Warwick Castle, August 2025

We’ve only ever been to Warwick Castle once before, back in 2016 just before Evan’s 3^rd birthday, and it felt like a fleeting visit where we didn’t really ‘get it’. We walked around the castle, I took Evan along the walls and that was about it. We didn’t see any shows, jousting, nothing. We came away disappointed, but I think that was more us than Warwick Castle.

Well, as it’s part of the Merlin Annual Pass offerings we thought we’d try it again now the kids are older to see if we can get to grips with Warwick Castle’s offerings in 2025 and see if our opinion has changed. Spoiler alert: it has. We really enjoyed it this time. Saw a lot, did a lot. A fresh set of eyes and it’s a different experience entirely.

Entry starts at £26 per adult and they do offer discounted family tickets depending on your family combo, starting from £65 for a family of 3 and Parent & Toddler tickets from £22. For the days we were visiting, it was £31 for adults and children (under 2s free). Not bad pricing really. Parking is £7 for the basic car parking too. To combine your trip with other local Merlin attractions, including Sea Life Birmingham, Legoland Discovery Centre Birmingham or Cadbury World, you can save with a combo ticket. You can also book a short break and stay in the Castle Hotel, Knights Lodges or one of the Medieval Glamping tents!

When you get there, it’s like driving through Center Parcs (if you’ve ever been). It’s a drive on thin roads under a canopy of trees until you get to the main Car Park. From here you can either walk the 15 minutes to the castle or wait for the free shuttle bus. We walked in, but regretted it! It was quite the hike. There are also some toilets at the car park bus stop, which is handy after a lengthy early morning drive with no breaks!

This felt like one of the main negatives from our experience at Warwick Castle: getting in. The castle opened at 10am on the Sunday we visited. We arrived at 11am and the queue to get in the castle was still massive, an hour after opening. This was the everyone queue too. If you pre-booked, you were in the big queue. People paying on the day had to go get a ticket THEN get in the big queue. Whilst it moved steadily, it still seemed like a long queue for an hour after opening, and didn’t seem like that busy of a day. A few more on bag check might have helped. You could also log your car details and pay for parking at the machines in the queue while waiting. Whilst parking for Merlin Gold and Platinum Annual Passholders is free, you still need to log your car and scan your pass at the machines.

On entry to the castle grounds, you can walk around the outside before going into the main castle area, and you can get some great views as you’re walking around it too. As it would happen though, the one thing Elliott wanted to do more than anything was right by the main entrance!

If you’re not familiar with Zog the Dragon, he’s the main character of a few of the Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffler children’s books, and Elliott is a big fan. Warwick Castle has a few Zog related shows, activities and events on at the minute, the first of which was the play park. It’s just a children’s play park with slides, tunnels, swings and a rope swing, but themed to Zog and his friends with an awesome Zog slide. There’s even screens in the tunnels showing the BBC adaptation. Things have started well!

Just outside the play area was the starting point for the Zog activities. Following the story from the first book from years 1-5, you could follow Zogs class activities and earn yourself a stamp. Flying, Roaring, Breathing Fire, Capturing a Princess, Fighting a Knight – All covered but in a fun-related activity: Taking a picture with a flying Zog statue, standing on a pad to make the dragon models roar, putting the fires out in the pond, finding the letters on the princess scarecrows to make a word and a sword fighting play area that we never saw anyone at. At each point though you could stamp your sheet and move on. The activities were fun for the little ones.

Whilst on our Zog adventure, we stumbled upon the Horrible Histories Maze, so we thought we’d jump in and see what it was about. Similar to the Zog activities, you could collect an activity sheet and get a stamp in each zone of the maze. The areas covered topics like the Middle Ages and Vikings, along with some play areas, fun activities, information boards and the occasional sound effect too!

Around the castle, you could upgrade your experience by trying your hand at some Knight related activities. For a fee, children (and possibly adults) could try jousting. It was pretty much a hobby horse and toy jousting pole, but could be fun. For a bit more of a thrill you could try archery. Groups were shown the basics and could fire a few arrows at the targets. I think the jousting and the archery were around £6 each.

There were two Zog shows running through the day at the Woodland Theatre, covering both Zog stories. We caught the “Zog and the Flying Doctors” show, which was a fun adaptation of the 2^nd book, with actors and puppets playing out the story. A colourful show that the young kids could enjoy. It also gets full in the theatre area, so get there a bit earlier to get a good seat.

We took a walk around the inside of the castle which was great. We’ve visited several castles over the years but you could tell this was a real ‘showroom’ castle. Yes, you had the standard Victorian decorated drawing rooms and bedrooms, but Warwick Castles rooms were there to tell a story.

