While it is 67 years since Dr Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat, his dire warnings about the consequences of leaving bored children stuck indoors on a rainy day still hold true.
If you don’t want Thing One and Thing Two running amok in your home, then budgeting for a few “rainy days out” during the summer holidays is a sensible plan.
But due to rising prices, that may mean shelling out hundreds of pounds on entry tickets, lunch and transport – especially if you don’t qualify for a “family ticket”.
For example, Warner Bros Studio Tour London (actually it is 20 miles outside the capital, near Watford), charges £107 for adults and £86 for children for its Making of Harry Potter experience (or £172 for a “family ticket”, which covers two adults and two children).
Meanwhile, Legoland Windsorcharges £68 per person for “walk-in” tickets, which can also be booked in advance online for £39 to £47 during July and August.
Last summer, the collective wellbeing charity, Carnegie UK, set up to promote better wellbeing in the UK, surveyed more than 2,000 people affected by the cost of living crisis, and found children were spending more time during the summer holidays stuck indoors.
Almost half of parents said they had reduced their social activities outside their home, and 67% had cut down activities such as going to the cinema, or eating out.
Chief executive Sarah Davidson wants prime minister Keir Starmer to make summer holidays easier for working families on low incomes.
“We know they can be hugely difficult to navigate, especially for those on low incomes,” she says. “We should aim for a society where everyone has a decent standard of living, which includes leisure time and socialising.”
But not all family-friendly attractions in the UK charge eye-watering prices. Some wonderful places can be visited for free, while others cost only a few pounds.
Here’s a roundup of our best free and cheap rainy days out nationwide.
London
Free: Tate Modern on the South Bank is inviting visitors to layer wave-like brushstrokes on top of a vast painting in its turbine hall to create a collaborative work of epic proportions. While you are there, view paintings, sculptures and large-scale installations by contemporary and modern artists like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Yayoi Kusama and Barbara Hepworth.
Less than £20 for a family of four: Step aboard a full-size reconstruction of the Golden Hinde – the first English ship to circumnavigate the globe – which is docked on the Thames, near London Bridge. Find out about how, under the command of Sir Francis Drake, the crew of the Golden Hinde endured skirmishes, storms and scurvy and discover what a sailor’s life was like on a 16th-century galleon. Pirate-themed events are running throughout the summer holidays. Adults and children aged three and over £6 each, but a ticket for a family of four is only £18.
Wales
Free: The National Roman Legion Museum is inside a ruined fortress in Caerleon, near Newport, the furthest outpost of the Roman empire. Exhibitions and artefacts reveal how the legions lived, fought, worshipped and died: children can try on replica armour, experience a Roman garden and see the most complete amphitheatre in Britain.
£20 for a family of four: Travel 90 metres underground with a guide and see what life was like for the thousands of men who worked at the coal face in the Welsh mining industry at Big Pit National Coal Museum near Pontypool, in south Wales. The underground tour costs £5 per person if you show up on the day and are prepared to wait, but £8pp if bought in advance for a specific time slot. Luckily, while you’re waiting, it’s free to enter the museum, where you can learn about dramatic mining rescues, the impact of trade unions and nationalisation, and how the lives of Welsh miners changed from 1850 to 2000.
Scotland
Free: The Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore uses actors and restored buildings to bring the history of the Highlands to life. As it’s set in a mile long, 80-acre site, you may need an umbrella if it’s raining – however, there are 35 historic buildings to take shelter in, as you learn about how the lives of Highlanders changed from the 1700s to the 1950s.
Less than £30 for a family of four: The award-winning Devil’s Porridge Museum in Eastriggs tells the story of the 12,000 women who worked at HM Factory Gretna, the largest munitions factory on Earth during the first world war, and of the huge impact it had on the local economy. Admission £9 adults; five-16 years £8, family ticket (two adults and up to three children), £25.
Northern Ireland
Free: Headhunters Barber Shop and Railway Museum in Enniskillen is the only museum in the world where you can step back in time while waiting for a haircut. You enter the shop through a reconstructed station booking office) and learn about the golden age of steam travel on site. The museum has many small Irish railway artefacts and memorabilia on display, including uniforms, signalling instruments, signs, lamps, tableware, timetables, tickets and photographs. The barbers – brothers Nigel and Gordon Johnston – also promise to recall stories about “the good old days of steam travel” while cutting your hair.
Less than £20: Carrickfergus Castle is an 800-year-old Norman castle on the northern shore of Belfast Lough in County Antrim. It’s one of the best-preserved medieval buildings in Ireland and claims to be the only “preserved” castle of its age open to the public and houses historical displays and a wide range of canons. Adults £6, children over four £4, a family ticket (which covers up to five people, as long as at least three are children), £18. Guided tours are available daily at no extra charge and tickets must be purchased on arrival (not online).
Eastern England
Free: At the Zoology Museum in central Cambridge, thousands of specimens, spanning the entire animal kingdom, are on display, from elephants, giant ground sloths and giraffes to the skeletons of a dodo and a 21 metre-long fin whale. Some were discovered by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, while others were purchased from palaeontologist Mary Anning.
Less than £20 for a family of four: The Stained Glass Museum is inside a majestic national landmark: Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire. It reveals the development of stained glass as an art form since the 13th century, with a beautiful chronological display which includes historic glass from the museum’s extensive collections, the V&A and the Royal Collection. There’s also a new hands-on learning area where children can dress up like a knight, dragon and queen from a stained glass window or design their own shield. Adults, £6; under-16s go free if accompanied by a paying adult.
Northern England
Free: At the World Museum in Liverpool, millions of years of the world’s history – and the impact of human behaviour on the planet – can be explored. Visit the ancient Egypt gallery, which houses one of the finest ancient Egyptian and Nubian collections in Europe, or the aquarium to see hermit crabs, starfish and brightly coloured wrasse from the city’s Irish Sea coast, along with clown fish, rays, skates and jellyfish. You can also put your head in viewing bubbles to see terrapins immersed in water.
Less than £30 for a family of four: Play video games from the past 50 years and try out more than 100 consoles for £8 each (child or adult) or £28 for a family of four at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester. Entry to the museum itself, which is on the site of the oldest surviving passenger railway station and explores the scientific ideas that changed the world, is free. It’s also free to enter its major new exhibition on the race for a Covid-19 vaccine.
Midlands and south
Free: RAF Museum Midlands in Shropshire charts the history of the RAF via a large collection of famous aircraft, including the world’s oldest Spitfire, V bombers, the only surviving Defiant helicopter and the chinook “Bravo November”. Learn about the Battle of Britain, the cold war and the Falklands conflict, then try on various uniforms and hats and pose for a photograph.
Less than £20 for a family of four: Explore an 18th-century lighthouse, Smeaton’s Tower, in Plymouth. The 22-metre-high lighthouse dates from 1759 and offers stunning views of Plymouth Sound and the city from its lantern room. Adults £5, five-15 years £2.50. A “family and friends” ticket, for up to two adults and three children costs £12, with each additional child just £1.
