Indoor Adventure Golf - and an unlikely winner

A couple of months ago I was asked if the boys and I would like to visit Paradise Island Adventure Golf in Livingston, in return for a review about what we thought about it.

As soon as I mentioned it to the boys they jumped at the chance, as it's somewhere we have enjoyed visiting several times in the past. David (10) was first to visit it, at a friend's birthday party. As he enjoyed it so much he wanted us all to go another time, and then a third time the boys thought it would be fun to take my dad along with us as he is a keen golfer!

This time it was the four younger boys - aged 2, 6, 10 & 13 -  and me who went along.

That's Ally's monkey face above. I asked Fraser to make an elephant face and that's what he came up with. All elephants have raised eyebrows of course.

Paradise Island, if you have never heard of it, is like a crazy golf course, only indoor, bigger, and themed. The one in Livingston is located across from the cinema in the Designer Outlet, and has two 18 hole courses. One of the courses, Barnacle Bay, is themed like a ship wreck. The other, Lost Lagoon, is more jungle themed, with tombs and monkey temples. The Lost Lagoon course reminds the boys of something from an Indiana Jones movie!

Each hole has a fun obstacle to get around or through, and some of them even have added extras. Like these chickens below...

...they come to life and sing to you if you manage to get the ball up the ramp!

The obstacles are challenging and varied enough not to be boring, but not so challenging that it becomes frustrating! It kept all ages entertained. The time we took my dad along I think he expected it to be quite easy, but it wasn't as straightforward as he thought! He was pretty good at it though, especially when it came to working out angles of shots, and so on that visit I decided to take my shots after he had taken his so that I could copy which way he was hitting his shots!

This time around I didn't have a proper golfer to copy and instead relied on pure fluke and luck to pot not one, but two hole in ones! 

The day we visited was quite quiet, despite being a school holiday, which was good as it didn't mean that we felt we had to rush our shots because another group were following along behind us. Although if there had been, it's simple enough to just let another group go ahead if you want to take your time. 

With a 6 and 2 year old determined to take all their own shots, and the other two boys both being so competitive against each other that they didn't want to rush any shots in case it meant they made a costly error and the other boy got ahead, we certainly didn't rush our way round!

Fraser (2) really got the hang of things, as you can see from this wee clip below...

It really is a fun way to pass an hour or so, especially when the weather is bad, as it undoubtedly will be at times throughout the summer holidays. The price isn't too bad compared with other similar sorts of places, and you do often get discount vouchers on the back of tickets from the cinema across the mall. 
 It's also in a convenient location, in the heart of the busy Livingston shopping centre. In fact, I would even suggest that if you were heading out to Livingston to hit the shops you could pack your other half and kiddies along to the golf and give yourself an hour of peace to look around the designer outlet! Although then you would miss out on the satisfaction of beating them all at golf.
Did I forget to mention that? That's right, those two hole in ones helped me to victory over Mr Competitive and Mr Competitive 2.
Which means that they are still angling for a rematch at some point.
I see another visit in our summer holidays!