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.
Wythenshawe Park & Community Farm
Manchester, Greater Manchester
A big south Manchester park with a free community farm at its heart - pigs, goats, horses - plus a Tudor hall, glasshouses and serious playground provision.
All free, easy parking, twenty minutes from Warrington: the definition of an easy win afternoon.
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Also 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.
Runway Visitor Park
Watch jets take off close enough to feel them, with Concorde parked by the fence. Free in, pay for parking, and there is a play area and cafe for the wait between planes.
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.
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.