Kids activities in Manchester: family events & days out

A local guide to kids activities in Manchester

Where to take children across Greater Manchester — the free museums, the wet-weather fallbacks, what suits each age, and how to get around with a buggy.

Family days out in Manchester

The Science and Industry Museum on Liverpool Road is the city's anchor family day out — free entry, working steam engines and the Experiment gallery, on the site of the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station. Ten minutes away, the Manchester Museum on Oxford Road reopened with the Chinese Culture Gallery, Stan the T. rex cast and a free vivarium, and the Whitworth sits in its own park further down the same road. Across town, the National Football Museum at Urbis suits football-mad children of any age, and the Museum of Transport in Cheetham Hill lets them climb aboard old buses.

For a bigger day, Chester Zoo and Blackpool are both under 90 minutes, while Chill Factore in Trafford has real-snow slopes year round and Legoland Discovery Centre and SEA LIFE sit side by side at the Trafford Centre. Heaton Park is the largest municipal park in Europe with a farm, a tram museum and boating; Dunham Massey adds deer, a mill and National Trust grounds. Start with the top 10 attractions for kids in Manchester if you only have one day.

Free things to do with kids in Manchester

Manchester is unusually generous on free days out. The Science and Industry Museum, Manchester Museum, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, the People's History Museum and the Imperial War Museum North at Salford Quays are all free to enter. Outdoors, Heaton Park, Platt Fields, Fletcher Moss in Didsbury and the Bridgewater Canal towpaths cost nothing, and the Mayfield Park development by Piccadilly added a free city-centre playground with water play. Salford Quays has the MediaCityUK waterfront and the Lowry's free galleries, and the Trafford Centre works as a covered walk when the weather turns.

For organised free sessions rather than open space, see free events for kids in Manchester — library rhymetimes, museum craft drop-ins and park ranger activities run most weeks.

Indoor and rainy day activities in Manchester

This is Manchester, so plan for rain first. The free museums are the obvious hold, and the Science and Industry Museum alone will fill a wet day. Beyond them: Chill Factore for sledging and skiing, Legoland Discovery Centre and SEA LIFE at the Trafford Centre, Treetop Adventure Golf in the Printworks, the trampoline parks and Clip 'n Climb sites around Trafford and Ashton, and Airkix indoor skydiving. Z-arts in Hulme programmes theatre and workshops built specifically for under-12s. Manchester Central Library's Children's Library on St Peter's Square is a genuinely good free hour in the dry.

Filter to museum events for kids in Manchester or family theatre shows when you need something entirely undercover.

Best activities by age: toddlers, 5–8 and 9–12

Toddlers (0–4): the Heaton Park animal centre and tram, the free vivarium at Manchester Museum, Mayfield Park water play, Wythenshawe Park's community farm and library rhymetimes. Two hours and a café is the right shape. Toddler activities in Manchester lists what is currently running for this age.

Ages 5–8: the Science and Industry Museum, SEA LIFE and Legoland Discovery Centre, Chester Zoo and the Museum of Transport. Activities for children aged 6–11 shows what is on for this bracket now.

Ages 9–12: the National Football Museum and an Etihad or Old Trafford stadium tour, the Imperial War Museum North, escape rooms in the Northern Quarter, Chill Factore's slopes and Treetop Adventure Golf. Older children also do well from museum-based workshops and talks, which pitch higher than the under-8 craft sessions.

Getting around Manchester with children

Metrolink trams are the easiest option with a family: step-free at every stop, prams roll straight on, and children aged 5–15 travel at a flat concessionary fare while under-5s are free. The free Metroshuttle bus loops the city centre between Piccadilly, Victoria and Deansgate, which saves tired legs between museums. Driving into the centre means the Clean Air Zone boundary and expensive NCP parking — park at a Metrolink park-and-ride such as Ashton Moss or Whitefield instead. Salford Quays and MediaCityUK are one tram ride from Deansgate-Castlefield, so the Imperial War Museum North and the Lowry pair naturally. Museums are quietest before 11am and after 2.30pm in the school holidays.