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Curious kids – 5 top hands-on museums to visit on your Staycation holiday

Science, technology, art or history… there are loads of super kid-friendly museums across the UK just waiting to be explored on your next Staycation holiday, with all sorts of hands-on exhibits and activities to expand the minds of your little culture vultures. Think costumed characters, interactive apps or even dropping deep into a mineshaft! You’ll have a pretty great time too - and the good news is a lot of them are free.

So, without further ado, check out our top hands-on museums picks and plan your next Staycation holiday, come rain or shine.

Corinium Museum, Cirencester, Gloucestershire

top hands-on museums: The Corinium Museum, Cirencester

© Corinium Museum

Best for: Little centurions who will love this slice of the ancient world
Stay at: Our nearby Cotswold Water Park lodges
The award-winning Corinium Museum traces the story of the Cotswolds from prehistory right through to the late 19th century. This wonderfully family-friendly museum is most famous for the largest known collection of Romano British antiquities sourced from Corinium Dobunnorum. Now known as Cirencester, it was, in fact, the second largest city in Roman Britain! This spacious museum brings Roman Britain alive over two whole floors and includes a fascinating collection of tombstones, mosaics, sculptures and a wealth of precious artefacts, plus cool authentic room and shop reconstructions. Computer interactives are available for teenagers and there are a number of fun hands-on exhibits to keep kids excited and interested. Find out about what the Romans had to eat and drink and even dress up as a Roman or a Medieval Monk! Play the traditional games of Tabula or Nine Men’s Morris. Events for children run during the school holidays too including make and take art activities; mosaic, drawing and printmaking workshops; discovery zones and family fun trails. Open daily Mon – Sat and Sunday afternoons, admission charges apply.
Find out more: coriniummuseum.org

Ironbridge Gorge Museums, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire

top hands-on museums: Blists Hill, Ironbridge Gorge Museums, Shropshire

© Blists Hill Victorian Town

Best for: Making history lessons fun
Stay at: Our Shropshire holiday cottages
This UNESCO heritage site celebrating the Industrial Revolution has tons of kid appeal and is anything but boring. Once home to countless factories, furnaces and workshops, the story is told in no fewer than 10 amazing interactive museums. Time travel is real – almost – at Blists Hill Victorian Town. Appealing to all ages, this living outdoor museum has proper period shops and cottages, costumed staff, an old-fashioned sweet shop and even an old-timey fairground. You can hitch a ride on a horse and cart and tuck into a portion of 1930s fish and chips. Yum! Elsewhere, science gets cool at Enginuity where school-age kids can immerse themselves in locomotives and robots, while art fans can get creative at the former tile and china factories which run craft workshops and demonstrations. Open daily throughout the year, take advantage of the great value ‘Passport’ which gives you unlimited access to all the museum sites making it perfect for families with young children. Enjoy exploring!
Find out more: www.ironbridge.org.uk

Big Pit National Coal Museum, Blaenafon, South Wales

top hands-on museums: The Big Pit, South Wales

Loco Steve from Bromley, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Best for: Going on an underground adventure
Stay at: Our South Wales holiday cottages
A coal mine may not be the obvious choice for a family day out on your Wales Staycation, but the Big Pit offers the perfect balance between fun and informative. Kids over one metre tall love to don a miner’s lamp hat before being lowered 90m below the ground in the pit cage for a subterranean tour with an ex-miner. After discovering life at the coalface, explore the colliery buildings back on the surface with simulated Mining Galleries offering plenty of crashes, bangs and flashes to excite the whole family. Plus exhibitions that depict the story of mining in Wales in what used to be the Pithead Baths. Other activities include discovery trails and activity packs (especially suitable for younger children). Open daily all year round, free admission.
Find out more: museum.wales/bigpit

Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter, Devon

top hands-on museums: Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Devon

Royal Albert Memorial Museum by Derek Harper

Best for: The inquisitive, both young and old
Stay at: Our East Devon holiday cottages
If your brood are curious about the world around them, the RAMM is an adventure like no other. Whatever your interests, you'll find something here. Embark on a journey of discovery - for free - at this world-class museum housed in a spectacular Victorian building. Discover an array of collections ranging from natural history, world cultures and events to antiquities and art. There’s plenty to explore, starting with a firm favourite: the host of specimens in the Case Histories gallery. Here kids can be blown away by life-sized examples of an African bull elephant, a huge suspended whale and the museum’s mascot, Gerald the giraffe. The RAMM is accessible and family-friendly with a host of interactive features, trails and quizzes for all ages to help parents with kids enjoy the collections. Don a tunic and toga, make a magnetic mosaic, examine microscope slides, have fun with a miniature medieval longhouse … the list goes on!
Find out more: www.rammuseum.org.uk

Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse, Dereham, Norfolk

top hands-on museums: Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse, Norfolk

Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse by Ashley Dace

Best for: Bringing the past to life
Stay at: Our Norfolk holiday cottages
At this unique living history museum you can enjoy a fascinating journey through the story of rural Norfolk in the early 1900s. The 50 acre site is home to a traditional museum farm complete with rare breed native animals. Children especially love the chicks and piglets as well as the traditional farm activities such as cart rides, ploughing or sheep shearing. Step into an atmospheric Victorian village with recreated cottages, immaculate vegetable gardens, shops and indoor displays including a fabulous schoolroom and a historic workhouse which does a great job of providing an insight into what life would have been like for the poor who lived here. There are also acres of beautiful, unspoilt fields and woodland around the farm while kids can also let off steam in the brilliant adventure playground with its treehouses and walkways, enjoy the popular animal stamp trail and go dipping for mini-beasts on the riverside. There’s plenty of hands-on fun for your little ones too from games and puzzles to dressing up as Victorians and having a go on a traditional water pump, while in the school holidays there are often additional activities for children. Open daily, admission charges apply.
Find out more: museumsnorfolk.org.uk/norwich/gressenhall-farm-and-workhouse

What else?

top hands-on museums: Lapwing Lake Lodge, Cotswolds

Our Cotswold Lake Lodges are just 6 miles from Cirencester's Corinium Museum

Of course, all our self-catering cottages are within easy reach of fabulous hands-on museums with interactive exhibits and activities aimed at younger visitors. Just check out our ‘Things to Do’ section for each cottage listing. You can also check out the family friendly museums on the Kids in Museums website.

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