Days out with the kids in Bolton

Bolton's best day out hides in a free town museum: one of Britain's finest Egyptian collections, including a full walk-through recreation of Thutmose III's tomb, with an aquarium in the basement. Children who claim to hate museums tend to revise their position somewhere around the mummies. It is the obvious rain plan, and it costs nothing, which buys forgiveness for a lot of wet Saturdays.

Smithills Open Farm is the paid day, and it earns it: bottle feeding, donkey rides, a tractor trailer tour and small animal handling, with enough under cover to survive drizzle, all built for the under-9s. Moss Bank Park is the local staple - a big free park with play areas that has hosted generations of Bolton picnics, and the moors rise straight behind it if anyone still has legs left.

Places in Bolton

Bolton Museum

Bolton~40 min

★★★★★4.5(1,752)

A free town museum hiding one of Britain's best Egyptian collections, including a full recreation of Thutmose III's tomb, plus an aquarium in the basement. Genuinely free, genuinely good.

FreeIndoorsAges 3-12

Jumbles Country Park

Bolton~35 min

★★★★★4.6(2,311)

A flat circular walk round a United Utilities reservoir in the Bradshaw valley north of Bolton, with a small cafe by the car park and enough water birds to hold a four year old. Genuinely pushchair friendly.

Free, and the car park is free tooAges 2-11

Moses Gate Country Park

Bolton~35 min

★★★★★4.5(2,929)

Bolton's biggest play area sits inside a 750 acre country park at Farnworth, with three lakes, a bird hide and miles of waterside path behind it. Even the safety surfacing earns its keep, printed with the life cycle of a frog.

FreeAges 1-11

Moss Bank Park

Bolton~35 min

★★★★★4.6(529)

Bolton's big free family park: two decent playgrounds, a miniature railway, a seasonal funfair and The Hive, a Wildlife Trust nature-play garden that charges £2.50 a head and is worth it for under-sevens.

Free - Hive day pass £2.50Ages 2-11

Queen's Park

Bolton~35 min

★★★★★4.5(2,926)

Bolton's restored Victorian park: a proper playground with a mini zip line and a sand pit with a toy digger, a cafe with public toilets in sight of it, and the River Croal running through. Free, including the Spa Road car park.

Free entryAges 1-11

Playtopia

Bolton~35 min

★★★★★4.5(187)

Bolton's biggest recent soft play opening, with a sports court and a gym room alongside the frame. Adults are a pound, which is the number that decides where you go on a wet Tuesday.

£5.50 to £8.50 a child, adults £1IndoorsAges 1-12

Smithills Open Farm

Bolton~35 min

★★★★★4.7(5,055)

A proper hands-on farm day: bottle feeding, donkey rides, a tractor trailer tour and small animal handling, with enough under cover to survive drizzle. Built for the under-9s.

Day ticketIndoorsAges 4-8

Fidgets Soft Play Centre

Bolton~40 min

★★★★☆4.4(251)

A smaller neighbourhood centre north of Bolton, open 9am to 6pm every day of the week, with a separate baby and toddler area and a hairdresser in the same building.

Price not listedIndoorsAges 0-11

Party and Play Funhouse

Bolton~25 min

★★★★☆4.1(910)

An independent at Westhoughton with an outdoor play area as well as the indoor frame, go karts on top, and a baby sensory room for the under ones. Free parking.

Book online - price not listedIndoorsAges 0-12

That Fun Place at Jump Xtreme

Bolton~35 min

★★★★☆4.3(1,000)

The soft play bolted onto Bolton's big trampoline park, so the four-year-old and the eleven-year-old can both be occupied in the same building. Over 115 trampolines next door.

Book online - price not listedIndoorsAges 1-11

What’s on in Bolton

5 dated events coming up.

Also worth the drive

Not in Bolton, but close enough for a day out.

Zip World Manchester

Trafford~35 min

★★★★★4.7(752)

The cheapest real activity anyone is recommending, and it's indoors. An hour of play for a fiver a head, with picnic benches for when you need to sit down.

£5.25 eachIndoorsAges 4-11

Pennington Flash

Leigh~20 min

★★★★★4.5(294)

A big lake with easy flat paths, bird hides and a decent play area. Free, close, and a good one for scooters and a picnic.

FreeAges 4-11

Science and Industry Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★☆4.4(20,615)

Working steam engines, the story of Cottonopolis, and hands-on galleries in the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station. Free, and the live demonstrations are the bit kids actually remember.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

Manchester Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★★4.7(10,653)

A T. rex skeleton cast, live frogs in the vivarium, Egyptian mummies and a genuinely good natural history floor. Free, university-run, and less overwhelming than the big London equivalents.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

National Football Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★☆4.3(7,724)

Shirts, trophies and match footage across six floors, with penalty shootout and skills games that football-mad kids refuse to leave. If yours do not care about football, skip it - it is exactly what it says.

TicketedIndoorsAges 6-11

Imperial War Museum North

Salford~25 min

★★★★★4.5(8,332)

War told through people's stories in a building designed to feel like a shattered globe. The hourly Big Picture Show projections fill the whole gallery and stop everyone mid-step. Heavy themes, handled well - better for the top end of primary.

Free entryIndoorsAges 7-11

RHS Garden Bridgewater

Salford~25 min

★★★★★4.6(5,903)

One of the biggest garden projects in Europe, and more fun for kids than a flower garden has any right to be: a huge walled kitchen garden, lake walks, and space to run that feels endless.

Ticketed - RHS members freeAges 4-11

Legoland Discovery Centre

Trafford~25 min

★★★★☆4.0(4,657)

Two rides, a 4D cinema, build zones and Manchester's skyline done in miniature bricks. Squarely aimed at 3 to 10, and it knows it: adults can only visit with a child.

Book online - walk-up costs moreIndoorsAges 4-9