If you have been keeping an eye on local social media over the last couple of weeks, you will have seen a fair bit of noise surrounding the return of The Beach at Ben’s Yard near Ely. This is a pop-up event over the summer that runs for 6 weeks, aimed at offering a Great Yarmouth or Benidorm beach experience right here in sun-kissed, tropical Ely. It is a refreshing and unique addition to the area, with absolutely nothing else like it for miles (the closest comparison I can think of being Bury Lane Fun Barn near Royston).

The Price

But I could not help but notice a lot of the comments on social media have been focused entirely on one thing: the pricing structure. The entry fees are tiered by height – anyone under 80cm is free, 80cm to 90cm is £14.00, over 90cm is £16.00, and over 60s or accessibility tickets come in at £10.00.

Now, I will be honest. As a guy with a 3-year-old son who currently sits in the 99.8th percentile for height, paying by height left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth right off the bat! Once you tally up the two of us (£32.00) plus a frustrating £2.50 online booking fee, you are £34.50 down before you have even stepped through the gate.

So, is it a money-grab, or is there genuine value hidden behind that upfront price tag?

– I took my son down to find out.

What You Get

The key thing to understand about the pricing is that almost everything inside is included in your entry ticket. All the rides, the soft play area, the splash zone, the fun house, bumper cars, crazy golf, and the actual sandy beach area are entirely unlimited.

This creates a brilliant, seamless experience for parents. You do not have the usual fairground headache of constantly being nagged for tokens or having to pull your wallet out every 45 seconds just to keep the kids entertained.

With that said, the experience is not entirely seamless. Food, arcades, vending machines, buying a bucket and spade (at a very ambitious £7.00 price tag), and the deposit for the crazy golf clubs are all extra, so you still need to bring some money.

The Experience

The site itself is spotlessly clean, safe, well-managed, and genuinely pleasant to walk around. There is a stack of stuff to keep little ones busy for hours. Visiting places like Lammas Land in Newnham, you will always find bits of crud and insects in the water, but not here.

On the flip side, the best feature of the entire setup – and I cannot stress this enough – is that unlike a holiday in Benidorm, there are actually enough tables and chairs for everyone. There is no waking up at dawn to hold spots hostage with a towel just so you can sit down in peace. You can actually relax while the kids run ragged inside the enclosed area. There is a sense of freedom here that you simply don’t get at many other places.

Food is available, but it is mostly trashy, sugar-filled items and hot dogs….which is totally fine, as you are allowed to bring your own picnic to the area. So for anyone on a strict diet, has a dietary requirement, or simply wants their children to eat something more substantial then this is a great option.

Is It Worth It?

When you look purely at the numbers, The Beach at Ben’s Yard gives you 6 hours of entertainment for £16.00 per person, which breaks down to under £3.00 an hour each. To figure out if that is actually good value, it helps to compare it directly to similar local spots like Bury Lane near Royston.

Bury Lane also offers a beach area, soft play, and a farm shop café with proper hot food, though they lack the splash zone and fairground rides. Over there, entry for a 3-year-old like my son is £8.25 and the first adult goes free, which works out at just £1.65 an hour for the two of us across their 5-hour session.

On paper, Bury Lane is much cheaper than Ben’s Yard. But whether Ben’s Yard is worth the extra money is down to what you want out of the day. At Ben’s Yard, you get unlimited fairground rides and dedicated water play included, plus you can bring your own picnic straight onto the sand to save a fortune on lunch. At Bury Lane, you are paying less at the gate, but you are buying café food and missing out on the rides. If your kid loves rides and splash pads, Ben’s Yard justifies the higher price tag; if you just want a cheaper beach play and a good café lunch, Bury Lane takes the win.

Final Thoughts

Fundamentally, if you plan to spend all day at The Beach and intend on using everything they have on offer there then it is an absolute steal. If, however, you are only there for the beach and a play area for the children then there are other better value options available (if you don’t mind a drive).

When you consider that a single ride at a fair can cost £3-4 for 90 seconds, the unlimited access at Ben’s Yard makes it a real steal for ride lovers. My son ended up sitting on the exact same ride 6 times in a row, which would have been £20 at some places and barely took up 15 minutes!

Once you look at it through that lens, it feels far more cost-effective provided you have the capital upfront to pay for it. What you get in return is a clean, mostly painless, and thoroughly entertaining day out where you do not have to stress about seat hunting, ride counts, or wandering toddlers. If you are indifferent about rides, then you may be better off taking the near hour-drive down to Royston for better value.

It is definitely a ‘once or twice’ over the summer sort of trip and I understand that the price point may make it less accessible to people on a tighter budget, but it is still a refreshing change of pace and unlike anything else in the Ely area right now…something Ben’s Yard deserves to be applauded for.

Thanks for reading!