Smithills Open Farm
A proper hands-on farm day: bottle feeding, donkey rides, a tractor trailer tour and small animal handling, with enough under cover to survive drizzle. Built for the under-9s.
Bolton Museum
Bolton, Greater Manchester
Bolton spent its cotton money well: the Egyptology here would not embarrass a national museum, and the recreated tomb of Thutmose III, painted wall to wall, is the kind of thing children walk into and just say 'whoa'. Mummies, a hands-on natural history floor and the little basement aquarium round it out.
It is free, it is warm, it is next to the library, and the café does a decent toastie. File under rainy-day certainties.
Know before you go
- Head straight down to the aquarium if you have an under-five - it is the calmest room in Bolton.
- The Egypt gallery's painted tomb corridor is the showstopper. Save it for last or nothing else gets looked at.
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Moss Bank Park
Bolton's big free family park: two decent playgrounds, a miniature railway, a seasonal funfair and The Hive, a Wildlife Trust nature-play garden that charges £2.50 a head and is worth it for under-sevens.
Queen's Park
Bolton's restored Victorian park: a proper playground with a mini zip line and a sand pit with a toy digger, a cafe with public toilets in sight of it, and the River Croal running through. Free, including the Spa Road car park.
Playtopia
Bolton's biggest recent soft play opening, with a sports court and a gym room alongside the frame. Adults are a pound, which is the number that decides where you go on a wet Tuesday.
Party and Play Funhouse
An independent at Westhoughton with an outdoor play area as well as the indoor frame, go karts on top, and a baby sensory room for the under ones. Free parking.
That Fun Place at Jump Xtreme
The soft play bolted onto Bolton's big trampoline park, so the four-year-old and the eleven-year-old can both be occupied in the same building. Over 115 trampolines next door.
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.