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.
Manchester Museum
Manchester, Greater Manchester
A T. rex cast greets you, live frogs blink from the vivarium, and the mummies upstairs deliver the required shiver. University-run, recently rebuilt, and free - it is the right-sized natural history museum for a primary-age attention span.
Start at the dinosaur, ask at the desk for the family trails, and let the vivarium be the reward for good museum behaviour. Oxford Road buses make it an easy pair with the Science and Industry Museum on the same day.
The vivarium is the room that converts sceptics: live frogs including some of the rarest on earth, and a costa rican golden frog programme the museum genuinely leads the world on. Stan the T. rex anchors the fossil hall, the mummies handle ancient Egypt at exactly the right level of gruesome, and it is all free.
It sits on Oxford Road fifteen minutes' walk from the Science and Industry Museum's quarter, which tempts people to do both in a day. Do not. One museum plus Whitworth Park's playground is a good day; two museums is a meltdown with exhibits.
Know before you go
- Start at the T. rex - it anchors the visit and everything else hangs off it.
- Ask at the desk for the family trail sheets.
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