Adventure Island - England’s top free-admission fun park

When choosing among the theme parks around London, Adventure Island is in its own category because it’s always free to enter, and visitors only have to pay for rides or buy wristbands that allow them onto ride packages. It’s about 40 miles east of the central London, so it’s the farthest one out, but it is on the seaside, unlike the others, and it’s still fairly easy to reach on a simple daytrip. The park used to be known as Peter Pan’s Playground, and many locals still use that name or simply call it “Pan’s.”

The rides and attractions

Adventure Island doesn’t really have different themes in different parts of the park, but it does divide its rides and attractions into categories suited to different age and size groups. They’ve got Big Adventure Rides, Junior Rides, and Mini Rides, which will be appropriate for increasingly smaller and younger children. There are about 10 in each category, including 4 proper roller coasters, so no one should get bored too quickly. They’ve also got mini-golf, bumper cars, mini racers, rock-climbing walls, and a water fight attraction to round out their offerings. Again, this is a seaside fun park with free admission, so a big part of the fun will be just wandering about, as long as the weather is decent.

Opening times

Adventure Island is open year round, although it’s only open 2 or 3 days per week (weekends) outside of summer, during which it’s open every day. The park always opens at 11am and the closing time is determined by the time of year and day of the week (combined with weather conditions). During the height of summer it can stay open until 10pm or close as early as 8pm, and during other times of the year it can close as early as 5pm. Fortunately, the wristbands that allow you on rides are half price during the final hours of the day.

Prices for rides

As mentioned, admission to the park itself is free, so this is a good option for families who might not be committed to an expensive full-day experience. Individual ride tickets can be bought for £1.60 each, but far more popular are the wristbands that allow unlimited rides within the appropriate classification. The first two wristband options also include free rides for an accompanying person age 14+, so this a fairly inexpensive option for families with younger children.

Mini Band (for riders under 1 meter): £10
Junior Band (riders 1 meter to 1.2 meters): £15
Big Adventure Band (riders 1.2 meters and up): £22

Discounts are always available

Adventure Park has certain weekdays outside of summer and weekends in winter that are considered “off-peak” and the bands are all 3 or 4 pounds cheaper on those days. In addition, you can save £1.50, £3, and £5 respectively on the bands if you buy them online in advance on the official Adventure Island online booking site.

Free rail travel offer

Since 2007, Big Adventure has offered a deal from March through the end of October whereby you buy a full-price wristband at a train station and you get free return (roundtrip) rail tickets for the journey. More information is available on their Rail Offer page.

Getting there by car

From the M25 ring road just take either Junction 29 (A127) or Junction 30 (A13) eastwards towards Southend. As you approach Southend, look for the brown tourist road signs. Adventure Island is clearly marked on these. Follow signs to the Seafront.

Getting there by train

If you are staying in or near central London you’ll need to get to either the Liverpool Street Station, which is connected to the tube system, or the Fenchurch Street Station, which isn’t on the tube, but is very close to the Tower Hill tube stop. From either of these train stations you can get a direct ticket to either Southend Central or Southend Victoria stations, which are both walking distance to the park. The journey will take about one hour, and return fares are around £14 for adults, so the above free rail travel offer is well worth it for most people.