Ashton Gardens
St Annes' restored Victorian gardens a street back from the seafront: rose beds, a galleon climbing frame in the play area and the Pavilion tea room. The calm half of a beach day.
Days out with the kids in Lytham St Annes
10 places in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, 7 of which cost nothing. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
10 in Lytham St Annes7 free3 indoor
St Annes is the seaside for people who find Blackpool a bit much, which is most parents by about 3pm. The beach is enormous at low tide, backed by dunes, with the pier and its arcades for the pocket money. Ashton Gardens hides behind the shops and is the town's quiet triumph: lawns, mature trees and a good playground, with rose gardens to keep the grandparents occupied.
Lytham Hall is the sideways option one town along, a Georgian house whose free parkland does the woodland-wander part of the weekend, and the windmill photo on Lytham Green is more or less compulsory. When the children demand lights and rollercoasters, Blackpool is fifteen minutes up the coast road, which is exactly close enough. A day out in St Annes with kids runs bucket, spade, chips, playground, in that order.
Places in Lytham St Annes
Fairhaven Lake and Gardens
A saltwater lake with rowing boats, a playground, crazy golf and a skate park, sat between Lytham and St Annes with the estuary on the other side of the sea wall. Free to walk in, and everything fun on it costs.
Lowther Gardens
Lytham's oldest park, next to the Green: a children's play area, crazy golf, an aviary and a very good cafe, with the Lowther Pavilion theatre in the middle. Easy to fold into a Lytham seafront walk.
Lytham Hall
78 acres of free parkland and woodland around a Georgian hall, with a cafe, seasonal trails and cheap pay-and-display parking. The hall tour is the only ticketed bit, and with kids in tow you can happily skip it.
Lytham Windmill
The white windmill on Lytham Green is free to go inside, four floors of milling and local history run by volunteers. Twenty minutes well spent, and the green outside is the actual day.
Park View 4U
A charity-run park in Lytham with the lot: toddler playground, sand and water play, a mud kitchen, skate park, BMX track and a woodland sculpture trail. Free to use, with donations welcome.
St Annes Beach and Pier
Blackpool's seaside without Blackpool's volume: a huge flat beach, a Victorian pier with arcades, donkeys in summer and a paddling pool by the bandstand. The cheap day out on the Fylde coast.
Harry's Play Centre
A community soft play inside the St Annes YMCA, with separate areas for different ages. Cheap, walk-in, adults free, and a cafe that brings food to your table.
Ribby Hall Village
A holiday village at Wrea Green that lets day visitors in, which not everyone realises. The pull is the tropical leisure pool with slides and a toddler splash lagoon, bookable 24 hours ahead, plus soft play, an arcade, adventure golf and the Wild Discovery zoo on the same site.
Wild Discovery
The small zoo inside Ribby Hall Village, open to anyone and not just people staying there. Meerkats, otters, wallabies, porcupines and an exotic house, done in an easy couple of hours.
What’s on in Lytham St Annes
6 dated events coming up, 1 of them this weekend.
Guided Walk: Discover the Dunes (opens on Lancashire Wildlife Trust)
North Beach Car Park · Lytham St Annes
1 Nov. Sunday 1 November, 10am to 12pm
Starts at 10am to 12pm. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Listed by Lancashire Wildlife Trust · collected 1 Nov
Santa's Grotto Experience at Ribby Hall Village
Ribby Hall Village, Wrea Green · Lytham St Annes
15 Nov to 24 Dec. 15 November to 24 December (closed Mondays in November, Monday evenings only in December except 21 December)
A lit woodland walk-through on The Island at the holiday village: Rudolph at the start, reindeer food from Mrs Claus, Santa, a gift and a family photo. You do not need to be staying, day visitors book online. At from £29.95 a child it is not cheap, and the photo is part of what you are paying for. A baby coming along with a ticketed older sibling goes free.
Written by us
Lights, Camera, Christmas! at Lytham Hall
Lytham Hall, Lytham · Lytham St Annes
24 Nov to 3 Jan. 24 November to 3 January, daytime 11.30am to 4pm (last entry 3pm), evenings 5pm to 8pm (last entry 7pm)
The hall dressed room by room after favourite Christmas films, with the model Christmas village taking over a whole room. Daytime needs no booking and under 5s are free, evenings are booked, and the courtyard cafe bar does mulled wine and hot drinks. Parking is free, which on the Fylde in December is its own small gift. Opening days are not spelled out, so check before a special trip.
Written by us
Beauty & The Beast - A Christmas 2026 Panto (opens in a new tab)
Lowther Pavilion · Lytham St Annes
30 Nov to 3 Jan. 30 November to 3 January, various times
Beauty and the Beast, the Christmas panto at Lowther Pavilion in Lytham, with a big run from 30 November to 3 January. BSL performance on 4 December at 10am. Some dates are already sold out.
Written by us
Santa's Grotto at Lytham Hall
Lytham Hall, Lytham · Lytham St Annes
5 Dec to 23 Dec. Weekends from 5 December, then daily 21 to 23 December
Five minute slots with Santa inside the Christmas-dressed hall, a present for each child and a photo. Two adults can go in with each child. Arrive no more than five minutes early, the slots are tight and the queue is inside a listed building.
Written by us
Guided Walk: Discover the Dunes (opens on Lancashire Wildlife Trust)
North Beach Car Park · Lytham St Annes
6 Dec. Sunday 6 December, 10am to 12pm
Starts at 10am to 12pm. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Listed by Lancashire Wildlife Trust · collected 1 Nov
Also worth the drive
Not in Lytham St Annes, but close enough for a day out.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
The big one. Nickelodeon Land covers the primary ages properly while the Big One and the wooden coasters wait for brave older kids. August queues are real; go in expecting them and it is a great day.
Blackpool Tower
Tower Top's glass floor 380 feet up, a proper circus that still knows how to play to kids, and the famous ballroom below for a fancy ice cream. Buy the attractions you want rather than the bundle you will not use.
Sandcastle Waterpark
The UK's biggest indoor waterpark, kept at tropical temperature: proper toddler pools and mini slides at one end, big flumes at the other. Rainy-day Blackpool solved.
Blackpool Zoo
Elephants, gorillas, giraffes and sea lions in 37 acres that are actually walkable with primary-age legs - big enough to feel like a full day, small enough that nobody ends up carried.
Sea Life Blackpool
A solid seafront aquarium with an ocean tunnel and rockpool sessions - the reliable wet-weather hour when the beach plan falls apart.
Stanley Park
Blackpool's grand free option: Italian gardens, a big boating lake, one of the best playgrounds on the coast and model boats on the lake. The antidote to a wristband day.
WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre
Otters at feeding time, flamingos, pond dipping and a canoe safari through the reeds in season. One of those places that quietly turns a nature-indifferent child into a nature child.
Windmill Animal Farm
A friendly hands-on farm whose star turn is the miniature railway running out across the fields. Animal handling sessions, indoor play for wet spells, and it never feels too big.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.