located in Narbeth, Pembrokeshire in South West Wales.

Address: Canaston Bridge, Narberth SA67 8DE
Phone: 01834 815170
Opening hours vary across the year

How much are Oakwood Theme Park tickets?

Oakwood has so many offers on that I can’t even list them all and keep them up to date!

Standard Entry – Cheaper the further in advance you book
12 yrs+ – £36.80-46
3 – 12 yrs – £28.80-£36
65 yrs+ – £28.80-£36
Students – £29.80-£37

You can also use Tesco Clubcard vouchers, Blue Light Card Discount or buy an annual pass.

We signed up to Kids Pass which gave us 2 free childrens tickets. This made it £18 each for us which I thought was pretty reasonable.

You can try it for £1 for 30 days and just £3.99/month after your trial

Parking at Oakwood

Parking is free at the onsite car park, which is huge. There probably wasn’t more than 100 cards in the car park when we visited so plenty of space!

Dog Kennels

At the entrance we passed the kennel area, we don’t have a dog but they were in a pretty sorry state. I’m not sure you would want to leave a dog in them all day, especially as they seemed to be in the direct sun without any shade.

Do you allow dogs into the theme park?
A: While we don’t allow dogs, other than guide dogs, into the park, we do provide free holding kennels just outside the entrance tills. Kennels are available on a first come first served basis, you can reserve a kennel by calling us on 01834 815170.  You can leave the park to check on your dog as often as you like.  We recommend you bring a bed/blanket, a bowl and some water for your dog. Dogs are left at the owners risk. Oakwood FAQ

Oakwood Theme Park Food

Picnics / Bring your own food

You are welcome to bring your own food /picnics along to Oakwood and they have benches dotted about, plenty of grassed areas or this indoor area which is a nice touch.

The Oak Tree restaurant

If you prefer not to bring food with you , there are a few fast food kiosks around the site but they were mostly closed when we were in the park.

The main restaurant, The Oak Tree, is located back up by the main entrance next to the Whistlestop shop. They serve a range of adults and childrens meals, we didn’t eat in here but the portions looked pretty good from what we could see from people who were eating when we walked past.

Ice Cream Kiosk by Bob Sleigh

Oscar and Holly had ice cream from the kiosk, the prices were pretty inline with other theme parks we visit.

Height Restrictions

When you arrive head straight to the Whistlestop Shop for a height wristband. Although double check the one they give you as Holly was given an ‘under 1.2m’ band (Red Stripes) not un ‘under 1.3m’ band (Yellow Stripes) and was refused on one of the rides until we begged them to remeasure her at the ride entrance.

What rides are at Oakwood?

Young Adventure & Neverland

I guess this area is supposed to be loosely based on Peter Pan. We weren’t even sure it was open as there wasn’t a single person in there other than us!

We wandered about until we found a couple of ride operators and asked if they were opening the rides?

Tink’s Flying School

MIN AGE: 2+ (Anyone under the age of 6 must be accompanied by someone age 13+)

Tink’s flying school ride was a spinning / flying ride, you could control your pod by moving the sail left or right and it would turn the pod.

Neverland Chase

MIN AGE: Anyone under the age of 6 must be accompanied by someone age 13+

The Neverland chase was a small car ride that followed a track around a small themed area. The noises that came off of the cars tells me they are probably in need of some maintenance (or at least some WD40!)

Crocodile Coaster

MIN AGE: Anyone under the age of 6 must be accompanied by someone age 13+

It was a little bit worrying that the lady operating this was also operating Neverland Chase and was having to run between the 2 rides. She said someone had called in sick and so she was having to cover.

With the parks safety history (I’ll let you google that for yourself) I would have thought this would be something they would avoid.

Skull Rock

MIN AGE: 2+ (Anyone under the age of 6 must be accompanied by someone age 13+)

Holly went on this all on her own! We were avoiding water rides for the most part because it was quite overcast.

Sights of London

MIN AGE: Anyone under the age of 6 must be accompanied by someone age 13+

Another car on a track ride, this time in a black cab round the sights of London. Holly liked this one as she knew the names of the landmarks.

Jolly Roger

MIN AGE: Anyone under the age of 6 must be accompanied by someone age 13+

A small pirate ship ride that rocks back and forth. Holly wasn’t impressed and much preferred the bigger one!

Aerodrome

MIN AGE: Anyone under the age of 6 must be accompanied by someone age 13+

Another spinning ride, nearly all the rides required Oscar to have an adult with him. Which was fine apart from these planes were not made for adults and Gaz struggled to get in!

