St Helens, Merseyside
The building was put up in 1881 for St Helens' horse-drawn trams and stayed in public transport use until 1985. Now it holds the North West Museum of Road Transport: rows of old buses, fire engines, commercial and emergency vehicles and cars, with volunteers maintaining and restoring more of the fleet in the workshops.
It opens on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 to 4. Adults pay £7.50 and accompanied under 16s are free, up to four per group, so a family of four costs £15. On special event days the Rainhill Model Railway Club's layouts are open inside the museum too. It is dog friendly.
The event days are the best of it. This year there is an Autumn Heritage Bus Running Day on Sunday 25 October, with free rides on historic buses round St Helens, and a Christmas Santa weekend on 5 and 6 December. On an ordinary weekend it is quieter, and a child who likes big vehicles will still get a good hour or two out of it.
What it costs: Adults £7.50. Accompanied children under 16 free, up to four per group. Disabled visitors £7.50 with one carer free.
A Sunday of free rides on historic buses on routes round St Helens, marking 40 years since bus deregulation and the museum's 40th anniversary at the Hall Street depot. Exhibitions and transport stalls inside; the museum is normally £7.50 an adult with accompanied under 16s free.
Santa sits in a grotto bus (extra charge), there are Christmas crafts and a ride on the museum's Christmas bus, plus free face painting, children's entertainment and the model railways. A small, volunteer-run Christmas day out.
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Free, indoors and better than it sounds: interactive science aimed at younger children, glassblowing demos, a picnic area and a small playground outside.
St Helens' biggest park. Play areas, open space and a walled garden, and it costs nothing.
A 20-metre white head rising out of a reclaimed colliery, with woodland trails around it. Genuinely strange and memorable for kids, and a short walk rather than a hike.
A green corridor of canal towpath and parkland running from St Helens down towards Warrington. Flat, traffic-free and ideal if the bikes or scooters are coming.
Funded holiday clubs with food included, ages 4 to 18, for families on benefits-related free school meals. Worth a look even if you assume you won't qualify.
St Helens' Victorian park with a lake, woodland walks, a decent playground and rowing boats in summer. The reliable local hour that becomes an afternoon.
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.