EASTER EGG HUNTS
Peter Rabbit treasure trail, Lake District
The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness-on-Windermere has hidden 150 handmade ceramic eggs around the Lake District. An interactive, online map has clues for seekers and will be updated throughout the day as eggs are found. All finders get free entry into the attraction (usually £7.20/£3.70) and 10 will win a prize – the star prize is a week’s holiday in the Lakes in a five-star cottage.
• 9 April, £2 donation to WaterAid, enter online, hop-skip-jump.com
Egg hunt on zip wires, Cheshire
Carden Park’s treetop hunt sees kids swinging through the tree canopy on a high ropes course, collecting chocolate along the way. Daredevils can attempt the “cheep of faith” – climbing a high pole to reach a nest of treats, then abseiling down with the booty. The course culminates with a 250-metre zipline – while whizzing down, anyone who throws an egg into another nest wins a prize.
• 25 March-10 April, adult £30, child £20, cardenpark.co.uk
Egg dancing, Shropshire
Open-air museum Blists Hill Victorian Town is celebrating Easter Victorian-style, with daily “egg dances”: dancing blindfolded across a street peppered with eggs. Children who manage to do it without breaking an egg will be rewarded with chocolate. Other traditional activities include egg rolling, Easter bonnet parades, a chick trail and egg-and-spoon races.
• 25-28 March, adult £16.25, child £10.75, ironbridge.org.uk
Egg hunt in canoes, New Forest
This adventurous egg hunt takes place in two- or three-seat Canadian canoes on the Beaulieu river, Hampshire. As well as hidden chocolate eggs, there is plenty of wildlife to spot on the way, including New Forest ponies and deer.
• 26 March, adult £28, child £22 for two hours, including an instructor, newforestactivities.co.uk
Easter Eggstravaganza, Cornwall
The Eden Project’s imaginative Easter events include a giant “obseggcle” course; “hard-boiled” and “over-easy” egg hunts; twists on fairground games, such as an egg shy and a fried-egg firing range; an Easter-themed crazy golf course; and an “eggucational” trail with unusual animal eggs and nests. Adults will appreciate the spring flowers: tulips, bluebells, primroses, violets, campion, flowering palms and jade vines.
• 25 March-10 April, adult £25, child £14, under-fives free, edenproject.com
CULTURE
Eastival, Lincoln
Three venues in Lincoln – the Performing Arts Centre, the Drill Hall and the Collection – are hosting an arts festival for children. Programme highlights are a Hairy Maclary theatre show, storytelling, craft activities, puppet shows, dance performances and a family-friendly piano concert.
• 23 March-10 April, some events free, visitlincoln.com
Jump In! Maidenhead
This family festival has daily films, live shows and activities. Workshops include circus skills, podcasting, dance, drama, chocolate-making and comic-book animation. Shows range from stand-up for kids to an adaptation of Stig of the Dump. There is even a classical concert for babies.
• 20 March-9 April, £3 a workshop, £15 for two shows and a film, norden.farm
Bath comedy festival
This annual comedy extravaganza now includes a children’s festival. Shows encompass stand-up, magic and puppetry, and there is a “silly disco” with dressing up and prizes.
• 1-10 April, from £4, bathcomedy.com
Roald Dahl’s Tremendous Adventures, Cheshire
The Tatton Park estate is marking Roald Dahl’s centenary with year-long events. Over Easter, these include themed trails: Danny the Champion of the World in the gardens, Fantastic Mr Fox on the farm and Matilda in the mansion. There are golden tickets to win chocolate bars, magic shows, a puppet theatre and a stableyard full of chocolate.
• 25-28 March, £11 adults/£5.50 children, tattonpark.org.uk
Sea Shanty festival, Cheshire
The National Waterways Museum’s Easter gathering at Ellesmere Port attracts scores of boats. There are trips along the canal, lock demonstrations and craft workshops. Sea shanty performers will pop up across the museum, as well as in concert on Friday and Saturday nights.
