3 places in Malpas, Cheshire. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
Malpas is the quiet corner where south Cheshire's two biggest family days actually sit. BeWILDerwood at Bickley Moss is the headline, a woodland adventure park of treehouses, zip wires and invented creatures that suits the imagination years far better than a ride park, and Cholmondeley Castle Gardens, four miles off, adds lawns, lakeside paths and a play area for a calmer sort of day.
Magical Malpas is a pick-your-own farm right on the edge of Cheshire, near the Wrexham and Shropshire borders, and it only opens for its seasons. October is the one to know: £2 a head gets you into the maize mazes, a photo village and the pumpkin patch, with pumpkins from £2. It opens on selected days through the month and every day from 23 to 31 October.
In December it switches to a booked Father Christmas trip, a tractor ride to the barn with gingerbread and a gift, at £20 a child and £10 an adult. It has sold out four years running. Take cash for the wheelbarrow deposit in October.
Romantic gardens around a turreted castle, with a play area down by the Mere, a natural play Den and a lakeside trail with a bird hide. Only open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays and bank holidays, so check before setting off.
A pick-your-own farm on the Cheshire, Wrexham and Shropshire border that opens for pumpkins in October and for a booked Father Christmas tractor trip in December. October is the bargain: £2 a head for the maize mazes, photo village and patch.
The best age match of anything on this list. Reviewers put the sweet spot at 2 to 10 and say a 4-year-old can do essentially the whole park; the map colour-codes areas by age and puts mini zipwires beside the full-size ones. Budget four to six hours.
6 dated events coming up, 1 of them this weekend.
Join the Aladdins Cave Entertainments team at Sticky Paws restaurant for fun, games and lunch with Peppa Pig
Starts at 11am. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Starts at 11am. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Sticky Paws Restaurant hosts cookie making with Trixie and Mixie the Elves
A festive tractor and trailer ride, gingerbread decorating, reindeer food, elf games and Father Christmas in his grotto, then the farm animals. The tractor leaves at your booked time exactly, so do not be the family it waits for.
Santa will be hosting a magical morning, reading his favourite Christmas storybook whilst little ones enjoy a snack box
Not in Malpas, 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.