With a great variety of family friendly attractions and days out to choose from, families will find oodles of fun in Nottinghamshire. Fill your days with adventures, exploring vast country parks, visiting the county’s great entertainment attractions or discovering the legendary history of Robin Hood country.
You might also be interested in our February Half Term and October Half Term landing pages, which we update each year to help you make the most of the school holidays. And don't froget the Summer Holidays!
Don't forget to browse our What's On for lots of family events, festivals and lots more ideas!
Theme Parks, Play Areas & Activity Centres
Delight little ones at Sundown Adventureland, where they can explore magical rides, meet friendly characters, and get up to mischief with lots of fun activities. There are also activity centres such as Clip ‘n Climb throughout the county if you want to ensure an early night for the kids!
The Woodland Adventure Zone is a triple-award winning, accessible forest adventure, purpose-built within the grounds of Portland College near Mansfield. Set amongst acres of pine trees in Sherwood Forest, it is a truly unique setting for your outdoor adventure. With access for wheelchair users and people with disabilities, the Woodland Adventure Zone provides an exciting experience for people of all ages and abilities.
Enter a world of adventure and discovery at Conkers.This family-friendly forest-themed adventure allows visitors to run wild, inside and out!
For a family day out to remember, take the kids along to Belvoir Castle's brand new adventure playground. Set across 4 acres, this is a safe space for imaginations to run free! Featuring a giant timber castle, along with a ship and towers, it is perfect for children and teenagers of all ages to explore!
In Nottingham City Centre, check out Funstation at The Cornerhouse for some classic games like air hockey and teddy grabbers as well as the latest in gaming technology! The Cornerhouse is also home to Lost City Adventure Golf and Axed Nottingham, suitable for older kids.
Holme Pierrepont Country Park, Home of the National Water Sports Centre has a range of fantastic play areas and activities for your little ones. Including mini golf, segways and a sky trail, there are plenty of activities to enjoy.
Rufford Abbey Country Park run a dedicated activity programme, mainly focusing on archery. Try your hand at Archery and see if you are as good as the legend Robin Hood. This fun experience is all about giving people the chance to try archery in a safe environment, with excellent equipment and facilitated by skilled coaches. Come and try and hit the bullseye! More more archery options, click here.
Walesby Forest is an International Outdoor Activity Centre located in the heart of Robin Hood County, spanning over 250 acres of beautiful woodland just waiting to be explored. This not-for-profit organisation has been welcoming visitors from across the Midlands and further afield since 1938, offering bespoke and inclusive outdoor experiences to suit any adventurer.
Whether you are a thrill-seeker looking for action or simply after some quality time with friends and family, Go Ape have you covered. Located in the heart of Sherwood Pines they have six action-packed adventures to keep you and your Tribe entertained. From ziplines and Tarzan Swings to trampoline nets and Forest Segways. Whether it's an action-packed day out in the summer, a unique thing to do on a Bank Holiday weekend or an action-packed Half Term - Go Ape come "highly" recommended.
Explore, play and create at Hardwick Hall! Watch out for activity trails and half term activities which fill the stableyard area and gardens each season. Hardwick’s main highlights are Easter Adventures, the Summer of Play, and Hardwick Wintertide.
Click here to learn more about adventure sports in Nottinghamshire.
Animal Encounters
White Post Farm have been entertaining millions of children and adults for over 30 years, giving them the chance to get up close to a wide variety of friendly animals. As one of the East Midland’s most popular tourist attractions, White Post Farm can provide a unique day out with plenty of opportunities to get up close to the animals! The farm covers around 25 acres of land, with more than 3,000 animals! These include classic farm animals, with many rare-breeds such as Oxford Sandy and Black pigs and Greyface Dartmoor sheep! As well as this, they are home to some more exotic animals, such as Armadillo’s and Crocodiles!