There were models of historic figures in the rooms telling a small snippet of the castle’s history, entertaining guests in the music room, discussing war in the library, even down to a room with Henry VIII and all six of his wives (heads attached on all).

One of the best areas of the castle interior was the Great Hall. A beautiful room with a checker board floor and high, wooden arched ceilings, featuring models of fully armoured knights on horseback and walls littered with helmets, shields, swords and spears, cabinets filled with rifles, flintlock pistols, along with the classic Blunderbuss (love that name). They even had a Lego Trebuchet on display. You know I like a bit of Lego.

Me and Evan went for a full tour of the castle walls. And after a few steps up some of the towers, I had to question how I managed to carry Evan around all of these steep and very narrow staircases when he was just 2 years old. It’s a long walk around the walls and towers, but you get some amazing views of the countryside and around Warwick itself, so if you think your legs can take it, it’s well work doing. There are a few smaller exhibits inside the towers and info boards dotted around with some historical facts.

We only caught the end of the Falconer’s Quest show, but it looked pretty spectacular. As with some of the other shows, they’re set to a story. We arrived just in time to see some of the giant birds of prey circling over the crowd, and the looked massive! The shows are on a few times across the day, so you can always try again later if you miss one. It’s definitely something we’ll try and catch next time. We just had a lot to cram into one day.

The Firing of the Trebuchet was definitely on our “to do” list for this visit. The sun had come out just in time, so we grabbed some drinks and slushies and sat on the bank for the show. They tell the tale of the advancing forces using their canons to attack, whilst the defenders of the castle attempt to fire the trebuchet in retaliation. The show has fireworks, explosions and archery in its story, all leading to the finale of the trebuchet launching a projectile 200 metres down the field. A great show with information delivered in a fun way and the trebuchet firing was great.

This was another “to do” item and probably the highlight of our day. A retelling of the War of the Roses tale of the battle between the Yorks and the Lancasters. A story filled with sword battles, duels, jousting and fights. The crowds on either side of the arena in support of one of the two sides, and we get to witness the horseback battles as the story plays out. A great show with lots to see, and who doesn’t like a spot of jousting on a Sunday afternoon! We were stood on the ground near the front, but there were plenty of seats in the stands behind us too. To get to the jousting arena, you get to walk by the Trebuchet too so you can take in exactly how massive it is!

There were plenty of food and drink options around the castle and grounds. Whilst we didn’t venture in, there is the Undercroft Cafe underneath the castle itself. Within the castle grounds there was a food stall selling “loaded” sausage rolls, ice creams and coffee and just outside the castle there were food vans selling pizzas, cakes, doughnuts and more. There was The Dog and Goose bar stall too, selling reasonably priced alcoholic beverages and if you made your way up to the top of the castle wall, you would find Ten 68, a little drink stand selling glasses of Moet champagne for £18!!

We saw and did a lot, but there were still things we didn’t have time for. We didn’t visit the Warwick Castle Dungeon – an upcharged attraction visiting the castle dungeon, similar to the London Dungeon and the one they had at Alton Towers, kids aren’t fans of jump scares and creepy actors, so we gave it a miss. There was another Zog shows and even a meet and greet with Zog himself. The Kingmaker tour – a walk-through attraction showing Warwick the Kingmaker preparing for battle.

We went to see the Mill area, which has great views across the waters and of the bridge and waterfalls, but we never went inside the mill building itself, and also the Gaol, the original castle dungeon rooms. They also have the Peacock Garden which we never made it into, but we did see one of the Peacocks gracing us with its presence on the lawn outside. Plenty there for a return visit!

Gift shops galore at Warwick Castle. There is a main gift shop at the entrance/exit and several dotted in and around the castle itself: One at the end of the Dungeon experience, under the castle at the Kingmaker experience along with some stalls outside the main castle. You could find souvenirs like magnets and keyrings, clothing, books, toy weapons (should you need a foam mace, look no further) and plenty of Zog merchandise for the little ones. Evan picked a cork firing crossbow, whilst Elliott wanted a Zog cup. 20% Passholder discount really makes a difference when souvenir shopping too!

All in all we had a great time. It was a much better experience than our last visit here years before. It was like we never looked at anything properly, but this time we more than made up for it. We were really impressed with the castle and its offerings and fully enjoyed our day. The castle looked great, the tours and shows were also good fun, plus the Horrible Histories maze and Zog activities for the kids were great additions. We’ll definitely be back before long, even if its just half a day to see some of the other bits we’ve missed and the rest of the day at one of the other local attractions.

One last visit to the Zog play park and we were done. After a long day of walking around the grounds, along the ramparts and up and down the towers, there was no way I was walking back to the car park. That free shuttle bus was a godsend!

All details of Warwick Castle, events and booking can be found on the official website.