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.
Runway Visitor Park
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Park at the end of Manchester Airport's runway and watch the heavy jets leave the ground close enough to feel it in your chest. Concorde sits by the fence, tourable on booked slots, and a play area fills the gaps between departures.
Free in, pay for parking. Aviation-minded children will stay all day; everyone else gets a solid couple of hours and a very good story.
Concorde is the reason to pay for a tour, and the classic tour takes you aboard; children get the cockpit story, adults get the champagne-age nostalgia, and everyone gets the photograph. Around it sit a Trident, a Nimrod and the DC-10 nose, with the viewing mounds close enough to the runway that departures rattle your coffee.
The park is free to enter and charges for parking by the hour, which sets the economics of a visit: an hour of big jets and a play on the aviation-themed playground is a cheap afternoon, and the cafe means nobody has to leave at the wrong moment. Plane-spotting regulars treat it as a destination in itself, and on a clear evening it is easy to see why.
Know before you go
- If Concorde is the draw, check tour times before you set off - they book out in the holidays.
On right nowchecked 2 August
- Concorde tours are running daily and book out at weekends; the viewing mounds are free with pay-per-hour parking.
Looking for more museums & science near Manchester?
What visitors say
★★★★★ 4.5 across 6,516 Google reviews.
Read all 6,516 reviews on Google - filter by star rating thereAlso in Manchester
Manchester Museum
A T. rex skeleton cast, live frogs in the vivarium, Egyptian mummies and a genuinely good natural history floor. Free, university-run, and less overwhelming than the big London equivalents.
National Football Museum
Shirts, trophies and match footage across six floors, with penalty shootout and skills games that football-mad kids refuse to leave. If yours do not care about football, skip it - it is exactly what it says.
Heaton Park
One of the biggest municipal parks in Europe: a free animal centre, boating lake, adventure playgrounds and an actual vintage tram running on summer days. You will not do all of it in one visit.
Wythenshawe Park & Community Farm
A big south Manchester park with a proper community farm - pigs, goats, horses - a Tudor hall, and enough playground to earn the trip on its own. All free.
The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience
The nineties TV show rebuilt for real: around 75 minutes of physical, mental, skill and mystery games across four themed zones, ending in the crystal dome. Brilliant from about nine up, but it is strictly 9+ and the adults have to play too.
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.