27 places in Chester, Cheshire, 9 of which cost nothing. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
Chester means the zoo, and the zoo deserves it - one of Europe's best, though bring a pushchair even for a five-year-old because the site is vast. But the city underneath is a good family day in its own right: the Grosvenor Museum does the Roman story for free, Grosvenor Park runs a miniature railway above the river, and a boat trip from the Groves is the cheap add-on children actually remember.
Out in the lanes, the Ice Cream Farm charges a couple of pounds on the door and then £4.50 a go for most of the play, the big sand and water area included, and the Crocky Trail sends them home filthy, soaked and delighted - pack a full change of clothes, this is not optional. Beeston Castle proves ruins work perfectly well for this age group. When it rains, Flip Out and the museum carry the day. A day out in Chester with kids only goes wrong when you try to do the zoo and the city in one visit.
A free adventure playground in Blacon, going for over 50 years, with a zip wire, a fort and an 8ft slide, plus a small farm of donkeys, goats and sheep. No food on site, so take a picnic and wellies.
Nearly a thousand years of history in the middle of Chester, free to walk into for most of the year and dry when the Walls are not. The tower tour costs extra, and its age rules only show up in the booking system.
Two miles of Roman, Saxon and medieval wall right round the city centre, free and always there, and the most complete circuit in Britain. Children like being up high; parents like that you can drop off at any gate for a cake.
The largest Roman amphitheatre uncovered in Britain, sitting in the open just outside the city walls. Only about half of it has been dug out and the rest is still under the buildings behind.
Twenty nine hectares on the north edge of Chester, with five waymarked routes. The paths and kissing gates were designed for wheelchairs, which makes it easy going with a pushchair. No playground.
Chester's Roman story done properly: real tombstones from the fortress walls, a hands-on natural history gallery, and a walk-through period house at the back. Free, central, and the right size.
Chester's Victorian park above the river, with a miniature railway looping the lawns, a good playground and open-air theatre in summer. Pair with a boat trip from the Groves below.
Chester's free riverside splash park: ten spray features on the bank of the Dee, open April to August, with a play area that stays open all year. Toilets close in winter and the car park takes about 40 cars.
Chester's arts centre has the city library inside it, with a children's corner called The Den, free crafts every weekend afternoon, free Rhymetime twice a week and £4 family films on weekend mornings. The best free roof in the city centre.
A ruined castle on a crag with views from the Pennines to the Welsh mountains, a reconstructed Bronze Age roundhouse and woodland paths below the walls. Castles do not need roofs to work for this age group.
It comes down to the slide. Two pools, one of them a warmer training pool, and a water slide, five minutes' walk from the Chester city walls. The wet weather backup for a day in the city.
Chester Castle still has a museum in it: three hundred years of Cheshire soldiering, a First World War trench you walk through, a barracks room and a decent amount you are allowed to pick up.
Half an hour on the Dee from The Groves, past Grosvenor Park and along the Meadows, for £4.50 a child and free under 5s. Exactly as long as a small child finds a boat interesting.
Chester's Jorvik-style walkthrough of its Roman fortress: costumed legionaries, reconstructed streets and deliberately bad smells, tucked off Bridge Street. Open to the public at weekends; check the booking page for school holiday dates.
A working farm ten minutes north of Chester where the pens are open, the feed bags cost a pound and the soft play is included in the ticket. No booking, which is half the appeal.
A big Dee estuary reserve with a den-building area, hides you can actually get a pushchair into and free parking. The first child goes free and under-5s always do.
A hands-on and gleefully gross history of medicine inside a listed church on Chester's Rows: a plague alley, an autopsy you can try and a time-travelling toilet. Kids £5, card only, about an hour.
Twenty-eight lanes over two floors on Chester Retail Park, with bumpers and light balls for small bowlers and a laser tag arena for the older ones. Go on a Tuesday, when bowling is half price.
Nine holes of wizard-themed crazy golf tucked off Eastgate Street, with talking portraits, a potion to take home and a hole played on a model of the city walls. About an hour, whatever the weather.