• 25-28 March, canalrivertrust.org.uk
EDUCATIONAL
Crack codes, Milton Keynes
The Nifty Numbers trail at second world war code-breaking site Bletchley Park is more cerebral than your average Easter hunt, with puzzles, challenges, games and activities. On Easter Sunday, there are drop-in workshops about coded messages (for 5-12 year olds) and, on Easter Monday, craft sessions to make cards with coded patterns (for 8-14 year olds).
• 26 March-10 April, adult £17.25, child £10.25, under-12s free, bletchleypark.org.uk
Underfall Yard, Bristol
This new attraction tells the story of the city’s pioneering Victorian engineering projects and the people behind them, including Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Easter activities include a shanty singing workshop (30 March).
• Opens 18 March, free, underfallboatyard.co.uk
Maths shows, various locations
These Easter shows sneak in some education with the entertainment. We’re Stuck!, an interactive maths, science and robots show, teaches kids not to be scared of making mistakes. Play Dough, meanwhile, has 10,000 real pound coins on stage, teaches children about money and the financial crisis, and gets the audience to compete in high-energy games.
• We’re Stuck!, 25 March-1 April, London, then Burnley, Waterfoot and Manchester, adult from £6, child £4, chinaplatetheatre.com. Play Dough, 27-28 March, Doncaster, then touring, from £6.50, unlimited.org.uk
Flying fun, North Berwick
An interactive science show at the Scottish Seabird Centre about Captain Flap teaches kids about the principles of flight, and there are workshops to make fizzy-bottle rockets, kites, paper planes and cut-out birds. It’s part of the Edinburgh International Science festival.
• 25 March-10 April, adult £8.95, child £4.95, under-threes free, seabird.org
Castles, various locations
Warwick Castle is opening a new, multi-sensory Horrible Histories maze, featuring moving walls and interactive puzzles (opens 19 March, from £13, warwick-castle.com). Leeds Castle in Kent has Easter Through the Looking Glass: Alice in Wonderland-themed family fun with Mad Hatter’s tea parties and croquet on the lawn (25 March-10 April, adult £22.05, child £14.85, leeds-castle.com). Dover Castle is hosting a pan-historic children’s festival, from the days of Roman gladiators to WW2 soldiers (25-28 March, english-heritage.org.uk, adult £18, child £11.80, under-fives free). Stirling Castle has a Festival of Foolery, where kids can learn to be a court jester (26 & 27 March, stirlingcastle.gov.uk, adult £14.50, child £8.70, under-fives free).
ANIMALS
Tapnell Farm Park interactive farm fun, Isle of Wight
Tapnell Farm Park is opening a new activity and adventure base, including a “Moo-seum” about beef and dairy history, in time for the Easter holidays. There’s also an indoor soft-play barn with cafe, go karts, the usual farmyard animal encounters, plus wallabies and meerkats to meet.
• Free, tapnellfarm.com
Countrytastic, Malvern
This country show for kids has lots of farmyard fun, with feeding, grooming and petting stations for donkeys, goats, cows, rabbits, sheep, pigs and alpaca. There are Shetland pony cart rides and dray rides; bouncy and pedal-powered tractors; cooking workshops; and planting a mushroom log to take home.
• 31 March, £6, under-threes free, threecounties.co.uk
New attractions, Sea Life Brighton and London
Sea Life Brighton, the world’s oldest operating aquarium, has a new attraction for Easter. Secrets of the Reef brings Maldives coral, clownfish and sea horses to East Sussex, and includes a crawl-through tunnel for kids to get close to the tropical marine life (opens 24 March, from £10.95, visitsealife.com). Sea Life London, meanwhile, has a new walk-through Frozen Planet section. It is based on the BBC series, and uses augmented-reality technology to display the Northern Lights and bring visitors face-to-face with polar bears and killer whales (opens 25 March, adult £24.50, child £18.10, under-threes free, visitsealife.com).
