Blue Planet Aquarium
Sharks over a moving walkway tunnel, all under cover. A dependable answer to a washout forecast that still feels like a proper day out.
Whitby Park
- Cost
- Free, including parking
- Ages
- 2 to 11
- Where
- Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
- Weather
- Mostly outdoors
- Booking
- Just turn up
The big Victorian park in the middle of Ellesmere Port, and the town's default green space for a reason. There is a play area by the Stanney Lane entrance for children up to 12, a wheels park for BMX riders, skateboarders and inline skaters, a large parkour training area, two climbing boulders, two tarmac tennis courts that are free from April to October, a multi-use games court, bowling greens and a fish pond in front of Whitby Hall. Enough variety that a mixed-age group all find something without anyone negotiating.
Park at the front off Stanney Lane and work outwards; the car park is not available when the fun fair is in. The hall itself is now home to Theatre Porto, the only specialist theatre for children in Cheshire and Merseyside, which is a strange and brilliant thing for a municipal park to have in the middle of it. The public toilets are inside Whitby Hall and open when the cafe does. Community events run regularly through the year.
What it costs: Everything in the park is free. Parking is free too, with Blue Badge bays at the front off Stanney Lane.
Know before you go
- Check what's on at Theatre Porto in Whitby Hall before you come - it is a specialist children's theatre and a booked show turns a park run into a day.
- The National Waterways Museum is ten minutes away, so the park makes a free second half to a museum morning.
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National Waterways Museum
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Stanney Woods Local Nature Reserve
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