Self-confessed Doctor Who fan Tanya Higgins and her family, from the Australian capital of Canberra, are planning on taking a five-week driving trip around the UK in December.

Along with her husband Karl and their five children, Tanya had mapped out a two-day tour to the Welsh capital to visit the Doctor Who experience in Cardiff.

But the family were left “shocked” and “disappointed” when they discovered the attraction is closing down months before their visit.

Tanya claimed she made a number of unsuccessful attempts to contact the experience and the tourist board to find out more information and to make alternative arrangements and so decided to cancel their visit to the Welsh capital.

“We’ve planned a five-week trip to the UK this Christmas,” 45-year-old Tanya said. “We’ll be driving around and experiencing as much of the iconic British stuff as we can.

“The whole family are huge Doctor Who fans, so we had planned to take a two-day detour to Cardiff to visit the experience in January.

“So you can imagine our shock when we learnt it would be closing in the summer.

“We were keen to find out if it was re-opening or being relocated somewhere else, so I contacted them asking for advice or to see whether there were any other attractions we could visit.

“I sent an email to the experience directly and sent messages on Facebook – but had no response.

“I also got in touch with the tourism association to ask if they knew anything, but nobody responded to my requests. If they had replied saying something like: ‘We can’t guarantee it will be open but here’s some other cool things you can do in Cardiff’, I would have been more than happy to still make the trip.

But I didn’t hear anything back.

“We had to book accommodation and things and because no-one had replied, we decided to spend an extra few days in Nottingham instead.

“It was really disappointing.

“We’re huge Doctor Who fans. My husband and I grew up watching it and since it’s been revitalised, our kids love watching it too.

We sit down every Sunday together as a family to watch it, and drop everything for the Christmas special (which usually airs on Boxing Day over here).”

And it seems Tanya is not the only person to feel this way.

Whovians (Doctor Who fans) around the world who have yet to visit the exhibition seem to be in a sense of panic to visit the attraction before it closes.

Earlier this year we spoke to Dutch fan, Jacqueline Lindemulder, who is organising a group booking for 60 people for the Doctor Who Experience next month.

“The idea for the trip started because many Dutch people suddenly realised the Experience is closing down and they haven’t been yet,” she said.

“We will be coming all the way from the Netherlands for one day – sleeping on the bus both there and back – just to visit Cardiff/the Doctor Who Experience.”

A petition to “Save Cardiff’s ‘Doctor Who Experience’ from closure” has more than 12,000 signatures on 38degrees.org.uk

A date for the closure has not yet been revealed.

The BBC has been contacted for comment.