One of the best things we started doing a few years ago was asking family to get the kids vouchers for days out or annual passes instead of toys. So here is a wee list of memberships & activities that we’ve absolutely loved.
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Museums & Galleries
Things To Do In Glasgow When It’s Raining
Here are a few of our fave indoor spots to hang out & play & get you through the summer rain. Rainy day fun in Glasgow. Some alternatives to soft play…
Kids Visit Free with Scotrail!
Everyone likes free stuff, don’t they? Well kids can get in free to a bunch of big attractions with Scotrail! Here’s how & some suggested places to visit!
DIY Days Out: The Glasgow Subway
“Build” your own adventure day out on the Glasgow Subway. Great for rainy or sunny days. You can make it as low cost as you like. Choose your stops and make your own adventure day up from this list!
Until: The New Installation At Tramway
This latest installation at Tramway is truly fantastic. It’s a full on sensory experience; for everyone. Just be aware with young kids that it’s no touching!
Glasgow’s Best Low Cost Family Activities: The Indoor Edit
Glasgow has loads of indoor places and activities that are either completely free to visit, or pretty low cost. Here’s a list of some of our favourites we’ve visited in the past 5 years!
10 Of The Best….. Family Days Out Around Glasgow
These are our 10 of the best family days our near Glasgow: a list of the places that we love to go and spend the day. Our Top Ten. The places we’ve returned to again and again. Some of them are free; some of them are most definitely not. Some of them are suited to rainy days and some are better for the dry days we’ve had so many of recently. Hopefully if you visit any of them, you’ll love them as much as we do!
Children’s Exhibition at Tramway
The kids had such good fun at the Children’s Exhibition at Tramway. It isn’t massive, but we spent about an hour there and could easily have been there longer. The exhibits are fully interactive and the plasticine in particular gives a perpetually changing landscape to play with and mould, which both my kids really enjoyed. It’s free as well, which is always a bonus during the school holidays!
Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum
We love a little trip into Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for a few hours. It’s a huge space for the little ones to play in and a great place to meet up with a bunch of buggies. If you manage to read anything, that’s always a bonus!
National Museum of Rural Life
The National Museum of Rural Life is an excellent day out. It’s one of our favourite places to visit. There are lovely farm animals to see (and probably to give a wee pat to), lots to keep kids entertained in the museum, a little playpark, and a decent cafe as well. The tractor ride is fun for everyone too.
Summerlee Heritage Museum
Summerlee is big enough to spend a few hours playing and exploring, and has lots of things to do. Best of all the museum is completely free! The tram ride is a very exciting added extra.
St Mungo Museum & Glasgow Cathedral
I enjoyed wandering around St Mungo Museum and Glasgow Cathedral. There are lots of really beautiful artefacts and architecture. The little lady didn’t quite appreciate either of them though. She enjoyed exploring, but we’ll probably go to a more child-friendly museum in future.
New Lanark & Falls of Clyde
New Lanark is a great day out whether you want to spend it indoors or outdoors. The Annie McLeod Experience is something fun and unusual for a rainy day, and the Falls of Clyde Reserve is a lovely place for a walk.
The Burrell Collection
A lovely guest review of the Burrell Collection by a lovely mummy friend and her toddler who went along for a visit recently. Thanks A! It was a rainy Sunday afternoon, so we decided to go to the Burrell Collection with our 2 year old. I had been previously and thought she might like the …
Scotland Street School Museum
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is on just now in Scotland Street School Museum. I always go to see it, but this year thought we’d combine it with a trip for the toddler to have a wander round the museum too. The Museum As I mentioned I went because I wanted to see the …
The Tall Ship At Riverside
We took a wee trip to The Tall Ship a few days ago. I’d been planning on going for ages, so when we had nothing to do one dry morning I thought we’d check it out.