The rides we didn’t do

Witches Brew : MIN AGE: 2+ (Anyone under 1.2m must be accompanied by someone age 13+)

We gave these spinning cups a miss, anything waltzer like makes me want to vom.

Family Rides

Bob Sleigh

MIN AGE: 8+ to ride alone (guests under the age of 8 may ride accompanied by someone age 13+)

This is the first ride you come across in the park. It is a sort of slide that you get on at the bottom (max of 2 per sled). First it pulls you up the hill climb and then sets you off down the hill.

It does have a break handle so you can slow yourself down, which some people used so much it caused a queue.

Holly and Oscar seemed to like it though so that’s all that mattered.

Treetops

MIN Age: 2+ (Anyone under 1m must be accompanied by someone age 13+)

Always a good start when the rides safety bars are held together with zipties! This is a cool little coaster that goes between the trees. Some of the stops were a bit abrupt but Holly and Oscar went on it 4 times back to back as there wasn’t anyone in the queue for it.

The Cauldrons

MIN AGE: 6+ YEARS

Holly and Oscar loved these trampolines in the floor.

Dizzy Disk

MIN HEIGHT: 1.2m

This is where we discovered Hollys band was wrong. The ride opeerator spotted her walking up and said she couldn’t ride as her band said she isn’t over 1.2!

At first he wouldn’t even humour us and remeasure her, but in the end he did and quickly agreed she had the wrong band on and swapped it for her.

Holly said it wasn’t as good as Thor or Kobra but still liked it.

Snake River Falls

MIN AGE: Anyone under 8 years old must be accompanied by someone age 13+

I don’t generally do water rides but Holly really wanted to go on Drenched and it was closed so we negoiated that she could go on here. Only she needed an adult, so that adult ended up being me!

It actually wasn’t that bad and other than a bit of spray going down the tunnels we didn’t get wet either – win win!

Pirate Ship

MIN HEIGHT: 1.2m for full swing (under could ride on the hour and half past)

The Creepy Crawler

MIN HEIGHT: 1.2m

This was possibly the worst ride, again it looked in dire need of maintenance and repairs. It was so rough Holly ended up hurting herself on the overhead bar.

The rides we didn’t do
Waterfall : MIN HEIGHT: 1m
Boating Lake : No height restriction

Thrill Rides

Megafobia

MIN HEIGHT: 1.2m

I think this ride is probably the best ride in the park, Holly went on it about 6 times in a row. It’s a wooden coaster, so not the smoothest. It gives Wickerman vibes but also has padded retro seats like the big dipper at Blackpool.

Speed

MIN HEIGHT: 1.25m

This ride was great! Although it also looked in desperate need of a refurb on the carriages as the headrest padding was broken and black taped back together in places. It has a similar ride feel to Saw and Smiler and I really enjoyed it.

Again there were no queues so people were just having back to back rides on it.

The rides we didn’t do
Vertigo (Extra Cost £10pp)
MIN HEIGHT: 1.1m

Drenched (Currently Closed)
MIN HEIGHT: 1.2m

Bounce (Currently Closed)
MIN HEIGHT: 1.4m

Witch Hunt (Currently Closed)
MIN AGE: Parental Discretion Advised

Other Facilities at Oakwood Theme Park

By Neverland you’ll also find an indoor arcade area filled with ways to spend all your hard earned cash or win a naff prize.

The park also has lots of grassy areas perfect for picnics or a rest between rides. Quite a few of the food places were closed so we were glad we just brought a picnic with us.

What did we think of Oakwood Theme Park?

Do I think it deserves the title of the worst UK theme park? Absolutely not!

But I do think it desperately needs some investment, Neverland should be rethemed to something more current for sure to bring it a new lease of life. Litter was also problem, especially in the Megafobia queue line areas, which was odd because we saw plenty of staff litter picking around the park.

I would say the park is more suited to under 10’s although the handful of ‘big’ rides were appreciated by us big kids!

One thing we did notice was the lack of signage. It was a bit of a guessing game where anything was and the map on the website downloads at such a low quality it was hard to navigate using it. Some updated signs would be great, or more of the maps around the park.

There was also a lack of atmosphere, as the park was virtually empty and there didn’t seem to be any music on around the park.

But the lack of any queues made it feel like we almost had the park to ourselves, quite a difference from our recent visits to any Merlin parks. So if you want to try out somewhere that you are guaranteed to get on everything, this is the park for you!

Take advantage of the Kids Pass deals and save yourself money too.

ChrissyJ xxx