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.
Fairhaven Lake and Gardens
- Cost
- Free entry, pay for boats and parking
- Ages
- 2 to 11
- Where
- Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
- Weather
- Mostly outdoors
- Booking
- Just turn up
Fairhaven is the bit of the Fylde coast that parents end up defaulting to: a big saltwater lake with boats on it, a playground, crazy golf and a cafe, and the Ribble estuary immediately behind the sea wall. Walking in costs nothing. Every activity on the water has a price, and they add up quicker than you expect.
Boats are the reason to come. Rowing boats, pedalos and canoes are £10 for half an hour, motorboats £15 for twenty minutes, and there is a motor launch trip at £2 for adults and £1 for children if nobody fancies steering. With small children the launch is the better bet, since a rowing boat with a toddler in it is thirty minutes of low-grade anxiety.
Climb the steps to the sea wall while you are there. The estuary side is enormous, wading birds everywhere, and it is a completely different view from the ornamental lake ten metres behind you. The playground and skate park do the rest of the afternoon.
What it costs: Rowing boats, pedalos and canoes £10 for 30 minutes. Motorboats £15 for 20 minutes. The motor launch trip is £2 adults, £1 for children 5 to 15, free under 5. Crazy golf £8 a person or £30 for a family of five.
Know before you go
- The boating office runs at weekends and through the school holidays and shuts in bad weather, so a wet Tuesday in term time is a walk round a lake and nothing more.
- The RSPB visitor centre closed in June 2025. Fylde Council took the building over and was refurbishing it to reopen as its own visitor centre in spring 2026, with opening times still to be announced as of March. Check it is open before you drive over for it.
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What visitors say
★★★★★ 4.8 across 35 Google reviews.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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