Encounter the exotic and discover a wild family day out at the Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife & Falconry Centre. Meet lemurs, meerkats, owls, otters, snakes, and other amazing animals during unforgettable animal encounters throughout the day. Take your seat for spectacular displays, featuring free-flying birds of prey, parrots and charismatic mammals. Explore the indoor rainforest; home to butterflies, birds, bats, crocodiles and creepy-crawlies from around the world and meet and feed the friendly residents of the Farm Barn.
Stonebridge City Farm offers a rural escape in the heart of Nottingham City, providing a free-entry experience that welcomes visitors every day. The farm, along with its gardens, is designed to be fully accessible, catering to individuals of all ages, including those with prams and wheelchairs.
In Loughborough, head to Manor Farm Park & Woodlands and enjoy their indoor and outdoor play areas, including toddler play areas and nature trails. Most of their animals are rescued and you can expct to see donkeys, lizards, owls and more!
There are also some wonderful places in Nottinghamshire to go horse riding. We reccomend Derbyshire Pony Trekking in Mansfield, which is fun for the whole family!
Learning
Want to slip in a little learning with your day of family fun? Plenty of Nottinghamshire’s heritage attractions and museums are both exciting and educational. The National Justice Museum, The Workhouse and Infirmary, Green's Windmill and Bolsover Castle are all great options for interactive days of exciting and interesting fun!
For local history, we reccomend stopping by Nottingham Castle, the National Civil War Centre, Newark Air Museum or Creswell Crags. At these family friendly venues you will learn something new about Nottinghamshire's history and landscape in a fun and engaging way.
Click here to explore museums in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
Delve deep into the underground and see why Nottinghamshire is famed for its cave network and history of caves. At Creswell Crags you can see the only Ice Age cave drawings in the UK, while at the City of Caves in Nottingham you can go on an archaeological journey through the sandstone caves. Visitors can go on a tour with Annie and Archie the Archaeologists and find out more about this fascinating attraction. If you're visiting Nottingham Castle, don't miss their Cave Tours, where you can discover the foundations of this medieval castle site - including the dire dungeons and wonderous wine cellars!
For more information on Nottingham's caves, click here.
Sherwood Forest contains various venues and attractions perfect for a family day out.
At the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre, you can learn the art of archery, visit The Major Oak and or hop on a bike and explore the woods. It is also a National Nature Reserve - a place to play, discover and leave with tales of your own, inspired by 420 hectares of beautiful, precious, unique woodland. During holiday periods, there are guides in traditional medieval costumes in the forest, offering information to visitors, each with fantastic knowledge, focused on a range of topics from the diversity of the woodland to the ballads of Robin Hood – their stories are designed to make visits interesting, memorable and fun!
Located to the north of Nottinghamshire, Sherwood Pines is one of the largest forests in the midlands to explore providing a stunning setting for your next adventure. Sherwood Pines is one of the most popular destinations for mountain bikers in the region. If you don’t have a bike the team at Sherwood Pines Cycle Centre can fix you up with a set of wheels! They also have segways, disc golf courses and walking trails. Click here for more details on cycling. You can also find walking trails through Sherwood Forest here.
You will also find Go Ape and the Woodland Adventure Zone in the forest. As you would expect, there are also plenty of Robin Hood attractions plus events which take place throughout the year, including the Robin Hood Festival and Robin Hood Day.
Click here to learn more about Sherwood Forest.
Nottinghamshire is also full of great country parks, such as Rufford Abbey Country Park which is perfect for a relaxing walk around a lake, or head to the gardens and the children’s play area. At the side of the 12 Century Cistercian Monastery there is a large grass area that is perfect for picnics, playing games and generally just hanging out with the family.
Little ones are sure to love the ice-age history of Creswell Crags. A limestone gorge honeycombed with caves and smaller fissures, stone tools and remains of animals have been found in the caves by archaeologists over the years, providing evidence for a fascinating story of life during the last Ice Age between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago. Further evidence came to light in 2003 with the discovery of Britain’s only known Ice Age rock art! Make sure to check out their range of tours on offer.
