Exploring Manchester with kids

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We live just 40 minutes from Manchester but to be honest we don’t go there that often. My husband works in Manchester so that’s probably the biggest reason we don’t go to the centre very often. Manchester is a great city for families to explore though. Find more great family days out North West here.

Hotels in Manchester make a great base for a family weekend away. Some of my favourite places to take the kids in Manchester are museums in the centre such as the Science and Industry Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery which has a fantastic programme of family events.  

This weekend was my daughter’s 6th birthday and we were challenged to try somewhere different. Our original plan was to visit Heaton park treetop nets (which by the way look amazing) but the weather was bad so we had to find an indoor activity instead. Knowing how much my kids love lego we settled on Legoland Discovery centre at InTu Trafford centre. We combined it with a trip to the sealife centre too. Read on to find out what we thought of these attractions for young families.  

  We started with Legoland Discovery Centre. My first tip is to book your tickets online at least 24 hours in advance as they are cheaper. My next is to arrive early, ideally when it opens. We arrived at 10 am as it opened and got on all three rides without much waiting around. By the time we left at lunchtime the place was a lot busier. It was expected to be a busy day so we were given a wrist band that limited our stay to 4 hours.  

  There is plenty for kids to do here including a 4D cinema where we watched a short Ninjago film that we all really enjoyed. We went on all 3 rides. The rides are a short circular ride where you have to shoot at video images, driving ranger cars around the forest and our favourite, Merlin’s apprentice where Our youngest (almost 3) was only old enough for 1 of the rides. For the other two, the minimum age is 4 or 90cm tall. There are lots and lots of lego. You can build cars and race them down ramps, enter competitions with your creations and make stop motion videos. There is also a small soft play area and a Duplo area for little ones.  

  After lunch, we went to sea life Manchester. Again it was really busy, in fact, we struggled with our toddler. It’s dark, crowded and there are lots of tunnels that are great for kids to explore but not great for parents as they often come out on the other side of an exhibit, not great when it is busy and you may struggle to get there before them. The soft play area was busy but luckily my youngest was happy with the play dough tables right next to it whilst her big sister enjoyed the soft play.  

  We loved the giant turtles though. I didn’t manage to get a very good photo of them but they were magnificent to see swimming overhead in the glass tunnel. We really enjoyed seeing all the fish. I particularly enjoy watching jellyfish move so gracefully. My youngest loved the small sharks (and singing ‘baby shark’ to them). My 6 year old loved all the interactive elements like changing the colour of the jellyfish tank.  

  Of course, we had to finish the day by letting them both choose a small soft toy. These were £4 each which for an attraction gift shop I didn’t think was bad. We’ve been to a couple of sea life attractions now and I love the fact they are all slightly similar but have similarities as well. Find my review of Blackpool sea life here.  

  Disclosure – The spending money was gifted by Hotels.com, but all views are my own.