tried & tested

During our holiday in Norfolk in the summer holidays, we planned to hire a boat in Wroxham. I was looking at other things to do nearby afterwards and came across Miniature Worlds, which is just a few minutes’ walk from the centre of Wroxham. My boys have grown up loving trains and Lego and loved the look of it, so I got in touch and asked if they’d be up for us coming to do a Tried and Tested review.

Wroxham Miniature Worlds’ website says it is the largest indoor modelling attraction in the UK- stretching over 10,000 square feet with some of the largest model railways in the world on permanent public display. The attraction is made up of many zones including model railways in various scales, slot car displays, a whole city made from Lego bricks, model boat displays, Vintage Penny Arcade, Interactive Flight Simulators, Train Simulators, new railway layouts (some of which you can drive yourself), and a host of toys from across the decades.

I’ve been to a lot of attractions over the years and I have to say, this place really was so unique!

 

Entering through the café, we were greeted and given a quiz sheet - it’s a great way to keep kids (and adults!) of all ages engaged, as there are quiz questions about each of the areas, plus things to search for within the Lego displays. You could see so many kids excitedly looking for things to tick off on their quiz sheet and there were always friendly staff members on hand to help with clues. 

The first area we encountered was a gaming zone, which we lost our 6 year old to immediately as he was desperate to play some Sonic and Mario! It was so nostalgic to see our kids using the consoles and games from our childhood!

Once we’d extracted the 6 year old from his console, we started our quiz and explored the different train model layouts, which were amazing! They’d all been made at Miniature Worlds during their initial 2 year creation period before opening to the public. Themed differently, there were so many model layouts to explore, including Europe, Japan, Canada and Desert Racers, among others. There were also interactive layouts, which the kids could get involved in- our 3 year old loved The Thomas layout where he could press the buttons to watch Thomas, Percy and James drive around.   

But it didn’t end there! There’s so much more to Miniature Worlds than model railways! Our next stop was Vintage Toy World, which had hundreds of vintage toys on display. It was so much fun to show the kids toys from when we were little- they didn’t even know who Sooty, Sweep and Sue were! From nostalgic characters to puppets, dolls, Star Wars memorabilia and model ships- there was so much to explore in the cabinets!

Right in the centre of the building is Little Brick World – a must-see for Lego™ fans, old and young! This little world of its own is packed with cars, buildings and little figures, plus hidden superheroes and even a Delorean.  It’s not just a city, there are cabinets full of themed sets from classic movies such as Star Wars™, laid out in scenes from the movies.  Even sets now deleted make an appearance, including the Harry Potter™ collection, Indiana Jones™ and massive models of things like Tower Bridge and even a large scale Batmobile™.  Over 130,000 bricks were used to build this amazing little world- all assembled by one collector! The boys loved using the quiz to hunt down specific things within the displays- and it wasn’t easy!

When you think you’ve seen all there is to see, there’s yet another area in this tardis! At the back of the building you’ll find computers set up with flight and train simulator software, a Brio train table play area and a large collection of vintage penny arcade machines. You can even change up £1 for 12 old pennies to play the machines yourself, which the boys loved! Having been to many seaside arcades during our trip, this was a great experience to show the boys some older arcade games.

There really is something for the whole family to enjoy at Miniature Worlds- it’s an amazing place and I would certainly recommend paying it a visit if you’re going to be in Norfolk- it truly is unique!

You don’t need to book in advance to go to Miniature Worlds- you can book individual tickets on arrival, or a family ticket covers 2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and up to 3 children.

Find more details on Wroxham Miniature Worlds here, but I assure you I can’t do justice to it in a written review- it has to be seen!

You can also see a Reel from our trip on my Instagram page here.

Our tickets were kindly gifted by Miniature Worlds for us to review this attraction.

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