A small entry fee, then £4.50 a go for most attractions: sand and water play, mini golf, bouncy pillows, a racing track and soft play, all funded by what the farm calls the world's biggest ice cream shop. Cheap to get in, easy to spend in.
Excellent, but it is a lot of walking. Reviews rate 5 to 10 as the ideal age and still recommend a pushchair at four. Climbing frames, water play and sand pits break up the distance.
The only shire horse stud in the country open to the public, with up to thirty of them in season. The ticket turns into a free return pass for a month, which changes the maths completely.
A big warehouse of trampolines, drop slides, laser tag and e-karts on the business park before Chester. Loud, sweaty and reliably popular, and the off-peak slots are the value play.
You do not have to be staying at the hotel to use it. The pull is the Vertigo high wire course, a 210 metre dual zip line and a free fall pillow you jump onto from three, six or ten metres.
More than a kilometre of muddy obstacles, rope swings, wobbly bridges and big slides through a Cheshire valley. Children come off it filthy, soaked and asking to go round again. This is the point; dress accordingly.
Chester's city-centre racecourse, where under-18s go free on racedays in the general admission areas. The day to bring children is Family Fun Day, next on Sunday 1 August 2027, and before that there is a Halloween fireworks night on 31 October.
A unit on Chester's Grange Park business estate filled with frames for nought to ten year olds, with a 4 foot 9 height limit. Admission buys a two hour session.
17 dated events coming up, 2 of them this weekend.
The Zoo vs You Top Trumps trail round the Islands zone, pumpkin sculptures, and an exclusive card to take home for finishing, all included in an ordinary zoo ticket. Nothing extra to book and nothing that will give anyone nightmares. Face painting is the one thing charged on top.
A free Halloween trail round Chester city centre, 24 October to 1 November. Spot ten or more candy clues in local businesses, note their colour and design, and enter to win a £50 Chester Gift Card.
A bonfire, live music and fireworks at 6.45pm on Bonfire Night itself, with the slides and a run of the fairground rides open all evening. The trail is closed for safety, so this is the rides and slides in the dark, not the full Crocky.
An afternoon of play at the farm with a firework finale 'without the loud bangs' at about 6.30pm, which makes it a gentle first fireworks for a nervous three-year-old. Only ticket holders are on site after 2pm.
The zoo after dark on a new route this year: glowing tunnels, more interactive puppets than before, fairground rides, festive food and Father Christmas along the way. There are adults-only nights on selected dates, so check you have not booked one of those, and remember it is all outside in December.
About 80 traders round the Town Hall square, selling local food, crafts and stocking fillers. Bring some cash for the food stalls and mug deposits. The cathedral's Christmas Tree Festival is a few steps away from 25 November and makes a warm second half to the trip.
Everything on in Chester11 more not shown here
Not in Chester, but close enough for a day out.
The reliable default: gardens, a children's zoo, a big playground and plenty of room to run. Pay for parking, nothing else.
Treetop rope courses in the woods at Walton Hall Gardens. The Warrington site runs the Adventurer course, built for children from age 4 with a minimum height of 1.05m, with over 60 activities at different heights. Children £19; supervising adults walking below go free.
A theme park deliberately built for ages 2 to 13 rather than teenagers, so both of them can ride most of it. The classic full-day option on your doorstep.
An adventure farm off Stretton Road built for 4 to 12s: tractor trailer rides, zip wires, drop slides, jumping pillows, roller skating and a tent full of inflatables. Despite the name there are no animals to see, and in October it turns into Spooky World's daytime Fun-By-Day.
Two-tier soft play frame, low climbing wall, pirate ship, crawl tubes and a bouncy slide, plus Messy Monday and sensory sessions during the week.
Bigger than the average soft play: multi-level frame, a spooky room, an astro slide, a climbing wall, two mini bowling lanes and a slot racing track. The bowling is what makes it work when you have a toddler and a seven-year-old to keep happy at once.
Straightforward multi-level soft play with a café that adults can actually sit in. Nothing fancy, reliably works.
Soft play plus bowling under one roof, which solves the two-different-ages problem in a single trip. Ask for the barriers if anyone is under about six.
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.