Hampton Court Palace is about one of the 60 palaces built for King Henry VIII in about 1513. In my opinion, it must be the grandest and mightiest of all the Palaces with over 1100 rooms, acres upon acres of garden, mazes, tennis and bowling courts.

It is located next to the River Thames in London. It took me, my mum and step-dad just 1 1/2 to drive there from Portsmouth. The castle is relatively well signposted and it's mainly straight road and motor way with few confusing turn-off's but then again,this is only relavant from where I am travelling from. We passed through some lovely old villages on the way so the journey was pleasing. You can also catch the train of course - the station is basically right next to it!

When you arrive, there is a car park of which, you pay for on departing. It costs £3.50 for 3 hours and an extra 50p there after. In 4 Hours you can see about everything so there's no need to worry about soaring parking fee's.

Upon walking up to the castle the tree pots are decorated with flags initialled 'HR' (Henry Royal) and an english flag waves from the top of a magnificent archway entrance.

You first have to purchase your tickets which are £14 adult, £7 for a child aged 12 -15yrs. There are family tickets available as well as annual passes at something like £38. At the entrance into the court yard of the palace, there are two guy's dressed in red robes to check and tear your ticket. You can leave the grounds as long as you re-present your ticket upon entering again. To the right there is a gist shop as you walk in (one of five) and it supplies stuff like tudor historical books, figures, wine, sweets, stationery, wall charts (which I bought), bags, egg cups etc... the range is vast and average priced. I'd take about £25 spending money if you wanted to get a good few decent bits to remember your visit by.

The fist court yard you enter is called 'Base'. Here, you can purchase a stereo headset (free of charge). The headset has little numbered buttons and whenever you enter a room or part of the building, there will be a sign with a 4 digits number which you tap into the stereo and you'll be able to listen to an audio description of the history of the room you are in. I found this really handy but we opted to return them after a while because we found that we couldn't talk to each other which is part of the day out really.

The next court yard was called 'clock court' because there was a magnificent clock tower built onto the wall. A man dressed as Henry VIII was also entertaining some Kids on a school trip and you were allowed to stroll up and have your pic taken with him. He played the part really well. All staff were dressed in red robes and stood in each room, looking rather bored. All however were really friendly and helpful. One lady overheard my mum asking me where a particular engraving was that was mentioned on a plague and the lady took us over and gave us a brief history of it which was really interesting.

There are always plagues in the rooms which provide information and interesting facts, for example, in the kitchen areas it detailed how many sheep, poultry, boar etc were eaten in a year and how many galleons of wine and beer drunk. Plus, factual info besides portraits and paintings - all very helpful and interesting yet not info overload!

All the rooms are well signposted with arrows pointing to where the rooms are like 'Henry's apartments' or 'The Kitchens'. We also had a map to help us as the place is SO big. The corridors are typically old and stone based which gave me a sense of awe to think the King himself once stood on that very floor. Some rooms have been reconstructed, particularly Henry's s apartments (all the guest bedrooms) after a fire in 1986 or something like that, which destroyed them.

The rooms not only show Henry's quarters, but also the Stewards and Georgians of whom, extended the Palace quarters when they took over the throne. The ceiling are intricate and stunning and there are portraits of kings, queens, cherubs, naked women etc... in every room which was rather eerie.

You are allowed to take photo's anywhere really except the chapel. I of course, sneakily did! The chapel was stunning and was actually the place where Prince Edward VII (Henry's son) was baptised.

There are lots of places to eat and drinks around the palace including the 'Tiltyard' cafe. the 'Kitchen Diner' which was really authentic and looked like a stone kitchen with long wooden tables to sit at. The cafe was very fancy with fresh croissants, fruit, hot food, in and outdoor tables, drinks and alcohol etc...

The garden were stunning with fresh bright flowers, acres upon acres of land, a maze (ehich costs additional money, as well as the mini cart ride around the gardens) and tree's that were growing fresh oranges, limes and lemon's! (I bet these were used for the homemade preserves in the gift shop!). A great place for some photography!

There are sites dedicated to the life of young Henry VIII, detailed his earlier life and wives with interactive touch screen, wall projectors showing photo's and drama enactments etc...
Some of the rooms like the kitchen were done up with fake piece of food and poultry and various sound effects, such as the scraping of knifes and clatter of cutlery. In some of the walk through, there was actually really onions, herbs, lettuce, onion and garlic in the basket which I was mighty tempted to pinch! (The thought of being caught smuggling a lettuce however would have been rather embarrassing so I refrained).

You can get into the feel of things by dressing up in a set of robes and Tudor costume (free) as some people did. You can also be directed round the palace by a tour guide, dressed to the part, but we opted to venture around at our own pace. It wasn't overly busy which was really good - we could take pics without people getting in the way!

We did and saw everything we wanted to and had a really enjoyable day out. I wouldn't really say it's a place for kids as they may get a little bored touring the rooms as not all of them had the sounds effects. Most the chamber rooms were done up in grandeur to look as they would have done but that's about it - no mannequins or anything. There was a small child's paly area, consisting of squishy shapes and a small ball pit which i spotted so there is some entertainment if adults wanted to tour themselves. There was also a little 'Quiz' booklet for kids to fill out as they went around. I picked up the book for a laugh and filled part of it out in the hope of claimed the prize of one of those little pom poms with feet and goggly eyes but I forgot to hand it in!

Overall, this was a really amazing place. I love history and the Tudors anyways so I was in my element here but even if you're not interested in History, it's worth coming to look at the amazing grounds and rooms which are so inspirational. We were talking to one member of staff who filed us in with true stories of haunting, such as rattling door knobs, swaying ropes, the smell of rose water (to women only! Most peculiar) and smells of charcoal and smoke as well as noises and ghostly figures. He seemed a really genuine guy.

There aren't that many stair cases to climb and there is plenty to see on the ground floors if you struggle with steps. There are buggies and auto wheel chairs provided for anyone who struggles wih walking and there are ramps and stuff to make it easier.

Definitely worth the price and I enjyed every second - shattered by the end of it though!