The Museum
It’s a lot bigger than I thought. Not being much of a seaman (with the exception of a few dinghy sailing lessons years ago) I wasn’t quite aware of how far under the water large boats actually go! There’s at least 3 levels to it (I got slightly lost at one point so there could be 4!) with different exhibits about the workings of a tall ship & how people lived & worked on one in the early 20th century throughout. There is a lift to get to pretty much everywhere (except the upper level of the top deck) so it has good pram access.
There are buttons to press, ropes to pull, videos to watch, bells to toll, stairs to climb, decks to scrub and plenty of space to run around in. My little lady’s favourite things were climbing oh so many stairs, and scrubbing the deck, which she did for about 15 minutes. Thinking about it now, the tall ship is a toddlers dream…
There is a (very) small soft play area for toddlers on the bottom level (sorry, the cargo hold) with a tunnel, some soft blocks & a mini-drawbridge to play on. It could definitely do with a bit of updating, but my little lady was perfectly happy to crawl/run around in it. It would entertain young toddlers for a while, but it’s not for kids older than about 4. There’s also a basket of dress up clothes here which are quite fun.
The Cafe
We only got tea and a scone which cost us £2.50. Good tea, and the scone was nice. They do have a decent selection of hot & cold food, but I can’t comment on how nice it might be! It all smelled nice though.
The Cost
It’s free. They ask on the way in if you’d like to buy a guidebook, but you don’t have to.
The Verdict
As with all of Glasgow’s museums, the Tall Ship doesn’t specifically cater to young children too much, but it does so (I think accidentally) better than a lot of the others. The little soft play area they have needs a bit of a facelift, but since it’s part of the whole experience you’re not going to spend too much time in it anyway.
From a toddler’s perspective, it’s absolutely worth a run around. And with it being right next to the Riverside Museum, you could make almost a whole day of it.
The Extra Bits
Opening hours are from 10am – 5pm, Monday to Sunday. And the Riverside Museum is right next to it if you’ve got some extra time to fill.
The top deck (with the deck scrubbers) is outdoors, so make sure you have weather appropriate clothing because your little ones will probably like this deck best.
The Tall Ship at Riverside is located at 150 Pointhouse Place, Glasgow, G3 8RS
The Hunterian Museum
We’ve been doing a lot of museum-ing recently, since Spring decided it wasn’t quite ready to come out yet.
So last week we took a wee wander around the Hunterian Museum, in Glasgow University. I hadn’t been since I was a student and unsurprisingly, it was a bit of a different experience with a toddler!
There’s nothing at all interactive & not much that would peak the interest of a typical toddler. Most of the exhibits are up much higher than the eye level of small children too.
But it’s free, it’s nice & warm and since toddlers are happy as long as they’re free to roam, it’s good for an hour on a rainy day. It’s a pretty good place for a game of peek-a-boo.
You might even get to look at something if you have a toddler that doesn’t run away at every possible opportunity.
Note: The radiators run around the bottom of the railing on the top level. And they’re really hot. Make sure your toddler doesn’t think it’s a seat.
The Hunterian Museum: The University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8
A Run Around GoMA
If you’re in town and need something to do, GoMA (the Gallery of Modern Art is perfect for a wee indoor run around with the toddler. We were meeting a friend in town for some grub & decided to let my little lady roam free for a little while before we headed to the restaurant where …
The Glasgow Science Centre
We took our first (long awaited, in my case) trip to the Science Centre at the weekend. Full disclosure: I worked there when I was a student, and I loved it, and I’m also a tiny bit of a science geek, so my review may not be entirely unbiased. But anyway, the review. Where do …
Science Here We Come!
I was so excited to cash in our vouchers for our science passports at the weekend; a very thoughtful Christmas gift from my family.
Our science passports mean we can visit the Science Centre for a year at anytime, for free! They’re £24 for the year for adults & £18 for kids 3-15 yrs. Under 3’s are free.
Go 3 times in a year & you’ll have paid more than that so they’re very much worth it!
Review of our first visit coming soon…