As a Northern girl I spent a lot of my younger years enjoying the vibrancy and quirkiness of Manchester. Afflecks was my favourite place on earth and I loved spending time there soaking up the atmosphere. My mum still lives in Cheshire, so before the end of the year we’ll be travelling ‘up north’ to see her and I want to take Ava for the day to Manchester. I know she isn’t quite ready for Afflecks, but I found lots of things she would love. I thought I’d share them with you too incase you are planning a trip there soon.
One of my favourite things to do is shopping as there are so many wonderful shops you can spend time in, depending on how patient your kids are! If patience is not their strong point, you might have to rely in online shopping. You can even use address verification to make sure your delivery gets to you.
Here are some kid centric things you can do in Manchester.
11 awesome things to do in Manchester with kids
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CBBC Tour at Media city
The CBBC Interactive Tour at MediaCityUK in Salford looks like great fun. I’m sure Ava would love this fun behind-the-scenes tour!
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Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery has lots of free fun on offer for families, including the new Clore Art Studio, plus a cafe. There are 21 rooms full of art and design to explore and let’s face it you can’t beat free fun!
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Manchester Bus Tours
An open-top bus tour taking in the main city centres sites, including the worlds first passenger railway station in Castlefield, the University district, Old Trafford stadium of Manchester United fame, and the Etihad stadium of Manchester City. The tour also visits Salford Quays, location of MediaCityUK, the Imperial War Museum North, The Lowry arts complex and the new location for Coronation Street. Ava wouldn’t be that interested in the sights, but she does love a bus!
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Oxygen Freejumping Manchester
I know Ava would love this place! You can become a real survivor on the Bear Grylls obstacle course or bounce on the giant airbag, test your reactions on the reaction wall. While trying to dodge balls in dodgeball or even have a go at volleyball.
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Rock Over Climbing
Ava is part child and part mountain goat, so I know she would have such a good time here. Safety harnesses and trained instructors mean that no experience is necessary.
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Manchester Spy Mission Treasure Trail
This self-guided themed treasure trail map is packed with codes to crack, sneaky clues and lots of golden nuggets of information that’ll help you discover new things in familiar places.
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Legoland Discovery Centre
Legoland Discovery Centre offers all the Lego fun of the bigger park in Windsor but packed into a smaller venue. There are Master Model Builder Workshops and a MINILAND ® featuring recreations of Manchester’s top attractions, which sounds like fun.
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Sea Life Manchester
This sounds like an epic aquarium. ‘Strap on your sea legs to discover the shark shipwreck, where you will find black tip reef sharks and octopus. Swim over to the coral reef before walking through the ocean tunnel, to visit the Seahorse Nursery, Sting Ray Bay and rock pool’.
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Wythenshawe Park Farm
Wythenshaw Park Farm is working, countryside/community farm which shows children where their food really comes from. They will also enjoy watching, feeding and meeting the animals on site.
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Jump Nation Trampoline Park Manchester
UK’s best indoor trampoline park is sure to be another hit with our daughter. There are 139-trampolines at Jump Nation. 139 trampolines! Kid heaven for sure!
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Total Ninja
This 40,000 sq ft park is the first centre to be set up in the UK. Visitors can train to be the next Ninja Warrior as they progress through the eleven different runs for people aged 5 and above.
Have you been to any of these places? What’s your favourite place to go with the kids in Manchester?
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.