Enjoy the great outdoors at Naturescape Wildflower Farm and explore wildflower meadows, a woodland edge habitat, a butterfly and bee garden, a cottage garden and much more lies across the 44 acres of land at Naturescapes Wildlife Farm. Opened in 1990, this hidden gem offers expert demonstrations, information and advice on wildflower seeds and plants. Their farm and meadow walks are open all year round.
Wollaton Hall is one of the country’s finest Grade I listed Elizabethan buildings with the largest dedicated Natural History Museum in Nottinghamshire - which is free to visit. Herds of deer and a range of wildlife roam 500 acres of parkland at Wollaton, which is home to all kinds of habitats, including grassland, wetland and woodland. You can also visit the Nottingham Industrial Museum, which boasts five galleries each relating to a key Nottinghamshire industry: textiles, transport, communication, mining and power.
Click here for more infomation on Nottinghamshire's Country Parks and Gardens. You can also visit our dedicated pages for Nature Reserves and Outdoor Activties.
Teenagers
Teenagers may be notoriously hard to please but we have plenty of activities for them to enjoy in Nottinghamshire, including Go Ape! at Sherwood Pines, VR gaming at MeetspaceVR, and ice skating at the National Ice Centre. Visit our dedicated pages to learn more about Water Sports & Swimming and Adventure Sports.
There are also a variety of escape rooms in the city, such as Cave Escape and Escapologic, which offer themed heart-pumping experiences that are great for parties and groups. You could also enjoy a treaure hunt through the City with Go Quest Adventures, where you will unlock a hidden trail by finding clues, solving puzzles and completing group challenges.
Teamworks Karting will provide any group with an exhilerating day out. Get competitive and speedy on the racetrack or rein supreme in the multilevel laser tag arena!
You can also see what's on at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall or Nottingham Playhouse. Bringing world-class entertainment and popular shows to the East Midlands, these popular venues are bound to have something on for the whole family to enjoy during your visit. Or enjoy a great value family day out at Nottingham Racecourse, where all under 18 year olds get a free admission as long as they're accompanied by an adult.
More Inspiration
Looking for a creative family fun day out that's suitable for all ages? Why not visit Razzle Dazzle Pots in Mapperley and enjoy pottery painting at its best! They are a friendly Paint a Pot studio which has lots of exciting bisque items to decorate with your very own designs. Choose from a wide selection of plates, mugs, trinkets, animals, money boxes plus much more. Your painted pottery is fired in their kilns and ready for collection approximately a week later, or they can be posted to you if you are from out of the area.
With 48 lanes Nottingham Bowl is the UKs largest bowling alley, boasting a range of family fun activities. That means after your bowling the entertainment doesn’t just stop, you can pick from playing on our Namco arcade, 9-hole Nottingham themed crazy golf or singing your heart out at karaoke.
The Notts Maze is set within 12 acres of land and is great fun for all ages! Pathways span over 2.5 miles so you can spend hours getting lost within the maize maze with lots of hidden activities along the way to the centre. A full map detailing how to get to the centre of the maze and back out again is available for £1 at the admissions desk. However, if you complete the challenge unaided and return the map unopened, you will receive your £1 back! After completing the Maize Maze, finish off your trip by sampling some of the snacks and drinks available to buy at the on-site bar and cafe.
Located just 45 minutes’ drive from Nottingham city centre, you can soar aboce the Derwent Valley at Heights of Abraham. Famous for its cable cars, which take visitors on an exciting flight through the scenic Valley, you will pass over river, road and rail before reaching the summit of Masson Hill. Once at the summit, the 235-year story of the Heights springs to life. You can take two different tours through underground illuminated caverns, with professional guides to lead the way. Above ground, there are three exhibitions, delving deeper into the heritage of the 60-acre estate as well as their popular Vista restaurant with panoramic views.
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