ADVENTURE
Inflatable assault courses, Cornwall and Snowdonia
A Wipe Out-style course is opening on 25 March at Retallack Resort near Newquay and Padstow. The giant, floating inflatables include slides, a trampoline, a climbing wall, balance beams and a “blast bag” to bounce people high into the air – and down into the water. A similar attraction – Crash & Splash and the Blob – is coming to Surf Snowdonia, the world’s first artificial surfing lake, which opened last year.
• Retallack Resort, £15, over-eights only, retallackresort.co.uk. Surf Snowdonia, opens on 19 March, from £15 an hour, over-12s only, surfsnowdonia.co.uk)
Deep mine tour, Snowdonia
A new immersive tour at Llechwedd Slate Caverns, opening in time for Easter, journeys 500ft underground on the steepest cable railway in Britain. Light projections, enhanced-reality technology and special effects are used to tell the story of Victorian slate miners – and visitors can try some of the mining techniques themselves.
• Opens 22 March, from £15, llechwedd-slate-caverns.co.uk
Snow camp, Manchester
Chill Factore indoor snow centre has a range of one- and two-day camps. Snow Fun Camps are for beginners who want to learn the basics of skiing and snowboarding, try luging, tubing and sledging, and have a go on the climbing wall. The Beginner and Improver Camps are more focused on skiing or snowboarding, while the Race Camp is for more experienced skiers who want to try the gates and slalom.
• Until 22 April, from £59 a day/£99 for two days, 9am-5pm, includes lunch, chillfactore.com
Easter train rides, various locations
The Railway Children stage-to-screen film of the York Theatre Royal’s Olivier award-winning production at the National Railway Museum in Yorkshire is released at cinemas nationwide on 28 March (railwaychildrenfilm.com). There are lots of Easter specials on real railways, too. Thomas the Tank Engine is coming to the Watercress Line, Alresford (25 March-3 April, adult £18, child £12, watercressline.co.uk), near Winchester. There is a mini circus workshop on the Strathspey Steam Railway in Aviemore (27, 28 March, adult £14.25, child £8.65, under-fives £1.50, strathspeyrailway.co.uk). The Spa Valley Railway in Tunbridge Wells has Easter egg hunts (25-28 March, £25 all-day family ticket, spavalleyrailway.co.uk). The Easter Bunny is hopping on board a vintage steam train on Gwili Railway, Carmarthen (25-28 March, adult £11, child £5, under-threes free, gwili-railway.co.uk). Kids travel for a quid on the Kent & East Sussex Railway, and there is a petting farm at Bodiam Station with lambs, chicks, piglets and ducklings (25 March-10 April, farm 25-28 March, kesr.org.uk).
GROWN-UP EASTER
Clubbing, London
DJ-turned-actor Idris Elba returns to the decks for a one-off event at Egg London. The King’s Cross club has a great mix of indoor and outdoor spaces and a 24-hour licence. Alongside The Wire star, partygoers should look out for another special-guest DJ (details currently under wraps).
• 24 March, 10pm, tickets £18, egglondon.co.uk
Feasting, Brighton
It’s all about local produce at the Big Sussex Market in Brighton – a smorgasbord of 120 stalls showcasing the tastiest morsels from the county’s best growers, restaurateurs and cafes. The two-day event on New Road runs from 10am-5pm – plenty of time to fill your boots.
• 25-26 March, brightonfood festival.com
Choir concerts, Cambridge
For music of another kind altogether, the King’s College Cambridge choir is running a week-long festival of services and concerts over Easter, including the college choir and the Hanover Band performing Handel’s Brockes Passion on Saturday 26 March at 7.30pm. No tickets required.
• 21-26 March, kings.cam.ac.uk/choir
Drag racing, Wellingborough
There’s endless fun for petrol heads at the action-packed Festival of Power, a weekend of drag Racing at Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire, over Easter weekend. All things powerful – from top fuel dragsters and nitro funny cars to monster trucks – will be revving up a storm, with stunt displays and a funfair adding to the noisy mix.
• 25-27 March, day tickets £19, santapod.co.uk
