Queens Park, Crewe
Crewe's grand Victorian park: a big ornamental lake, formal flowerbeds, a lakeside cafe and a playground that covers toddlers to ten-year-olds. Free, and better kept than most parks twice as famous.
Days out with the kids in Crewe
2 places in Crewe, Cheshire, 1 of which cost nothing. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
2 in Crewe1 free
Crewe built the railways and the railways built Crewe, so it is fitting that the town's two family cards are a heritage centre full of trains and a park the railway company paid for. Crewe Heritage Centre keeps signal boxes you can climb into, a miniature railway, and the Advanced Passenger Train, British Rail's tilting might-have-been, parked like a lesson in ambition.
Queens Park is the other half: a grand Victorian park with an ornamental lake, a lakeside cafe and a playground that covers toddlers to ten-year-olds, better kept than parks twice as famous. Park at Tip Kinder on Queens Park Drive, because there is no parking inside. When you want a bigger spend, BeWILDerwood's treehouses and zip wires are twenty minutes into the lanes at Cholmondeley, and Nantwich makes the prettier lunch stop.
Places in Crewe
Crewe Heritage Centre
Full-size locomotives including the record breaking APT tilting train, miniature railway rides, model layouts and a viewing platform right over the West Coast Main Line. Kids go free for the whole 2026 season.
What’s on in Crewe
2 dated events coming up, 1 of them this weekend.
9:30AM Sunday Service (opens on St. Margaret's)
St. Margaret's · Crewe
2 Aug. Sunday 2 August, 9.30am
Starts at 9.30am. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Listed by St. Margaret's · collected 2 Aug
Parish Family Eucharist with Kids Church (opens on All Saints' Church Madeley)
All Saints' Church Madeley · Crewe
9 Aug. Sunday 9 August, 11am
Family Communion Service with Sunday School, coffee served - currently no coffee and communion in one kind, during Covid restrictions.
Listed by All Saints' Church Madeley · collected 2 Aug
Also worth the drive
Not in Crewe, but close enough for a day out.
Dinosaur Trail at Bents
A prehistoric trail winding through a garden centre, with interactive bits along the way. Under-2s free, and there's a café and indoor shelter if the weather turns.
Walton Hall & Gardens
The reliable default: gardens, a children's zoo, a big playground and plenty of room to run. Pay for parking, nothing else.
Jungle Parc
High ropes and treetop courses in the grounds at Walton Hall. Reviewers rate the value, but frame it as one for the bigger, braver kids.
Free Summer in Warrington
Inflatables in Old Market Square every day, plus a rotating Wednesday programme across the parks and a Thursday session in Time Square. No tickets, no booking, just turn up.
Gulliver's World
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.
Apple Jacks Adventure Farm
Farm animals, outdoor play and indoor barns, so a wet forecast doesn't cancel the day. Well matched to the 3-8 age range.
Giggles Play Mill
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.
Jellybeans Play Centre
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.