Science and Industry Museum
Working steam engines, the story of Cottonopolis, and hands-on galleries in the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station. Free, and the live demonstrations are the bit kids actually remember.
Heaton Park
Manchester, Greater Manchester
One of the biggest municipal parks in Europe, with a free animal centre, a boating lake, adventure playgrounds and a vintage tram line running on summer days. It absorbs whole neighbourhoods at weekends and still feels uncrowded.
Treat it like a day trip, not a park visit: pick two or three targets from the map, pack a picnic, and accept you will not see everything.
The free animal centre is the anchor with small children: goats, pigs, alpacas, rabbits and chickens, open year-round except Christmas Day, and better than plenty of farms that charge. Around it sit two big playgrounds, the boating lake with rowing boats, electric boats and pedalos, and in summer the Heaton Hopper land train running between the Hall car park and the lake, which small legs treat as an attraction in itself.
Summer is when the park earns its size. A funfair sets up by the boating lake in the summer holidays, the vintage tram runs on selected Sundays and bank holidays, and festival weekends come and go, a food and drink festival one week, concerts the next. The flip side: on big event days whole sections close and parking becomes a sport, so check what is on before choosing your entrance.
What it costs: The park, the animal centre and the playgrounds are free. You pay for parking, the boating lake, the Heaton Hopper land train and the funfair rides.
Know before you go
- Check the events calendar before you go. On festival and concert weekends parts of the park are fenced off and the car parks fill by mid-morning.
On right nowchecked 2 August
- The animal centre is free and open every day except Christmas Day; the vintage tram runs selected Sundays and bank holidays.
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