Children’s play village, Warwick review

Imagine a village run totally by children… where they could pretend to do a whole range of jobs for a couple of hours… and you don’t have to clear up after them. And it’s inside. And you can see them whilst you have a coffee. Cool right? That’s what the Children’s Play Village, Warwick is. Having heard really positive things about it for the last couple of years, but not been organised enough to book, in August 2019 I finally got around to taking my two sons aged six and four to see what it was like. Watch my video below and then continue reading for more info. Please note this is an independent review and we did pay to go here. If you find it useful please do consider buying me a coffee to support the running of this website. 

Where is Children’s Play Village, Warwick and how much does it cost?

The address for Children’s Play Village, Warwick is Unamed Road, via, Hampton Rd, Budbrooke, Warwick, CV35 8HA. It’s about 1 hr 5 mins from where we live in Milton Keynes – allow an extra 10 mins though for roadworks on the M1. They say on their website not to use the postcode in your satnav. I didn’t read this before I left. I did put the postcode into my car and it did get us there. I imagine it depends how old your sat nav is. Look on google maps before you go – it’s accurate. Anyway the crux of it is it’s in a really random off the beaten track location that is hidden from the main road – although there are a few signs as you approach it. The building as you can see below is pretty unassuming too. At the time we visited it was £8.95 per child and adults were £1 on weekdays. Children are £9.95 at weekends. Crawlers are £5 and babes in arms are free. That’s correct as of August 2019. I never quite understand why places where adults wouldn’t go by themselves charge for adults – I assume it’s so the cost of the children doesn’t look as expensive if they want to increase their prices. Anyway…

PLEASE NOTE – September 2020 – prices have increased since this review was written – do check their website for the latest ones. 

What do I need to know about Children’s Play Village, Warwick? 

Before I even tell you more about it, because you’re already thinking it ticks a lot of boxes for somewhere to visit with the kids, you need to know this… YOU HAVE TO BOOK IN ADVANCE and it’s a popular place particularly when the children are off school. It’s not the kind of place you can decide to go to on a whim, or tomorrow because bad weather is forecast, you have to plan a date. The earlier in the day sessions seem to get booked up before the later one. We booked two weeks in advance. You can see what availability is like on their website.

What’s Children’s Play Village, Warwick like? 

As mentioned, it’s in a really boring building in what seems like the middle of nowhere just outside Warwick. You pay in advance for one of three sessions lasting two and a half hours in the day. Ours was 9.30am – yes we were on a mission that day to get up and out of the house. The second is at 12.30pm and the third is at 3.30pm. The village is all on one floor and when you first look it doesn’t seem that big. However there are a number of themed rooms for children to play in including a beauty salon, fire station, theatre, supermarket, hospital, vets, post office, and cake shop. There’s also an ice-cream van, construction area and baby area. In each room there’s lots of props to play with and the children and go from one room to another constantly. There’s no point in getting there much before your session time as children can’t go in before – and once they do they’re sat down with a member of staff who tells them a bit about it and sings. 

What did we think of Children’s Play Village, Warwick? 

It’s excellent. Regular readers of Milton Keynes Kids will know I am not a fan of soft play places. However for an alternative indoor place for children, Warwick Play Village seems to have got it right. In having to pre-book and limit the numbers, it meant that my boys had a chance to play in all of the rooms. The village had been ‘reset’ before we arrived so everything was there and whilst the session was running, staff were constantly putting back any discarded toys. It’s not about running around, the rooms require them to use their imagination and role play at doing jobs. My eldest particularly loved running the post office. My youngest preferred the vets and the the hospital. They both frequently chatted to and engaged with other children. It’s small, so if you do want to have a coffee, then if you bag a seat nearest to the play area you can see them play. In the middle there’s a baby area so there’s somewhere to put babies down if you have a toddler that’s busy playing. A few times during the session one of the staff members dressed as an astronaut did some space related activities with the children which broke it up a bit. 

Any tips for going to Children’s Play Village, Warwick and what age is it most suitable for? 

Don’t just turn up. You won’t be allowed in. You have to book in advance. I repeat that in case you missed it above. You CAN’T eat your own food in there as they serve their own. So if like us you’re looking to keep costs down then take a picnic and go elsewhere after the morning session. Or if you’re going for the lunchtime session perhaps have it before and get to Warwick early (see below for suggestions). If you fancy a catch up with a friend it’s a relatively good place to go for a drink whilst you watch the kids play. The toilets are excellent by the way – with a pull down small seat for young children. I’d say the children that will get the most out of going would be 2-6 years old. It depends on your child really and whether they’re still into that kind of play at home. At the time of writing, some of my eldest sons friends are almost 7 and there’s a possibility they might feel it was a bit too young for them. At the session we went to the average age of a child was around 3-4. My 6 year old was one of the oldest there – he loved it, but he’s quite chilled out and he tends to embrace everywhere I take him. 

Would we go back to Children’s Play Village, Warwick? 

In theory yes, the boys really enjoyed it. I think it’s reasonably priced and I really like the set up of it. A couple of hours was enough. It IS over an hour away from us though and so it would only be somewhere we’d go occasionally or perhaps to meet up with friends who live that way. It probably won’t be too long before my eldest would outgrow it do I’m glad we went when we did. If we travel that far to go somewhere then we try to make the most of the journey and go to another one or two places. It would be great to see more places like this around the country. It would certainly be really popular in Milton Keynes. 

Where did we go after Children’s Play Village, Warwick? 

I will do a full review of it but the place I’d recommend is St Nicholas Park in Warwick – only a 7 minute drive away and you pay to park. The postcode is CV34 4QY. There’s a splash pad / pool there. There’s also a fairly retro play area but it’s ok. There’s a stream that runs through it with lots of pretty flowers. My sons loved scooting on the paths so take your scooters. Should you want to spend some money there’s also a funfair and two crazy golfs. The ice-cream in the cafe was excellent. If like us you live in Milton Keynes then Ryton Pools Country Park is kind of on the way back home – you just pay to park there too. There’s a big play area and a smaller pirate themed one, and a miniature train but that only runs Sundays.