Anna, Look!: Walking in an Overpriced Wonderland.

On Sunday evening, I visited Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park with two friends. The event was an exercise in swindling tourists with mediocre products peddled for high prices.

I was a bit cold when I arrived so had a hot chocolate, as it was sold from a cart that had four chocolate fountains. And, I mean, a girl's only human. But the hot chocolate, extortionate at £4.50, only had the top of the drink taken from the fountains. The rest of the drink was a pre-prepared, underwhelming, gloopy mess, and basically tasted nothing like the fancy drink that it had purported to be.

One of my friends saw a ride she liked and went on... It cost £9!!! No ride is worth £9. Winter Wonderland ripping off tourists once again.

There was also a high prevalence of fairground games, complete with cute stuffed animals, littered about the place to try and entice hapless passersby. Given that these games, as with a casino (an excellent 1995 Martin Scorsese film, by the by), goes by MO of 'the house always wins', here was just another example of ripping off customers who were swept up in festive cheer.

Honestly, the whole place was just a maelstrom of overpriced things. Pick and mix stands were everywhere in Winter Wonderland, only they didn't feature any novel sweets you couldn't find at your local Tesco, yet they were priced at about three times as much.

The lights were pretty enough, and at least those were free, so I took a couple of photos.

My advice if you're thinking of visiting with friends is this: by all means, take photos in front of all the photogenic teddy bears and gingerbread men, and around the nice lights. Take full advantage of those freebies. But please, please please don't waste a cent in WW. In addition to the terrible hot chocolate, I also spent £2 on a bottle of water(!). Don't repeat my foolish mistakes; save your money for somewhere where you'll actually get value in return for it.

On the bright side, the company was absolutely on point!