The best: Half term activities around Manchester this February

New for 2025, the Super Duper Family Festival takes over the city centre with a series of free play zones across various public spaces, squares and events spaces.

From an arcade in The Printworks and a Sports Hall at Great Northern to daily parties at Factory International and a New Cathedral Street playground inspired by BBC’s Waterloo Road, the festival welcomes visitors of all ages to enjoy an unforgettable day of dancing, crafts, discos, activities and performances during the first days of the half-term holiday.

Find out more via the festival Instagram below.

For the aquatic experience of a lifetime, SeaLife Manchester offers a selection of incredible VIP packages to enjoy as a family throughout half-term, from snorkelling with over 1,000 sea creatures and swimming with sharks (ages 10+) to exclusive sharks-after-dark tours, breathtaking VR undersea journeys and even a lunch date with Cammy and Ernie, the aquarium’s resident giant green sea turtles.

To see the rest of the aquarium during half-term, book an advance ticket from £15.95 or an adult-and-toddler ticket for £15.

This year, SeaLife invites families to explore the unique universe of Nintendo’s beloved gaming realm, Animal Crossing, in which you can create your own paradise on a deserted island and meet iconic characters like Tom Nook and Isabelle.

Open daily and free to visit, the Science and Industry Museum hosts a ‘sense-sational’ half-term programme of mesmerising shows, engaging installations and head-scratching experiences inspired by the major new exhibition, Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You.

Escape the bluster of late winter and pique your cranial curiosity with another super-sized adventure through the human body. Inspired by the hit BBC Children’s TV series, Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You shrinks visitors to microscopic size and sets a medical mission through the brain of Operation Ouch! host Dr. Chris, uncovering the remarkable mysteries of our senses as you navigate his neural pathways.

Poke around inside a giant eyeball, identify scents in the smell library, bang on a giant eardrum and learn more about our grey matter with games, challenges and fun facts guided by videos and illustrations of Dr. Chris, Dr. Xand and Dr. Ronx.

Elsewhere, families can get stuck into a variety of sensory activities including glow-in-the-dark art, thermal cameras and body music in the Experiment Gallery and intergenerational play across fifty years of video game magic with over a hundred different consoles in Power Up.

You can also discover the incredible superpowers of animals in the museum’s new science show, Wild Senses. From bees to bats and beyond, visitors can learn about the wondrous ways in which various creatures have evolved to use their razor-sharp senses for survival.

Check out our overview of the Science and Industry Museum’s half-term programme HERE, and plan your visit below.

Back by popular demand for an eighth year, Oldham’s beloved light art festival returns with dazzling parades, breathtaking performances from artists across the country and an illuminated lantern-flanked townscape stretching from Oldham Civic Centre to the Town Hall, concluding with a show-stopping display inspired by future visions of robots, AI and the natural world at Northern Roots ecopark, led by Global Grooves and ‘intergalactic snail riders’ Sleepy Pete, Rosemary Ripple and Gastro Flash.

Suitable for ages 3-5 with accompanying adults free, Stoller Hall’s Helena the Horse invites visitors in from the rain to enjoy a heartwarming forest adventure featuring original drawings, delightful songs and a host of family-friendly entertainment.

Ahead of warmer weather and a reopened spring train schedule, East Lancashire Railway hosts a diverse, captivating set of half term events at Bury Transport Museum, with a Wizarding Adventure through the Irwell Valley, a magical route through Wonderland and a celebratory kids-go-free offer for various journeys.

Running throughout the week, Jodrell Bank’s star-hopping half-term programme whisks families on a spellbinding voyage across the cosmos with all-new science demonstrations, interactive Dome Shows, hands-on exhibitions and endless space-based activities.

In the new Curious Kids show Magic vs. Science, Jodrell Bank’s team of experts will flummox audiences with a series of mystifying displays, while Ted’s Space Adventure celebrates the magic of the universe with a Dome screening full of music, rhyme and immersive fun, as the astronaut bear Ted and his trusty companion Plant lead an expedition to learn more about what we find among the stars and how they affect us.

When arriving at the venue, families can pick up a Star Hunter Trail map, with checkpoints scattered around Jodrell to add a touch of interstellar adventure to your visit.

Check out our overview of Jodrell Bank’s full half-term programme HERE.

Featuring over fifty interactive exhibits including optical illusions, mind-bending holograms, gravity-defying rooms and trippy recreations of Mancunian landmarks, Market Street’s Museum of Illusions promises the perfect half-term afternoon activity for families with hours of scientific entertainment and wildly imaginative creations.

Children under 4 can enjoy the museum for free, but booking is required.

Grab your tickets below.

Join the loveable bunny Bing and his fluffy friends Sula, Pando, Coco, Amma and Flop as they prepare to mark the big occasion with a brand-new family-friendly puppetry show, where dress-up and sing-a-longs are encouraged in a delightful daytime celebration ideal for younger theatre-goers.

Manchester Museum’s Wild explores our precarious but optimistic dynamic with the natural world, taking over the Exhibition Hall with a fascinating examination of the ways in which people around the world are rebuilding our connections with a planet in jeopardy.

Featuring an immersive installation, audio, film and interactive elements, as well as an array of natural history collections and artworks, Wild transports visitors across a captivatingly diverse global topography and a wide array of voices, from Aboriginal elders to academic researchers, to champion the innovative methods used to restore biodiversity and shape a sustainable future environment while challenging how we think about and interact with nature.