I cannot rave enough about Finkley Down Farm. I don't even have kids I can use as an excuse - I…read moresimply come here to relax and spend some time with the animals. The atmosphere is relaxed and peaceful and the abundance of cute greedy animals desperate for you to feed them is nothing short of delightful. Their animals range from goats and sheep to chickens to cows right over to the more unusual llamas and highland cows. Even if you're not into getting close to the animals or feeding them the buckets of food available at the ticket office, just watching them mooch around is still fun and relaxing. The llama took somewhat of a disliking to me (was it something I said?) and stormed at me, looking like it could easily clear the fence and gain its freedom. I wasn't going to hang around to find out. One look at my pathetic retreating hide running off into the distance was enough to reduce its anger to mere disdain, and instead he decided to spit all over me. In some sort of random heroic act, the pig sharing its pen flung itself at the llama as if to take the blow for me, and rather than reflect on the llama soaking I'd been given, I instead watched this pig take one for the team. Right in the eye, no less. From hereonin, I shall name this pig SuperPig. If you do have kids you can pretend are the reason for visiting, there's plenty to keep them occupied. Other than the animals you can feed, there are talks and handling sessions with some of the smaller or baby pets throughout the day. There's also a nice adventure playground and a couple of trampolines to wear them out on too. There's a small gift shop and a place to buy some food, as well as a picnic area if you're sensible enough to bring your own food. I love this place and can't wait to go back when it reopens for the season next year.

A lovely little petting farm for a day out with the family. Entrance fee is very reasonable. Farm…read moreisn't huge by anyone's standards but just about big enough for an afternoons walking about without it being too much for the little/older ones. Lots to see and many activities laid on for the children. Arm them with a bucket of food from the entrance first though or you will find yourself running back for some! On site cafe sells everything from fish & chips to ice cream or just a cuppa. Toilets well sign posted and clean. Lots of basins and hand gel dotted around for after you have touched the animals. Nice staff who are kid friendly. Congratulations to the farm for keeping the gift shop prices low, lots of souvenirs on sale for under £2.

Definitely not just another play barn!…read more Spread over two stories of an old department store this is a fantastic place to bring the kids. Areas to suit babies, under threes, under fives and upwards! A huge play frame to let the kids loose on and upstairs they can speed around the racetrack on electric go-karts (this costs extra), play air hockey, table football, table tennis or even play on the Wii A great place to eat with hot and cold menus, all freshly prepared in their kitchens. They do kids parties and have four themed rooms (Pirates, Princess, Pitstop and Undersea) for them to eat in before they're let loose on the equipment. A nice family run business, not just another franchised playbarn run by grumpy teenagers!

This is a brilliant place to take young children. It can get…read morevery busy during school holidays but in term time it is realy good for pre school children. There is a cafe serving sandwiches and hot meals. You can book the whole center for birthday parties this can be expensive though, and they have special themed days (christmas and halloween) you have to book well in advance for these.

This is a welcome addition to Clydach Vale. Its something we've been needing for a long time. Its…read moreexcellent there, its around 3.50 for under 5's and 4.50 for over 5's and under 1s go free, you get a two hour session. They have a really good (and safe) climbing play area with slides and balls and they have an under 5s area with a smaller climbing frame slide and ball pool. They also offer a wide selection of food and drink. Its a really good couple of hours out for the children. You can also book childrens partys there and they now do theme nights. Christmas time the children can see Father Christmas which my son is really looking forward to this year!!

a great place for 8's and unders. there are 2 sections one for toddlers and one for the older ones…read more a safe play area and great place to wear the kids out. they have an eating/seating area and food is ok. its loved by my granddaughter and grandson. they offer a playgroup and school sessions along with parties.they take a photo for our membership card. not to be missed well worth a visit. a car park and the 313 bus stop is right outside. its newness can be still felt inside.

this is a great place for kids my kids always enjoy it here its a big place lots of space inside…read more there is a toddler play erea there is a baby erea and a play erea for older children. also there is a football erea they have got computers there for the parents internet access. and you can eat inside on the tables and chairs not sure how much the food is tho but i would say its fair priced. overall this is fun for children

This is a delightful steam railway in the Forest of Dean, which has preserved one of the once-many…read morelines built to serve the Forest's erstwhile coal-mining and quarrying industries. The line is centred on the former colliery site at Norchard, just north of Lydney, where a small museum, shop and museum have been established. (This also has the largest car-park). The line itself has been reopened between Lydney Junction (adjacent to the BR station) and the village of Parkend, in the centre of the Forest. The line between Lydney and Parkend follows a lovely, thickly wooded valley, with streams and waterfalls. The whole enterprise is run by volunteers. As well as steam locomotives, there is a large collection of vintage diesels at Lydney Junction, undergoing or awaiting restoration. Some services may be run by preserved diesel railcars - contact the line for details. As well as the regular tourist service, the line hosts various special events, with 'Thomas the Tank Engine' days and 'Santa Specials' at Christmas for children. Some trains have light refreshments and 'Supper Specials' are also run. Access for wheelchairs onto the stations and trains is available at Norchard and Parkend, and the railway makes an effort to be as accessible as possible (NB: car park surfaces can be uneven). If you harbour dormant fantasies about driving a steam engine, they offer one-day railway experience packages. These are also available to groups - how about this for a company Away-day with a difference!

