Zip World Manchester
Treetop nets, high ropes and forest tubing in the woods of Heaton Park, and it is outdoors, not indoors. The cheap one is Treetot Nets: an hour bouncing on nets in the trees for ages 1 to 5, from £5, with a grown-up joining in.
National Football Museum
- Cost
- Adults £16, children £10 online
- Ages
- 6 to 11
- Where
- Manchester, Greater Manchester
- Weather
- Works in the rain
- Booking
- Book online
Four floors of shirts, trophies and footage in the glass wedge by Victoria station, with a penalty simulator and skills games that football-obsessed children treat as the actual purpose of the building.
Two honest notes: if your kids do not care about football, nothing here will convert them, and the Penalty Shootout costs £3 for three kicks on top of entry, so agree the number before the first kick.
The Match Gallery is genuinely good on the game's history, with the oldest surviving FA Cup and the 1966 material doing the heavy lifting, and the Play Gallery is what children remember: Pass Master, Shot Stopper and the Discovery Zone for the youngest, with the penalty shootout first.
Tickets booked direct are valid for 12 months, which changes the value calculation for anyone local: one wet Saturday visit and every return for a year is free. Manchester residents get in free anyway. Non-football families should simply go elsewhere, and the museum would probably agree.
What it costs: Advance online: adults £16, children 5 to 15 £10, under-5s free, family saver (2 adults and 2 children, or 1 adult and 3 children) £44. Walk-up: £18, £12 and £49. City of Manchester residents free. Tickets booked direct are valid for 12 months. The Penalty Shootout costs £3 for three kicks.
Know before you go
- The Penalty Shootout is £3 for three kicks on top of entry, so agree a number before you go in. The other skills games on the Play Gallery floor are included.
- Book online the day before: it is £2 cheaper per ticket than walking up, and Manchester residents go free.
On right now checked 10 October
- Closed all day on Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 October 2026. Otherwise open every day, 10am to 5pm, last admission 4pm.
- Yard Ball, a street football challenge, runs in the ground-floor Pitch Gallery until 1 November 2026.
- The National Frightball Museum Halloween activities run from 24 October to 1 November.
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What visitors say
★★★★★ 4.3 across 7,724 Google reviews.
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