We have a fantastic array of family days out and things to do with children in Hull and East Yorkshire (and a short drive over the bridge in Northern Lincolnshire too) – from visiting attractions, farm parks, museums, houses and gardens to exploring our beautiful coastline, rivers and countryside, we are never short of places to go. Here are my favourite days out with my children….
Hull is famous for The Deep and it has always been a favourite of ours. I’ve taken my children from being babies to watch the fish, now my eldest is 12 he still loves to go and see his favourite’s the sharks (my daughter is 8 and her favourite are the penguins). Don’t forget that you get free return visits for 12 months with their annual pass! We like to combine it with a walk along Humber Street and Hull Marina. Another favourite local day out for us is Williams Den in North Cave, with indoor and outdoor play areas.
Imagination play areas are a new thing! We love going to the one in Anlaby, The Secret Village, a fantastic cafe surrounded with little shops and houses for children to play in. There is also a bigger one, Play Avenue, across the bridge in Scunthorpe. Crafty Cat Play Cafe in Anlaby Common is also a great place to visit, for 0-6s there you can book a play session, for 6+ there are crafts and workshops.
Within around an hours drive of Hull there are also some great attractions that we have visited:
We LOVE a day at a farm park, again these have made great days out from being babies to primary age. There are so many good ones to choose from within an hours drive of Hull. The closest and probably our favourite and most regularly visited is Ping Pig Farm near Scunthorpe. We also really like Hall Farm, also over the bridge in Northern Lincolnshire but near Brigg. A bit further away in Lincoln is Rand Farm, we had a great day out here a last year. Another favourite is Playdale Farm which is just this side of Scarborough. There is also Piglets Adventure Farm which we love and Beetle bank Farm near York. Heading towards Doncaster there is Boston Farm Park.
We have some beautiful houses and gardens in East Yorkshire, which have parklands to explore, play areas and gardens and most also put on extra activities in school holidays. We love visiting Sledmere House, there is a small farm as well as a great play area and deer to see in the parklands. Sewerby Hall & Gardens on the North side of Bridlington is one of our favourite summer days out, you can walk from Sewerby down the cliff steps to Bridlington north beach to do combine a visit with playing on the beach. Sewerby has a zoo, playground, the house to explore, lovely gardens and woods plus good parklands for taking a frisbee and football. We also like Burton Constable near Skirlaugh, its become a family tradition to do their Halloween trails in October half term. They have stables and a huge house to explore, play areas and large grounds. Burton Agnes is another good day out, near Driffield. They have a house, gardens, woodland trails and a new adventure playground. Burnby Hall in Pocklington is also good, they have a pond with huge fish in to feed, play areas and beautiful gardens.
There are 2 good days out across the bridge in Northern Lincolnshire that we like doing as well – Elsham Hall has lovely gardens and a lake to explore and Normanby Hall has gardens, large grounds with deer to spot, good play areas including a splash park, a miniature train and a farming museum. There is also a fantastic Go Ape inside the grounds.
Heading west towards Leeds there are another 2 days out that we like, Temple Newsome as good parks and grounds and we really like Lotherton Hall, there are play areas, woodland walks, lots of grounds and a really good zoo.
On wet days, or if you just want something fun and active to do, Hull has a good choice of indoor places for families.
Rock Up has fun clip and climb walls and a soft play for younger children, inside St Stephens Centre, Hull. Also inside St Stephen’s is Gravity Trampoline Park, and the new Lost City Adventure Golf which is a fun, different day out. There is also Rebound Trampoline Park on Sutton Fields, Hull which we’ve been to parties at as well. Rockcity on Hawthorne Avenue Hull is excellent, you can climb or boulder and it has an indoor skate park. Bouldering is ideal for younger children as its low climbing walls with crash mats underneath, my children love coming here and exploring the themed bouldering rooms. There are also lots of activities on the ground floor at Princes Quay – soft play centre, laser quest, bowling, games area and an escape room! My kids love Jump Inc in Flemingate, Beverley. There are lots of leisure centres where you can hire a badminton court or go swimming, you can also hire a pitch for your children and a group of friends for a kick about at Soccer Kings in East Hull and at Active+ in West Hull.