We visited this during a wet camping holiday this summer. Before I get onto talking of the train…read morejourney itself, I must mention the small museum at the start of the rail journey. This contains a collection of railway momentoes, signs, luggage trolleys, photos etc but the thing that really struck my kids was the working telephone exchange. You have a row of bakelite phones connected together and, when you dial each one, you can watch the exchange doing its 'tick tick tick tick clunk' thing as it connects the two handsets. That kept the kids quite amused for a good while. The trains run according to a timetable and there's interest on the journey as they run through a couple of the towns in the forest of Dean, holding up local traffic. The trains look well looked after and are staffed by amenable looking old and young enthusiasts. They ran a raffle when we were on our ride, the prize being a ride in the cab with the driver on the return journey. Shame we didn't get it. Staff were happy enough to answer questions and I was amused to find that the type of diesel train we were in was already 30 years old when I used to ride in them to and from school in the 1980's.

This is a big soft play centre in an Industrial estate warehouse. The equipment for older kids…read morelooks great, plenty of bridges and ropes and what-have-you, it's hard to tell from the outside! For the littlies, there isn't a huge amount, but there is a very deep ball pool and a few giant wobble-men to play with. Theoretically this is in a dedicated 'toddler area', but in practice it's hard to keep the bigger kids away, especially when they are all hyped up! This means you are better off taking little kids here while school is on if you can. Meanwhile, there are plenty of sofas and tables for mums and a little coffee shop, claiming to sell the best coffee in Leamington. I'm not sure that's true, but it's good enough. My son will love this place in a few years, for now it is somewhere handy to keep in mind on rainy days.

This place is a working farm thats built an adventure playground and petting pens allowing people…read moreto go in and see the animals close up. Everything you would expect from a farm plus a few extra's. The staff are very helpful and always willing to give information on there animals and live stock. There is also a really good cafe serving locally produced products and a small gift shop

Our day at Cantref was the highlight of our trip!! We spent a half day with Meg on a 2 hour…read morehorseback ride. Meg is so sweet, warm and welcoming and made us feel so comfortable from the orientation throughout the whole day. Our horses were so sweet and we had a great time getting views of the Welsh country side. Thank you to Cantref Farms for the fantastic outing! Well worth the journey out there!

Perfect family day trip to this farm! It is so different from other farms as it has unique animals…read more They have such a big variety of animals and even a park for children to play in after visiting the animals. Price is £5 per adult but can get a season pass for £20 so that's a good price I think and means can return whenever you wanted to. There is a cafe also with a souvenirs shop. Would recommend a trip.

I was told about the Chew Valley country farm by my cousin who had visited it on Easter bank…read moreholiday Friday, I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of it before. We decided to visit on bank holiday Monday. It was a beautiful hot and sunny day which was a good start to our visit. We have a 1 year old little girl who absolutely loves animals and is used to visiting our local community farm in Windmill Hill. We struggled across the stoney forecourt with our pushchair and saw the sign on the door of the cafe asking us to go in to pay, the entrance fee was about £5 per adult. The lady who greeted me was friendly and cheerful and we spoke about the wonderful change in weather in true British style!! We spent about an hour wandering around the various animals, all the animals seemed to be healthy and happy and their living quarters were extremely spacious and clean, our favourites were the sheep, geese and wallabies, we even got to see a baby wallaby in its mother pouch, the information about the animals was very informative and easy to read with just the right amount of information. When we had finished looking at the animals we went and played in the park for a while, the swing for babies was really good and my little girl really enjoyed it, it was surprisingly quiet for a bank holiday Monday and we didn't have to queue to use the swing (we nearly always have to in our local park) Before we left we decided to sit down and have a drink and an ice cream, the ice cream was local and was absolutely delicious, it cost £4.90 for 2 cans and 2 tubs of ice cream which i think is pretty reasonable, So in summary for a nice 1/2 day out the Chew valley farm is definitely a good choice, the £5 entry price is OK considering that you get to see such a wide variety of animals but it does mean that I won't be visiting every week, not sure if they offer any kind of membership but I would probably be interested in it if it was available.

This is a great indoor play area to take the kids! They have a area for toddlers and then a bigger…read morearea for older children. The staff are a bit hit and miss sometimes they can be really friendly and other seem not to care about their customers. They sell snacks and drinks and also meals such as chicken nuggets, burgers, chips etc! It is also really good value for money as its very cheap admission.

The Swindon Jolly Roger's is really rubbish. The management treat their staff and some customers…read morelike crap. The food looks like plastic and is very disgusting even your kids won't eat hardly any of it. The parties are done very badly as well. From being behind the scenes i can honestly say it's not worth it the management gossip about customers and never replace broken objects.