
RHS Garden Bridgewater
One of the biggest garden projects in Europe, and more fun for kids than a flower garden has any right to be: a huge walled kitchen garden, lake walks, and space to run that feels endless.

A free Victorian museum next to Salford Crescent station, and the reason to go is Lark Hill Place: a recreated Victorian street built indoors, dim, atmospheric and exactly the right amount of spooky for primary-age children. The rest is art galleries and Salford local history, which you can wander at child pace without anyone charging you for the privilege.
Closed Mondays; open 9.30am to 4pm on weekdays and 11.30am to 4pm at weekends, but Lark Hill Place itself opens at 11.30am every day, so plan around that. The front car park is small and paid, £2.50 for up to 3 hours, and the train is honestly the easier option. There is a cafe on site, holiday workshops and under fives sessions run through the year, and Peel Park is on the doorstep when the museum patience runs out.
What it costs: Free entry with a £3 suggested donation. Front car park £2.50 for up to 3 hours.
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One of the biggest garden projects in Europe, and more fun for kids than a flower garden has any right to be: a huge walled kitchen garden, lake walks, and space to run that feels endless.

Free galleries holding the world's largest LS Lowry collection, a free immersive 360 room, and theatres with a steady run of family shows. One of the easiest rainy-day wins on the Quays.

A Grade I listed Tudor manor house marooned among Salford's new-builds, free to walk round, with a proper Great Hall, gardens and school-holiday craft sessions. Closed Fridays and Saturdays, which catches people out.

48 hectares on the River Irwell with a lake, a play area, a climbing boulder and a cafe open every day. Trails are marked for distance and for accessibility, so you know before you set off with a buggy.

A Green Flag nature reserve wrapped round an old reservoir at Walkden, with a permanent orienteering course that turns a lap of the lake into a treasure hunt. No playground, no cafe, nothing to pay.

A Swinton trampoline park with more than 65 trampolines, a dinosaur-themed soft play and a two-hour toddler session with food included. Grip socks £2.50.
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.