Not forgetting soft play! We spent hours in these when my children were younger and there are 13 to choose from in our area. For babies and tots we liked Blue Kangaroo in Cottingham and Mega Fun in Beverley. As they got older we liked Little Monkeys in Active+ Harpings Road Hull and now for Primary age their favourite is Big Fun on National Ave Hull. We also like a visit to Beach Cove at Hornsea Freeport, they have a good outdoor area as well as the indoor soft play.
We are very lucky to have a lot of FREE museums in Hull. We love visiting Streetlife and the Hull & East Riding Museum in the Museums Quarter in Hull Old Town. We also like Ferens Art Gallery, they have a children’s area. Treasure House in Beverley is also free entry and often have extra activities running. We also like a visit to Skidby Windmill, its small but fun and there is lots to do, entry is cheap too. Another hit with us is Dinostar on Humber Street, Hull. It is rather quirky but very educational when my son had his dinosaur phase we went a lot!
We have had some great days out pottery painting and have a lot of random bowls, mugs and seasonal things around our house! We like Tea & Bisque-It in Willerby. Leafy Lane Pottery classes also do private family sessions and pop up in local venues in school holidays.
We are located in a perfect spot for exploring the great outdoors – we have the river Humber, the coastline and countryside including the wolds way. Lets start with beaches, we love a day at the beach in all seasons! For a day making sandcastles and body boarding in the summer and a brisk walk and fossil hunt/interesting stones and shells hunt in Winter. You can find a list of all East Coast beaches here from Spurn Point up to Whitby. We usually head to Fraisethorpe or Bridlington South Beach but this year we have found some great hidden bays at Cayton Bay, Hunmamby Gap, and further north towards Whitby (we had a weeks holiday this year in Whitby and you can read all about my top tops for places to visit around the Whitby area here). I also don’t think you can beat Withernsea for a fab beach day.
Inland we have some great countryside and places to visit. We like a drive up to Dalby Forest, especially now my children are at an age when they can walk further and cycle better. We also like Allerthorpe Lake near Pocklington, you can walk around the edge of the lake and play on their ‘beach’ or do some watersports; we hired stand up paddle boards this year which were a hit. We have lovely great nature reserves too – Tophill Low at Watton is great to explore, its down a very long single track road but worth it for the butterflies, dragonflies and birds we spotted. Across the bridge on the south bank of the river Humber, Far Ings is a great area to walk around and we cycled a few miles west inland recently. We love going to Waters Edge in Barton too, there are good boardwalks around the ponds and different length walks through the woodlands, and you can walk for miles along the Humber river from there. There is a great visitor centre too and excellent cafe.
On this side of the river Humber we like walking on Hessle foreshore and doing the walk from there to North Ferriby. Humber Bridge Country Park behind it is also a favourite spot for a walk. And not forgetting a walk or bike ride across the Humber Bridge itself! We also love walking around Hull Marina, along Humber Street and over the new bridge. You can find a list of lots of other local family friendly walks on Mumbler here.
We also have some great parks and play areas. East Park Hull is fantastic, we love the animal education centre, pedalo’s on the lake, the play areas and just exploring. West Park Hull is also good now after it’s recent refurbishment. We also like Pickering Park and Peter Pan Park in Hull. In the East Riding we like driving to the park in North Cave (then padding in the stream opposite and doing the walk to Hotham), the park in Swanland is also really good. My children’s favourite is probably North Ferriby park though because it has a good skate park as well as a normal park so we can spend hours in there! Willerby park on Well Lane is good for little ones and always quiet.
I hope this article has inspired you with some days out ideas! If you have a favourite day out and its not included please drop me a line here so I can add it in.
Happy exploring!
