Daughters are 2 and 5. Theyve been to lacal farms, and play centres. I want to take them somewhere different.

Centre for life in Newcastle sounds good - have you been? Waddya reckon for young kids?


They love animals and fish etc. There is an exotic animal sanctuary up the road in Tow law. Been to Farms at Lanchester and Bagby. They also like birds of prey.

Looking for inspiration please for a good day out.


(Ill come clean - this si how im getting pass out signed for M1MOC open day next Sunday).
5 year old like going to Croft but gets bored after a couple of hours.

Diggerland

Langley park Co Durham

diggerland was the first placei looked up Not so good for the 2 year old though Mainly cos she will trash the place and get me banned for life

my 4 1/2 yr old daughter hated diggerland too noisy,smell and not enough to do for the smaller ones which is a shame because i thought it was great

Ah didn't realise you had a 2 year old.

Just get her a big cardboard box and make a wendy house out of it - it'll keep her quiet for hours

Cheers

Mark

maybe a bit far south for you, but how about Lightwater Valley or Flamingo Land ....

[Edited on 9/9/07 by stevebubs]

Darren

Ben and his friends enjoyed http://www.whitehousefarmcentre.co.uk/ which is a farm near Morpeth where they can pet / feed the animals.

Also the http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/discovery/ Discovery Museum in Newcastle is good. Maybes not for the two year old but good if the weather is poor.

http://www.alnwickgarden.com/ Bit further north is Alnwick Garden, great for running round the fountains if the weather is OK (Take a change of clothes for them!).

HTH

Mike

Some great idea's here. many thanks.

LWV and FL are very doable. We did FL a while back and kids enjoyed that (Sadie was only baby though at the time - now 2 going on 12!!).



Farms are always a winner. Weve been to the one at Lanchester and Bagby a few times so they get a bit familiar.

Morpeth is doable. Ive heard of another in Yorks Moors as well.

We did Alnwick gardens 2 weeks ago - fantastic place. They both really enjoyed this. I was bowled over by it.

The other i thought of again was Beamish. i know they will enjoy the mine and the school. The steam train and the fairground.

Discovery museum looked good when i was online last night. As you say though its keeping Sadie occupied that is the tricky bit.

We've just come back from a fortnight in Devon. Took Ben to Diggerland and that is a proper boys day out! We had a great time there!



Cheers

Mike

Not sure where you will find info but Castle eden dene - as name suggests it starts at castle eden skirts Peterlee and goes to sea betwen Horden and Blackhall- massive tunnel under the road which is spooky for little kids. it is a fantastic limestone gorge with paths and bridges - handy if you have a dog, once on the beach if you get to Blackhall Rocks there's some sea caves- I grew up around there and often wish my own kids could experience the freedom we enjoyed -sea rafting and rekindling fisherman's fires on the beach .

[Edited on 10/9/07 by trextr7monkey]

Darren

Have you tried the Forbidden Corner down near Mark? We took Ben there and he loved it to bits. It's sort of a massive medevial fantasy garden treasure hunt.

http://www.theforbiddencorner.co.uk/

Mike

Sounds like our grandson, when he was told he couldn't walk to school on his own he said "I am nearly ten". He is actually five but has an older brother and sister so he feels done that he can't do what they do. They spent a day at The Deep, probably further down than you want but he talked about it for ages after.

Whitehouse farm is very good especially for young ones.

Centre for life is good, if rather expensive and probably a bit old for a 2 year old.

Discovery museum was much enjoyed, but again 2 year old might not enjoy.

My kids enjoyed Washington wildfowl trust, young kids seem to never tire of throwing handfuls of feed at ducks/geese.
http://www.wwt.org.uk/centre/123/visit/washington/.html

Edit: Nearly forgot, Beamish was loved by my 6 year old - again it's rather expensive.


[Edited on 10/9/07 by iank]

what about beamish?,

if you do go for flamingoland, book online with lastminute.com you get £5 of each ticket(normally £20 each)

Ray

Beamish is good - remember my parents taking me there when I was a kid.

Other than that - wet and wild in North Shields is excellent. I went a few weeks ago and felt *very* old. Your kids might be a bit young for it just yet tho.

Chris

Another one just came to mind if you've not already been.
http://www.bluereefaquarium.co.uk/tynemouth.htm

The short list so far is Beamish or Whitehouse farm. Just showed the kids and they are amazed by the Farm so far so that is hot favourite.

Its hard for me to pick something they will love rather than just me!!! Maybe when Sadie is a few years older ill try the Museums.

Its amazing how you forget just hopw much is on your own doorstep!! We are a bit spilt for choice here in the North!!


Thanks all for the great suggestions. Im going to bookmark this thread for future days out.

Another one for a couple of years time.

Killhope mine museum. Kids need to be 4+ to go underground which is half the fun. Ours (and their cousins) spent hours sorting through bits of rock (and smashing it with hammers) finding galena and flourite, dressing up and looking at spar boxes.

http://www.durham.gov.uk/killhope/usp.nsf/pws/killhope+-+Killhope+Homepage

If you go to the cafe go for a 'large' soup, must have been over a litre!

p.s. on Whitehouse farm the go-karts can be adjusted to adult size