Lakeland Maze Farm Park
A working farm on the edge of the Lakes with a giant maize maze cut fresh each summer, go-karts, trampolines and animal handling. The maze opens mid-July once the corn is tall enough.
Lakeland Wildlife Oasis
Kendal, Cumbria
A genuinely small zoo at Hale near Milnthorpe, five minutes off junction 35 of the M6, with over 100 species packed into a site a four-year-old can walk without a meltdown. The indoor share is the selling point: a tropical hall with poison dart frogs, pythons and chameleons, a butterfly house with leaf-cutter ants, an aquarium, and a small mammals house with marmosets and tamarins.
Outside there are African drylands with hornbills and Kirk's dik-diks, tiny antelope that get the biggest reaction of the day, plus a wood-chip play area with a climbing frame. It opens every day from 10am except Christmas Day and Boxing Day, no booking needed, free parking, and the Wild Cafe has a conservatory and picnic tables.
At £13.20 an adult and £10.85 a child it is not cheap for its size, so go with two-to-three-hour expectations rather than full-day ones and it earns its ticket, especially in rain.
What it costs: Adult £13.20, child 3 to 15 £10.85, family of 2+2 £42.70, 2+3 £53.55.
Know before you go
- Treat it as a wet-weather banker: the tropical hall, butterfly house and aquarium mean a good chunk of the visit stays dry.
- It pairs well with a beach hour at Arnside or a Kendal stop, because two to three hours covers it - that is a feature with under-8s, not a flaw.
Looking for more farms & animals near Kendal?
What visitors say
★★★★★ 4.4 across 424 Google reviews.
Read all 424 reviews on Google - filter by star rating thereAlso in Kendal
Sizergh Castle & Garden
A medieval tower house with proper gardens and a wild play trail in the woods just off the car park - climbing wall, rope swing, stepping stones. For National Trust members it is the easiest Lakes stop off the M6; for everyone else the garden ticket is the sensible buy.
Kendal Castle
A free 12th-century ruin on a grassy hill above Kendal, open all the time, with walls to circle, arches to charge through and the whole town and fells spread out below. Ten minutes of steep pull to get up, then let them loose.
Levens Hall & Gardens
The oldest topiary gardens in the world, laid out in the 1690s five miles south of Kendal and still clipped into the same absurd shapes. In child terms, acres of giant green chess pieces to run between.
Low Sizergh Barn Farm Trail
Turn up at half three and you can watch the herd being milked through a gallery window in the cafe, drink in hand. It is a working dairy farm outside Kendal and the trail round it is free.
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.