The best: Things to do around Manchester this Easter half-term

There are many fantastic attractions inside the Legoland Discovery Centre in Manchester, including a 4D cinema and Lego-themed VR experiences. To recharge between attractions you can visit the coffee shop or browse the Lego store. With fun for children and nostalgia for adults, there is something for everyone in the family to enjoy.

Located at the Trafford Palazzo, the Legoland Discovery Centre is open every day over the Easter half term. Standard tickets booked in advance start at £17.50 per adult, and under 2s go free.

Running until Mon Sun 26 Apr, Legoland’s ‘Build the Thrill’ invites younger visitors to grab their Pit Pass, choose an F1 team to join and get hands on to create a Minifigure driver and build a race car, before setting them up for races and a variety of gauntlets.

Complete all the challenges and celebrate your racing action on top of the Build the Thrill podium.

Book your visit below.

Immerse your family in nature this Easter at Cockfield Farm’s Easter Bonanza. Located in Oldham, Cockfield Farm offers a farm-wide Easter Egg Hunt, an Interactive Easter Walkthrough, scenic tractor rides, reptile handling, animal feeding, and even the chance to bottle-feed newborn lambs as an optional extra.

Between Fri 3 Apr – Mon 6 Apr, children are invited to held find all of the Easter Bunny’s eggs in a classic seasonal scavenger hunt that spans the picturesque Heaton Park. 

The trail begins at the newly renovated Stables Cafe, where families can eat and drink before and after the hunt. Simply pick up a leaflet there, follow the clues and give the Bunny the secret phrase when you find him to receive a sweet reward.

Tickets need to be booked in advance and cost £4.25, with each child receiving a chocolate Easter egg. Dairy-free options are also available.

The 11th annual Salford Quays Charity Duck Race promises to be a wholesome, family-friendly day of fun. Raising money for MedEquip4Kids, this event is centred around a duck race in the Quays – to race a duck costs only £2.50 and there is a chance to win a host of excellent prizes. prizes such as Laser Quest experiences and toy vouchers.

As well as the duck race, there will be food and refreshments, fairground rides, face painting and more.

Head to Bury Transport Museum where you’ll have the chance to meet Peter Rabbit across Easter Weekend. As well as the meet-and-greet, the museum will host toddler-suitable fairground rides, face painting, crafting activities, and a petting farm. Also included in the ticket price is a scenic ride on a heritage steam or diesel train through Irwell Valley.

On Thu 8 Apr, you can enrol at the Villain Academy, with a host of infamous characters on hand to impart evil secrets and put your sinister skills to the test. The following day, you can join the museum’s zany professors for a magical ride full of wand-waving, spell-casting and mysterious creatures during the Wizarding Adventure.

There will be a food vendor at the museum and there is a cafe at the nearby Bury Bolton Street Station.

Tickets for adults are £20, children aged between two and 17 are £17.50, and children under two go free. General admission tickets must be booked in advance online.

Take a look at life under the sea this Easter half term at SEA LIFE Manchester, with their expansive aquariums teeming with turtles, clownfish, sharks, and cownose rays. Submerge yourself with a tropical walk underneath their Ocean Tunnel, or visit the Shark Shipwreck aquarium, which houses a wide variety of species.

New for this year, the Pirate Treasure Hunt puts a swashbuckling spin on Easter trails with a day of interactive exploration, creative crafts and photo opportunities with a real-life buccaneer.

SEA LIFE Manchester is open every day, and standard tickets booked in advance start £15.95 per adult, while under 2s go free. 

Jodrell Bank hosts another springtime in space, charting a course for the cosmos with a packed programme of family-friendly activities set across its vast, rolling grounds.

In Mission: Explore!, families embark on an interactive journey across the site in search of hidden discoveries, collecting stamps in a space passport while uncovering fascinating facts about the Solar System.

Back on Earth, Mission: Create! invites curious cosmonauts to get hands-on with daily drop-in sessions, from crafting planets to growing sunflowers, while the Discover the Dish experience offers bitesize outdoor talks beside the iconic Lovell Telescope.

Inside the Space Dome, a varied programme of spectacular, immersive screenings includes Ted’s Space Adventure for younger visitors, alongside expansive and fascinating films like One Step Beyond: A Journey to Mars and CAPCOM GO! The Apollo Story. Visitors can also explore exhibitions, wander the arboretum and refuel at the on-site cafes.

Read more HERE and book your visit below.

For more interstellar wonder this holiday, the Science and Industry Museum’s Easter schedule offers a galaxy of hands-on fun, blockbuster exhibitions and astronomical entertainment.

Across the museum, families can test their skills with astronaut training challenges, explore life aboard the International Space Station and design their own mission patches, while live shows offer a closer look at the curious world of space food, complete with samples of astronaut-inspired snacks.

This year’s half-term programme is inspired by Horrible Science: Cosmic Chaos, the brand new large-scale exhibition that launches visitors from Manchester into deep space. Beginning in the lair of the villainous Dr Big Brain, the experience journeys through wormholes, moonquakes and orbital science, with highlights including real Moon rock, a model of the Beagle 2 lander and a deep dive into black holes and exoplanets.

Elsewhere, younger visitors can explore sensory zones, strange planetary environments and even round off their visit with a daily alien dance party.

Read more HERE and plan your visit below.

Kick off your half-term in style at the National Football Museum, with a wide-ranging programme of activities designed to delight lovers of the beautiful game across the generations.

All-new exhibition Head, Shoulders, Knees & Goals explores the relationship between football and the human body through interactive displays and play, while the Yard Ball experience transforms the Pitch Gallery into a fast-paced urban arena testing skill and control.

Across the galleries, families can follow the Build a Baller trail, take on blind football challenges, or try their hand at Sub Soccer, alongside creative workshops and sensory experiences that bring matchday to life in new ways. There is also the return of the free footie shirt festival PitchFest for one weekend only (Sat 11 – Sun 12 Apr), celebrating retro kits and football culture.

For an unbeatable dose of breathtaking local nature at its spring best, RHS Garden Bridgewater marks the Easter holiday with an interactive seasonal mystery, set along a detective trail that winds through its beautiful grounds in bloom.

Young visitors can follow clues scattered throughout the gardens to solve the case of the missing Easter eggs, with a cast of suspicious characters and puzzles to crack along the way. Each participant can pick up a detective pack filled with activities, ciphers and colouring materials, culminating in a chocolate reward.