16 places in Liverpool, Merseyside, 7 of which cost nothing. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
No city in the North West does free like Liverpool. World Museum, the Museum of Liverpool, the Maritime Museum and the Walker Art Gallery cost nothing and sit within a walk of each other, and Central Library's spiral atrium next door is one of the region's most spectacular free interiors. The honest secret is the ferry: the 50-minute River Explorer loop costs a few pounds and children rate the boat above any museum in the city.
Rain barely matters here - the museum quarter swallows a whole wet week, and Gravity Max covers the burn-energy-indoors days. In fairer weather, Sefton Park's Palm House and fairy glen, Calderstones with its Storybarn, and the enormous pigs at Croxteth Home Farm are where local families actually go. The Beatles Story and the Anfield tour are for when the grandparents visit; Otterspool Adventure by the promenade is the one Liverpool parents keep recommending to each other.
South Liverpool's favourite park: lake, playground, ancient trees and the Storybarn, The Reader's hands-on storytelling space in the old coach house. The neolithic Calder Stones are older than Stonehenge, which is a good fact to deploy.
The spiral atrium is one of the most spectacular free interiors in the North West, the children's floor is genuinely brilliant, and the rooftop terrace looks across the city. Rainy-day Liverpool's best-kept non-secret, next door to World Museum.
Titanic and Lusitania told in the city that crewed them, ship models, and the Seized! customs gallery in the basement where kids hunt smugglers. Free, and the Albert Dock outside is its own event.
The city's story with an overhead railway carriage to climb aboard and Little Liverpool, a dedicated hands-on gallery for under-6s. Free, on the waterfront, and the window views are half the fun.
Liverpool's great Victorian park: 235 acres of lake, streams and playgrounds around a glass Palm House full of palms, statues and free family events. The fairy glen with its waterfalls is the bit children remember.
Free, grand, and far better with small children than a fine-art gallery has any right to be, thanks to Big Art for Little Artists, a whole gallery where they are supposed to touch things.
Five floors, free, and it covers three things small children reliably love: giant dinosaurs, an aquarium and a space gallery. The best wet-weather day within half an hour.
A community farm in Kirkby doing the simple things properly: animals to meet, pony grooming sessions, and prices that make it an easy repeat visit rather than an annual event.
A working Edwardian estate farm with rare breeds, a walled garden and 500 acres of free country park around it. The farm entry is cheap and the pigs are enormous.
The famous ferry across the Mersey run as a 50-minute sightseeing loop with commentary, and the honest truth is kids love the boat more than any museum. Hop off at Seacombe for Eureka! next door.
The self-guided tour takes you through the home dressing room, down the tunnel past the This Is Anfield sign and out pitchside, with the club museum included. For a football-mad child it is a pilgrimage. For anyone else it is £72 for a family walk round a stadium.
Two floors of e-karting, AR bowling, VR arenas and street golf above Liverpool ONE. Built with teenagers and work nights out in mind, but the karts take junior drivers from 8, and the bowling and arcade fill the gap for younger ones.
A warehouse of hands-on pretend in Wavertree: a child-sized village with a diner and car wash, an art zone where they paint a real car, water play, and a slime pot to take home. The child ticket stings, but under-tens get a full session out of it.
An adventure play park by the Mersey promenade - climbing frames, jumping pillows, go-karts and an indoor barn - that keeps coming up when Liverpool parents list what actually works. Walk it off on the prom afterwards.
A Tudor hall with woodland walks, a maze and a natural play area in the grounds. Free if you have National Trust membership, and the indoor house is a good rain fallback.
Wall-to-wall Beatles under the Albert Dock, with an audio guide narrated by John Lennon's sister and a hands-on Discovery Zone at weekends. Brilliant if your kids know the songs, a long ninety minutes if they don't.
9 dated events coming up, 5 of them this weekend.
A Pokemon trading-card trail through the Tudor hall's gardens: find the giant cards, scan the codes, battle the boredom. Runs to early September.
Decorated pianos dotted around Liverpool ONE all summer, free for anyone to play. Five minutes of chopsticks between shops, or stay for whoever sits down next.
An urban beach on the park above Liverpool ONE with family rides and six weeks of entertainment. Sand in the city centre; bring a bucket.
Lifelike dinosaur puppets roam the museum with storytelling, crafts and sensory play on Wednesdays and Thursdays through the holidays.
Garden games, trails and play activities across the Tudor estate for the summer holidays.
Splatter and Stick is an inclusive environment that aids a child's development through the exploration of arts and crafts with Sensory Play.
Everything on in Liverpool3 more not shown here
Not in Liverpool, but close enough for a day out.
Free, indoors and better than it sounds: interactive science aimed at younger children, glassblowing demos, a picnic area and a small playground outside.
St Helens' biggest park. Play areas, open space and a walled garden, and it costs nothing.
A 20-metre white head rising out of a reclaimed colliery, with woodland trails around it. Genuinely strange and memorable for kids, and a short walk rather than a hike.
A green corridor of canal towpath and parkland running from St Helens down towards Warrington. Flat, traffic-free and ideal if the bikes or scooters are coming.
Family nature sessions running through August at two St Helens parks. Pitched at exactly this age group.
Funded holiday clubs with food included, ages 4 to 18, for families on benefits-related free school meals. Worth a look even if you assume you won't qualify.
Space World in Prescot, Sensory Hive in Whiston and Boomerang: the council-listed indoor options when it rains and everyone is climbing the walls.
Soft play with a full role-play village attached, which is the bit that holds a four-year-old's attention long after the frame stops being interesting.