The family behind kidzdays

Why we built this

Here is the sum that started it. Our kids are six and four. Between now and the age when they would honestly rather be off with their mates, we have a few hundred Saturdays. That’s it. A few hundred chances to stand in a muddy field watching them feed a goat, or to be there the first time they make it across the wobbly bridge on their own.

We did not want to spend those mornings scrolling. Every search for “things to do with kids near me” returned the same recycled listicles, written by nobody, checked by nobody, wrapped in adverts, listing at least one attraction that quietly shut two summers ago. The time you lose to bad information is time straight off that pile of Saturdays. So we built the thing we needed: one honest, current map of every day out in the North West that is actually worth doing, free ones first-class. Then we made it public, because every family around here is running the same countdown.

Who we are

I’m Daniel. We live between St Helens and Warrington, and the two field-testers are Bella, who is six, and Reuben, who is four. Bella currently rates anywhere with animals or a decent zip wire. Reuben applies one test to every attraction in the region: can a four-year-old climb on it. We geocache as a family, which means we have been to a lot of woods, and we have strong opinions about which car parks charge too much.

By trade I do marketing, which is exactly why this site has none on it. No adverts, no sponsored placements, no “partner content”. Nobody can pay to be on kidzdays, and nobody can pay us to look the other way about a rubbish soft play.

How the site works

Every listing gets a proper write-up: what it costs, what age it suits, how long it fills, and whether it survives rain. Some places we know the muddy way; the rest we research carefully against the venue’s own information. The star ratings are not our opinions. They come live from Google, from thousands of other families, currently across 112 rated places, so you never have to take our word for how good somewhere is.

We keep it current the boring way: dated events expire off the site automatically, we re-check ratings, and when we discover a place has closed, it comes off that day. One farm park nearly made it onto the site before we found out it had quietly shut. It is not here. That is the whole editorial policy.

Say hello

Spotted a mistake, a price change, or somewhere brilliant we have missed? Tell us at daniel@kidzdays.co.uk, and if you want the weekly roundup of what’s on near you, that’s below. Now go and spend a Saturday.

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