Whether your little one is a promising palaeontologist, an aspiring artist, or a daring detective, you’ll find the best family days out in Winchester!
Start planning your summer holidays in Winchester with our jam-packed calendar of family friendly activities! Visit Winchester is your one-stop-shop for planning an unforgettable day out.
Party, pop and play at Winchester’s top attractions
Between 19 July and 3 September families are invited dance, play and explore bubbles with Summer Bubble Fun at Winchester Science Centre.
Outside in the South Downs National Park, grab a giant bubble wand and get creative with giant bubble play. There’ll be opportunities to explore what shapes triangle or square bubble wands make and to see who can make the biggest bubbles. Then, settle down for a bubble storytime session.
Back inside, enjoy bubble parties throughout the day, step inside a giant bubble and join the science Inspirers in the Science Theatre for The Bubble Show, featuring daring demos and live experiments!
Over in Alresford, there is a trainload of excitement awaiting at The Watercress Line. From 5 to 10 August, join the 80th birthday celebration of Thomas & Friends with a Day Out With Thomas!
New for this year are exciting shows, meet and greets with the whole Thomas & Friends gang, as well as a Thomas-themed Party Zone. Visitors can also book a ride behind Thomas in a real steam engine. Then, explore the rest of the station for story-time sessions, fairground rides and unlimited rides on the delightful miniature railway. All aboard for a fantastic day out for all the family.
Step back in time at Winchester’s historic venues
Travel back to 878 AD and become an undercover Anglo-Saxon! Daring detectives will need to learn about day-to-day life in King Alfred’s Winchester by playing games, uncovering historic clues and interacting with Winchester’s medieval residents.
From 19 July to 3 August, learn to protect your field from a hungry wolf; from 4 to 17 August discover the tricks to bartering at the market for the best deals; and from 18 August to 2 September, it’s up to you to bake bread to feed the troops returning from battle. Think you’ve got what it takes to earn your Time Detective Agency badge? Find out more.
Continue your adventures at City Museum to help them fix their broken time machine! Visit across the 6 weeks of the summer holiday, where the time machine will transport you to a different place in history, from the Iron Age to the Victorian Era. Help solve puzzles, create historic crafts and meet re-enactors during each week’s time takeover.
Families are also invited to explore Winchester Cathedral with the Interactive Family Trail! Collect your trail from the Welcome Desk and join in with Jane Austen’s party games, including a horse race, card games and a duel! In this special summer activity, you can celebrate 250 years of Jane Austen in the very place she is buried.
Get crafty and creative across the district
Winchester Cathedral is hosting weekly craft activities, suitable for ages 3 to 11. Each week’s craft activity will have a brand new theme and is based on mythical creatures found in the Cathedral. At the end of the session you’ll have created your own souvenir and enjoyed a story time in the beautiful surroundings of the cathedral’s North Transept.
On 5 August, young crafters can create a Wyvern from a paper plate and card. 13 August offers the chance to go home with a Pegasus picture with 3D wings. On 28 August, design your very own Green Man with paper leaves.
At The Arc, budding artists can come together to create exciting eco crafts from 28 July to 26 August! On Mondays at 2pm, join the fun with a giant eco bubble wand and potion-making session. On Tuesdays there is a hands-on mini clay vase making workshop at 10am, followed by a nature mark making session at 2pm. Then on Wednesday 30 July and Wednesday 20 August, sign up for the nature-inspired lino printmaking workshop.
Go wild exploring our best outdoor activities
It’s a pre-history party at Marwell Zoo this summer with a world-exclusive showcase of spectacular extinct creatures crafted from over 2 million toy bricks! Extinction will be running from 19 July to 7 September.
Discover lost species, including a gigantic woolly mammoth, a hissing titanoboa and a giant ground sloth. You can even help build a sabre-toothed tiger daily from 11am to 4pm. Be sure to capture your unforgettable day out at one of the photo opportunities across the park.
In Selbourne, Gilbert White’s House invites you down the rabbit hole with their A Natural History of Wonderland Trail. The March Hare, Cheshire Cat and other curious creatures from Wonderland will be hiding in the gardens from 19 July to 7 September! Collect a map, find the creatures and complete the challenges along the way.
Kids can also join Wild Wednesdays each week throughout the summer! Enjoy an hour of hands-on activities for children and parents to experience local wildlife. Using the range of habitats at the site, each day has a different theme to introduce the creatures large and small.
