Days out with the kids in Lytham St Annes

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

Ashton Gardens

Lytham St Annes~55 min

★★★★★4.6(2,180)

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.

Free entryAges 0-11

Fairhaven Lake and Gardens

Lytham St Annes~1 hr

★★★★★4.8(35)

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.

Free entry - pay for boats and parkingAges 2-11

Lytham Hall

Lytham St Annes~1 hr

★★★★★4.7(2,355)

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.

Free parkland - pay parkingAges 2-11

Lytham Windmill

Lytham St Annes~1 hr

★★★★★4.6(1,300)

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.

Free entryIndoorsEaster to mid October, and closed for Lytham FestivalAges 5-11

St Annes Beach and Pier

Lytham St Annes~1 hr

★★★★☆4.3(5,142)

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.

Free - pay for arcades and ridesPaddling pool, donkeys and water play run in summerAges 0-11

What’s on in Lytham St Annes

3 dated events coming up.

Also worth the drive

Not in Lytham St Annes, but close enough for a day out.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Blackpool~1 hr

★★★★☆4.3(35,528)

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.

Wristbands - cheaper onlineAges 4-11

Blackpool Tower

Blackpool~1 hr

★★★★★4.5(18,434)

The Tower Eye'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.

Per-attraction ticketsIndoorsAges 4-11

Sandcastle Waterpark

Blackpool~1 hr

★★★★☆4.3(8,767)

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.

Book online - cheaperIndoorsAges 4-11

Blackpool Zoo

Blackpool~1 hr

★★★★★4.6(17,786)

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.

Book online - cheaperAges 4-11

Sea Life Blackpool

Blackpool~1 hr

★★★★☆4.4(11,062)

A solid seafront aquarium with an ocean tunnel and rockpool sessions - the reliable wet-weather hour when the beach plan falls apart.

Book online - cheaperIndoorsAges 4-9

Stanley Park

Blackpool~1 hr

★★★★★4.6(6,085)

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.

FreeAges 4-11

WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre

Burscough~40 min

★★★★★4.7(3,181)

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.

Day ticket - WWT members freeAges 4-11

Windmill Animal Farm

Burscough~40 min

★★★★★4.7(1,883)

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.

Day ticketIndoorsAges 4-8