Brockholes Nature Reserve
A nature reserve with a visitor village that floats on the lake. Genuinely floats. Easy flat trails, hides, a huge adventure playground and family crafts and events in the school holidays.
The Flower Bowl Entertainment Centre
- Cost
- Bowling £10 a child a game, cinema £13
- Ages
- 3 to 16
- Where
- Preston, Lancashire
- Weather
- Works in the rain
- Booking
- Book online
The Flower Bowl sits on Garstang Road at Brock, a few miles up the A6 from Preston, under a roof planted with grass. Inside is a lot of separately priced fun: The Copper Bowl's six bowling lanes, The Secret Garden crazy golf, a three-screen cinema with sofa seats, a 4D VR ride, a golf simulator and the North of England's only dedicated curling hall, with four sheets of ice.
Nothing here is free, so plan the spend. Bowling is £10 a child and £12 an adult per game, cinema is £13 a child and £15 an adult at peak times, and the VR ride is £6 each. The crazy golf is outdoors under a canopy and currently £9 a child, because holes 10 to 13 are closed for maintenance. Everything is card only.
Curling is the thing you cannot do anywhere else nearby. Mini Curling and Shuffleboard on Ice run for an hour at £11 to £13 a head for two to five people, which is a better introduction for children than the full two-hour experience at £33. The VR ride is recommended from age two, though the Haunted House adventure is listed as 10 and over.
Under 18s must be with an adult over 21 throughout, which matters if you were hoping to drop teenagers off. There are fortnightly Parent and Baby cinema screenings on Tuesdays at £10, with brighter lights and lower sound, and the venue will move noise-sensitive families into a private two-lane room when it can. Weekends and school holidays are loud, so if you have a child who struggles with noise, a weekday morning is the kinder slot.
What it costs: Bowling £12 adult, £10 child per game. Cinema £15 adult, £13 child, or £13 and £11 off-peak on weekdays before 5pm, plus a £1 online booking fee per ticket. Crazy golf is £11 adult, £9 child while holes 10 to 13 are closed. VR ride £6 each. Mini curling £11 to £13 a head for an hour. Card payment only.
Know before you go
- Leave cash at home. The whole venue is card only, including the snacks.
- Holes 10 to 13 of the crazy golf are shut for the foreseeable, which is why it is cheaper at the moment. Fourteen holes still takes the best part of 45 minutes.
- For satnav the venue says to use PR3 0RB, not the postal postcode.
Worth knowing: Under 18s must be with an adult over 21.
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