Bolton Museum
A free town museum hiding one of Britain's best Egyptian collections, including a full recreation of Thutmose III's tomb, plus an aquarium in the basement. Genuinely free, genuinely good.
Smithills Open Farm
Bolton, Greater Manchester
A hands-on hill farm above Bolton where the itinerary is the animals: bottle-feeding sessions, donkey rides, a tractor-trailer tour and small-animal handling, with barns for the inevitable shower.
Feeding runs to a timetable - photograph the board on arrival and plan backwards from the sessions that matter most to your crew.
A family posting from it this month called their £45 family ticket worth every penny, and the reason is the schedule: bottle feeding, donkey rides, the tractor trailer tour and animal handling run through the day, so the ticket buys activities, not just pens to look at. Staff get named in reviews more than the animals do, which for a farm attraction is the tell.
It sits under Winter Hill on the edge of Bolton with enough under cover to survive drizzle, and the pony grooming and small-animal sessions mean even a wary two-year-old gets a hands-on moment. Check the day's timetable on arrival and build the visit around the feeds.
Know before you go
- Feeding sessions run to a timetable - check it on arrival and work backwards.
Looking for more days out in Bolton?
What visitors say
★★★★★ 4.7 across 5,055 Google reviews.
Read all 5,055 reviews on Google - filter by star rating thereThe word this month
What people are actually posting about this place. Checked 2 August; videos play from the creator’s own account.
“Best family day out! We paid £45 for a family ticket to Smithills Open Farm and it was honestly worth every penny. The staff give you so much.”
Also in Bolton
Moss Bank Park
Bolton's big free family park: two decent playgrounds, a miniature railway, a seasonal funfair and The Hive, a Wildlife Trust nature-play garden that charges £2.50 a head and is worth it for under-sevens.
Queen's Park
Bolton's restored Victorian park: a proper playground with a mini zip line and a sand pit with a toy digger, a cafe with public toilets in sight of it, and the River Croal running through. Free, including the Spa Road car park.
Playtopia
Bolton's biggest recent soft play opening, with a sports court and a gym room alongside the frame. Adults are a pound, which is the number that decides where you go on a wet Tuesday.
Party and Play Funhouse
An independent at Westhoughton with an outdoor play area as well as the indoor frame, go karts on top, and a baby sensory room for the under ones. Free parking.
That Fun Place at Jump Xtreme
The soft play bolted onto Bolton's big trampoline park, so the four-year-old and the eleven-year-old can both be occupied in the same building. Over 115 trampolines next door.
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.