Bubbles World of Play
Billed as the UK's biggest soft play. A long drive for soft play, but it's the one that turns a rainy day into an actual event, and the seafront is right there.
Nanny Sharon's Alpaca Farm
Wirral, Merseyside
Prenton Dell Road is an unlikely address for alpacas, sitting as it does between housing and the golf course. That is the Wirral for you.
Nanny Sharon's is a community interest company and everything runs on booked sessions. The format is a ninety minute block: feeding the alpacas and pygmy goats, a walk round a woodland trail with an animal on a lead rope, then time in one of the heated cabins with a hot drink while everything gets a cuddle.
Look at the pricing before you fall in love with the idea. Adults are £30 and children fifteen and under are £20, with a family ticket at £85 for two and two. That is experience money, not farm park money, and it is charged per head.
Where it earns the money back is attention. Small groups, hands on the whole way through, and staff who explain things instead of herding you along.
Older children have their own options. The meerkat experience is £55 for adults and £50 for children with a minimum age of ten, and takes in tortoises, owls and pygmy hedgehogs as well as the meerkats. The pony and donkey walks are pitched at thirteen and over outside the summer. Everything, without exception, is booked online first.
Know before you go
- Everybody needs a ticket, adults included. A family of four comes to £85. Price it as an experience.
- The under-five rule is one adult per child on the walk, which quietly doubles the cost for a family with two toddlers. Two older children is the cheaper shape of trip.
- There is no walk-up. Drive over on spec and you will be turned round at the gate.
Worth knowing: Children five and under need one adult each on the alpaca walk. Under-16s must be accompanied.
Looking for more farms & animals near Wirral?
Also in Wirral
Eureka! Science + Discovery
A hands-on science centre built precisely for this age group - walk-through lungs and a supersize brain in the new Bodies gallery, inventions to test, and the ferry stop is literally outside. Entry converts to an annual pass, which changes the maths entirely.
New Brighton Seafront
Beach, marine lake, Fort Perch Rock at the river mouth, and the driftwood Black Pearl pirate ship built from beach findings that children treat as the best playground on Merseyside. Chips on the front to finish.
Ness Botanic Gardens
University of Liverpool's gardens above the Dee estuary: family trails, a wildflower meadow, a good playground and views across to Wales. Quieter than the National Trust circuit and better value.
Wirral Country Park, Thurstaston
Britain's first country park: a clifftop path above the Dee, a beach for fossicking below, and a visitor centre with bird hides. Wild-feeling without being remote.
Church Farm
A small, friendly Wirral farm park with animal handling most days, a maize maze in late summer, and Thurstaston Common and the beach five minutes away for a two-stop day.