Hollingworth Lake
A flat, buggy-friendly lap of a reservoir with a good playground, rowing boats in season and ice cream at both ends. Simple, cheap and reliably works.
TeamKarting
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
TeamKarting is an indoor kart track in Ensor Mill on Queensway, and unusually for indoor karting it is full tarmac with petrol karts, not electric karts on painted concrete. Juniors aged 8 to 14 drive 160cc karts, and the track claims to be the longest indoor tarmac circuit in the North West.
The easiest way in is the Saturday morning Kids Club, 9am to 10.30am, where £21.95 buys two ten minute sessions on track. Children aged 6 to 8 can start with one-to-one Bambino modules on Sunday mornings at £43.95 each, and there are family sessions where a parent races alongside a 9 to 14 year old.
This is one for the older end of primary school, and for the child who has already done every trampoline park in the borough. Check the height rule first: 132cm is the minimum for juniors.
What it costs: Junior Kids Club (Saturdays 9am to 10.30am): £21.95 per driver for 2 x 10 minute track sessions. Standard junior arrive and drive is £43.95 for 20 minutes. Bambino (ages 6 to 8) Sunday starter modules, 9am to 10.30am, £43.95 per module. Balaclava and gloves £5.50 a set if you do not bring your own. Exclusive family track bookings from £214.95.
Know before you go
- Arrive 30 minutes before the booked time for the briefing.
- Juniors must be at least 132cm tall with a 62cm inside leg. Measure before you promise a birthday treat.
Worth knowing: Juniors 8 to 14, minimum height 132cm. Bambino coaching from 6.
Looking for more days out in Rochdale?
Also in Rochdale
Healey Dell Nature Reserve
A steep wooded gorge two miles out of Rochdale where the River Spodden churns through waterfalls beneath a 100-foot railway viaduct. Free and genuinely dramatic, but the paths are proper paths - boots, not buggies.
Queen's Park, Heywood
Heywood's Victorian park holds a Green Flag and earns it: two playgrounds with the toddler one kept separate, a lake, a BMX track and a community cafe. Flat tarmac paths.
Flip Out Rochdale
Rochdale's trampoline park, with a ninja course, battle beams, a kids arena, soft play and an inflatable park you can combine with the trampolines. Closed on Tuesdays in term time.
Planet Play
A big three-tier soft play in Heywood with separate areas for toddlers, infants and juniors, a spook room and aerial runways. No booking, one adult free, and weekday mornings in term time are the toddler session.
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.