If you’re a parent, chances are you’ve experienced soft play at some point in your children’s lives. Love them or hate them, they’re a staple for rainy days and birthday parties, and, if you don’t mind the screaming and shouting of ecstatic kids, you can actually grab a cuppa, sit down and almost relax while your child burns off energy in a safe environment.

There are plenty of soft play centres around - some better than others. But when a new kind of indoor play centre opened in Queen Street, Newton Abbot, it caught the attention of parents across Devon. iTown is a unique offering and was created by the people behind iBounce, also in Newton Abbot and in Exeter. It’s a huge space in the old Argos building divided up into miniature shops and other places people might visit, including a salon, doctor and dental surgeries. There’s even a farm, police station and a building site - basically everything you’d expect to find in a regular community, just on a smaller scale and for smaller people.

There are costumes to try on and props to play with and at the end of our two-hour session, staff quickly whizzed around to make sure all the equipment went back to the right place. They’re very strict with who’s allowed in - only children aged 1-7 can play in iTown although parents are welcome to play with their children and find their ‘inner child’.

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You can host a party there or hire out the entire venue at certain times. The venue also caters for school and nursery visits.

The staff were incredibly welcoming when we arrived and made a fuss of my four-year-old who was in a mood having decided she ‘didn’t want to go inside’. Once inside, of course, she was off like a shot. It was fascinating to see what she would be drawn to. She spent time in the hairdressing salon and the farm, but she was equally at home doing some bricklaying in the building site with daddy.

The farm role play room at iTown in Newton Abbot

Quite frankly there wasn’t enough time for her to fully explore each of the 20 different rooms. She could have spent at least an hour in the farm area, bouncing around on the animals and climbing up and down the slide. She tried on outfits and at various points of the session she was a chicken, princess, dinosaur and an astronaut. She enjoyed locking me in the police cell and getting behind the till of the farm shop. Play glasses on, she scanned the food items and then threw them at me in what I'm going to say was a fit of over-excitement. We loved getting involved and watching her play. I knew she would love it and was delighted that my hunch was accurate.

The cafe was also impressive with decent savoury meal offering including pizzas, toasties, burgers and jacket potatoes as well as cakes, bakes and ice creams.

The Christmas Search for Santa and grotto event proved a hit in December as parents raved about it on social media. We missed this but the iTown elves and Christmas tree fairy were busy with visitors leading up to the big day, searching for Santa, playing games and dancing. Naomi Williams wrote a review on December 22, saying: “Amazing time at iTown! We went to the Santa grotto/ search for Santa and it was so good. The elves were so interactive a fun with the children, Christmas fairy was so welcoming and my daughter loved her. Santa’s grotto was one of the best I’ve been to where Santa interacted and gave them time to chat (the gift was also a really great toy and a massive hit for my 4 year old). Overall we had an amazing afternoon and would highly recommend it.”

I was warned before I went that “it’s expensive”. Well, peak tickets for children are £10.95 and £2.50 for adults. It’s cheaper during term time on weekdays. That’s only a few quid more than our favourite soft play venue - and it’s so different and unique, it’s worth those extra few quid. iTown is also now offering ‘stay and play all day’ sessions which represents great value. We went for a fixed two-hour session before this new offer was implemented. Annual passes are also available from £149.

As the dreary month of January lingers on, I'm certain we will be revisiting iTown for some exhilarating explorative play.