Legoland - From extreme sports to cowboys and indians

Adventure Land at Legoland Park in Billund, Denmark, is a family affair. Everyone seemed to find their favourites here, mom and dad included.

X-treme Racers provides provides what is probably the best action rides in the park. It's really fast roller coaster ride, very wild and very x-treme. Even if the children were unsure (you reach heights unimaginable for a young child that made them refuse to climb aboard), Dad at least had a blast. Your children must be taller than 120 cm for this one and have a head for heights.

Less scary but still great fun are the Jungle Racers that the children queued twice for. The racing boats themselves are fantastic lifesize versions of the lego racer boats. You have to make it across the water avoiding the surprise jets of water blasting up around you. Back on dry land, a jungle maze close by will keep your children busy for ages while you recover your senses from your x-treme experience.

Without a doubt my favourite part of Legoland was Legorado Town. I could have quite happily stayed here the best part of the day. There were good places to eat and nice shopping. There is always something so charming about an oldy-worldy styled town. Ideal if you want to play Cowboys and Indians for the day.

For a start, your children can dig for gold. Yep, they can been shown how to mine for gold and when they have collected some it will be melted down into a gold danish coin for them - you pay 20 dk kronor and it makes a great souvenir.

There are three rides in Legorado Town, all great and a hit with even the youngest child. The Mine Train takes you deep into gold mines (it's dark a lot of the way) and past famous landscapes created entirely of tiny lego blocks. The Timber Ride is a wet and wild ride sitting in timber logs through the landscapes of the Great Buffalo Hunt. We loved this one, but it's bumpy! Or the Lego Canoe takes you through a wild river, the last part of the ride is a steep waterfall that plunges you homewards with a splash. Wear a plastic waterproof mac (available from the Legorado shop)for this one and cover your body and legs during this ride or you'll be soaked.

Still, a sit around the Indian camp fire will soon dry you all off.

Legoland - what not to miss

Your kids will go crazy in Legoland with so much fun stuff at every turn. But there is a way to keep tabs on them - hire the electronic tracking system from the Information Centre when you go into the park. It means you can easily find them if the worst happens and you lose sight of them in the crowds.

So what does the park have to offer? Probably the most impressive sights are the life-size figures and the entire cities created of millions of tiny lego blocks. The attention to detail is spectacular. You walk around the cities or take a slow boat ride to see some of the world's most famous landmarks created in lego.

Duplo-land is especially built for younger children, they have their own play zones, lego houses, and express train to ride on and lego airplanes to fly on. Giant lego creations just like the minature versions they have in their bedrooms. This is intense fun for the lego-loving toddler.

Miniland offers children the chance to take a lego safari. Each animal is built in details to a life-size version completely of lego blocks. Children can also navigate a lego city driving in their lego cart, stopping at traffic lights and filling up their gas tanks. If they enjoy rides off the ground then lego helicoptor launches will send them skywards for a bird's eye view of the park.

Pirateland was one of my favourite places. The whole family takes a lego boat ride into Captain Roger's secret caves to visit the lego pirates and their treasure stash. The lighting, music and robotic lego figures, not to mention lego crocodile in the water surrounding the boat, make this a great attraction. Stop off at the pancake house here for delicious eats. For children over 90 cm tall, they should try The Lighthouse. Securely strapped into hanging chairs, you pull yourself up to the top of the lighthouse using a rope, and then come back down to earth in a free fall.

As you walk around the park, huge maps direct you to the various attractions, to ensure you don't miss a thing.

Knight's Kingdom was a highly anticipated attraction for us, our boy's having been fans of this series of lego figures for a couple of years. The castle was magnificent and a wonderful backdrop to the entire Legoland Park. Past the lego dragons guarding the entrance, you could explore the castle. Just be aware that if you're afraid of the dark, your children may be hesitant to enter. There's a photo opportunity with the dragons and a castle shop to tempt you to open your wallets. Stop here if you are hungry for a big lunch at the Knight's Barbeque in a medieval setting, but not before you ride the medieval Dragon coaster, a wild twisting ride through the castle landscape. Adults need to accompany younger children on this ride, and it's great fun.

Located at the far end of the park, don't forget to include Lego City in your tour. This has the Falck Fire Brigade ride which is fantastic fun, we queued twice for this one as it's a family effort and a chance to compete against other park families. Also here is the chance to ride a robotic arm at Power Builder Robots, (for children over 120cm tall), not recommended if you have just eaten and remind your children to remove their shoes or they will definitely come off during the ride. You program the ride as you want to, and they buckle in tightly. It's a wild and crazy ride of being turned upside down and shot inside out all over the place. Your kids will love it.

The birth of Legoland at Billund in Denmark - every kid's fantasy

Billund in Denmark is the birthplace of Lego, probably the greatest children's toy ever invented.

Created by Godtfred Christiansen in 1968 who was born in Billund, what once started out as a single model village created in plastic lego bricks, has today become one of the most famous fantasy theme parks in the world - Legoland. It was Ole Christiansen, Godtfred's father, who was the inspiration behind the creation of lego. As a young carpenter, he started building wooden toys that fit together into countless different combinations. The name he gave to these early toys was "Lego". This word comes from the Danish words for "play well" - "leg" and "godt" together.

One million of us visit Legoland in Denmark every year, and through a child's eyes, the parkland is a fantasy of all their dreams come true.

Legoland Village - good basic accommodation at a price to match

We wanted to wake up on the morning of our second day in Legoland and be able to walk to the park in under 10 minutes. We needed a place to stay that was clean and comfortable, and fun for two small children. And we found this in Legoland Village, a modern and comfortable hotel centre.

Actually only 500 metres from the entrance to Legoland, our room in the Village looked like a giant lego cube. We were color coded red and a huge red pieces of lego marked the walk way to our room. It was basic, but plenty for a night's stay. A separate play area inside the room filled with lego kept the children happy while we struggled to wake following the dawn start the day before and 6 hours of walking in the park. We had coffee and tea making facitilies and a good sized bathroom. The children's bed folded down from the walls, that were happily painted with their favourite lego characters. 30 minutes later we walked to the main hotel for breakfast - lego style.

The Cafe and Bistro in Legoland Village served good food. A great selection of Danish breads and cheeses along with the usual breakfast foods of cereal, juice etc. all buffet style. There are Lego playareas everywhere. Your children will love it and this hotel will not break the bank at 895 dk kronor per night per room, including breakfast. Purchase your tickets to the park in the hotel reception. The Legoland Park opens at 10am, so don't do what we did and rush breakfast the first morning, turning up at the park gates at 9am - you'll be taking a leisurely stroll for an hour with the kids. Actually, we used this time to drive into the nearby town to pick up some wine and beer for our forthcoming summer parties. Only a short distance separates Sweden and Denmark, yet Denmark's prices on alcohol are frustratingly much, much cheaper.

During July, Legoland park in open until 9pm at night, otherwise it closes at 6pm. For us, the two days in the park and one night accommodation was actually plenty. We saw and did most things in the park in this time. Even the children were happy to come home at the end of the second day. After all, when you add up the hours on your feet, everyone is pretty exhausted. Next time I would even consider a one day trip only, starting early and driving home late in the evening.

Out of peak season (April and Sep/Oct), Legoland Village offers special package prices for a hotel stay, breakfast, dinner and entrance tickets to the Legoland Park. All for a bargain price and definitely worth enquiring about. Check out Legoland Village.