Stockton-on-Tees
Preston Park and Museum · Photo: Hugh Mortimer
Walk through a recreated Victorian street of shops inside Preston Hall and let the children loose in the parkland play areas. In the afternoon, cross the Tees to an RSPB reserve with a glass-fronted visitor centre, wild play area and level paths between hides.
Museum · 10:00–12:45 (2h45m)
Victorian street, interactive Spence Building and grounds play areas; picnic lunch.
An indoor and outdoor museum in Stockton-on-Tees.
Photo: Hugh Mortimer
Park · 13:15–15:45 (2h30m)
Discovery zone, wild play area and buggy-friendly circular paths; cafe for a treat.
An outdoor park in Middlesbrough.
Photo: Les Hull
North EastWashington
Flamingos, ducks and woodland hides fill the morning at the wetland centre, followed by a short look round the 17th-century house linked to George Washington's ancestors. Finish by climbing the grassy hill to the Greek-temple folly that watches over Wearside.
WWT Washington Wetland Centre → Washington Old Hall → Penshaw Monument
North EastCorbridge / Chollerford
A flatter, younger-child-friendly take on Hadrian's Wall: walk down a real Roman high street and see the Corbridge Lion, then head up the North Tyne to a cavalry fort in parkland with a bath house, a museum of carved stones and a coffee house.
Corbridge Roman Town - Hadrian's Wall → Chesters Roman Fort and Museum - Hadrian's Wall
North EastRedcar / Saltburn-by-the-Sea
A free museum in a grand 1710 building with a school-holiday owl centre next door, a free lift to the top of Redcar's seafront tower, and then Saltburn's Victorian pier and Britain's oldest water-balanced cliff lift for a short, cheap ride.
Kirkleatham Museum → Redcar Beacon → Saltburn Pier → Saltburn Cliff Tramway
