Catalyst Science Centre
Hands-on science galleries and a glass rooftop observatory over the Mersey. Small, cheap, indoors and close.
Crazy Club at Superbowl UK Widnes
Widnes, Cheshire
Crazy Club sits inside Superbowl UK on The Hive leisure park off Earle Road. There are two frames: a bigger one for 4 to 12s with a giant slide, aerial gliders and a racing track, and a smaller toddler frame with a slide of its own, kept behind magnetically locked gates.
Standard prices are not published online, so check at booking. The term-time toddler clubs run for up to two hours and the breakfast and lunch ones include free food, which is the offer worth planning a weekday around. Children's meals are cooked to order, from pizza to hot dogs and chips.
Its real use is the mixed-age afternoon. Ten-pin bowling, a SEGA arcade and pool tables are in the same building, so an older child can bowl while a toddler finishes on the frame, and nobody has to get back in the car.
What it costs: Prices are not shown on the website. Term-time toddler clubs run up to two hours; the Wednesday breakfast club includes a free toddler waffle or toast and the Monday to Thursday lunch club a free cold lunch box.
Know before you go
- The term-time toddler clubs are the ones to look at if you have an under 4 and a free weekday: the Wednesday breakfast club and the Monday to Thursday lunch club (12 to 2) both include food.
- Superbowl opens at 9am every day, so this works as an early start on a wet morning, with bowling to fall back on once the soft play has worn thin.
Worth knowing: Main frame 4 to 12; separate toddler frame.
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