Another day, another festive walkthrough experience as we head down to our local estate to check out the Christmas at Trentham lights walk.
As night falls on the award-winning gardens of Trentham this winter, the grounds will come alive with a spectacular burst of Christmas magic and sparkle in this brand new, visually stunning, multi-sensory mix of light, fire and sound.
Christmas at Trentham is brought to us by Killinajaro as this illuminated trail brings alight the Christmas spirit along with Christmas food market stalls, toasted marshmallow stands and even VIP pods to have a private lunch in.
It was only a few weeks ago I was at the absolutely astounding Lightopia experience at Alton Towers.
Lightopia are a separate company than Alton Towers (naturally) so I was intrigued with the Trentham event also bringing in an external company to run the lights show.
Lightopia at Alton Towers cost £20 (I thought it was dearer when recording the VLOG) and Christmas at Trentham costs a slightly more expensive £21.50, so how do they compare?
Christmas at Trentham
With a beautifully lit bridge providing the entryway into the attraction I was getting excited.
The first thing you see when you cross the bridge are two beautifully lit trees that open up into the full garden landscape.
White fairy lights as far as the eye can see, a golden walkway, two funfair rides in the distance and a stunning fountain and Christmas tree greeted us.
It was a very nice introduction to the experience and made for quite the nice landscape photo opportunity.
Little did I know at the time that it was 80% of the entire experience.
The map makes the event look absolutely huge but alas, it was not.
Christmas at Trentham Map
Now don’t get me wrong, the amount of work, effort and artistry that has gone into making this area has certainly not gone unnoticed or unappreciated here.
However, Trentham Gardens is an absolutely huge park (some 300 acres) and aside from the main area you don’t stretch further than 20 metres away from it at any given moment.
We see some beautifully lit trees on the guided path behind the main section that lead into the highly anticipated laser forest.
A place where a forest would come alive as though caught in some sort of futuristic lightsaber flash mob of epic proportions.
Or so I thought.
The laser forest comes complete with one smoke machine drifting some murky atmospherics into a little forest walkway with a laser machine casting some beautiful lights over the trees.
It’s nice, but when the sign says ‘Laser Forest’ I expect to be walking through a forest, not 12 trees and a smoke machine.
Sadly comparisons with Lightopia were coming much earlier than I was expecting as there’s a section in Forbidden Valley where the entire forest is lit up with lasers and projections in such beautifully artistic fashion.
It was certainly becoming a men vs boys comparison between the two events here.
After this section the first glimpse of the VIP pods became clear.
These exclusive pods sit up to 8 people and you can enjoy a nice Christmas themed meal inside them.
They’re available to hire but they’re certainly not cheap.
Note – If there’s less than 8 of you present an extra charge is added to make up the numbers.
It’s personal, private and certainly a beautiful experience.
When the snowfall came down the other night it would have been the perfect opportunity to book a pod.
Mixed with the lights and the warmth of these pods, I could see that being a truly magical experience.
I’d absolutely look into those as part of your evening as whilst I don’t feel the experience of the walkthrough itself is worth the money, the pods would certainly complete the experience.
With a beautiful fire section and absolutely stunning buildings with projections on not to mention some hearty Christmas drinks and food on offer the event certainly has brief moments of magic to enjoy past the initial wow factor upon entry.
It’s just knowing you’ve paid £21.50 to experience it is when you start to question if you’ve got your moneys worth here. It certainly felt like an event that I’d be comfortable paying £12-£15 for.
In this very moment all I could think was Lightopia could have charged £25-30 and I still would have felt as though I’d gotten my moneys worth.
Sadly I couldn’t say the same here.
Walking through some beautifully arched branches we headed towards the funfair section.
I personally thought the two vintage rides (Helter Skelter / Ferris Wheel) would be included in the price of the event.
They weren’t.
£3 to ride the wind-up Ferris wheel and £3 for 2 goes on the Helter Skelter.
Knowing full well I hadn’t recorded much up until this point, we jumped on the Ferris Wheel. Just for you. You’re welcome.
A fairy lit walkway waited for us at the end (a great photo opportunity) and as thus bringing an end to our evening and the mixed feelings that came with it.
Overall
The lights are stunning, the atmosphere is lovely, the food stalls are a nice touch (if albeit a little pricey) but there are certainly more downsides to this rather pricey experience.
We spent 90 minutes walking through Lightopia at Alton Towers with a variety of lanterns, a story-led seasonal walkthrough, numerous effects, beautiful music and even a brand new big finale water show that wasn’t even there on opening night but is now at no added cost.
We were in Trentham Gardens for 30 minutes and 4 of those minutes was onboard the Ferris wheel.
The fact Lightopia was an hour longer, had more lights, more variety and more atmosphere is actually quite surprising.
Theme park event prices are normally astronomically higher than everywhere else and you normally get far less for your money.
This time around it was Trentham Gardens who I felt were overcharging us by quite some margin for this rather small scale event concentrated in one area.
If I had to choose between them it really wouldn’t be a competition.
The VIP pods at Trentham Gardens however are absolutely incredible and that experience alone I feel is worth the money compared to the overpriced standalone walkthrough.
If you have the cash to splash and 7 additional friends or family to take with you, then do the event properly and go all out with a Pod and walkthrough combined ticket! At least that way you won’t be disappointed like we sadly were.
Find out more at – https://www.christmasattrentham.co.uk
Want to view a complete walkthrough of the Trentham Gardens at Christmas event?
Check out our VLOG below!
