The best things to do with kids in May half term in London and the UK 2023
It's hard to believe that the May half-term is right around the corner – which means it's time to plan out a full-proof itinerary to keep the kids occupied throughout. With early summer doing its thing by blessing us with warm weather, sunny skies and longer days, there's no better time to explore the UK than right now.
From cool museums to fun festivals and even a trip to Mars, these are the best things to do with kids in May half term in London and the UK 2023.
If a city break is on the cards, then these are some of the best UK trips to take with the whole crew. Plus, some easy day trips from London for a quick getaway.
Best half-term activities in London
The Mail Rail at the Postal Museum, Farringdon
Best for: ages 5+
We realise the sheer novelty of riding London’s new Elizabeth tube line may have worn off by now, so here’s another subterranean railway thrill. The Mail Rail was an integral part of the capital’s postal system, carrying letters and parcels via small underground trains to avoid street-level congestion. It ran from 1927 to 2003, unnoticed by the public, but now families can navigate the tunnels in refurbished carriages, trundling along at 7.5mph, which pause every so often for audio-visual presentations projected on the station walls. The museum – just across the road – is a fascinating insight into our postal history, with pneumatic tubes to send messages through. For May half term it’s taking part in The Wild Escape, a UK-wide project in schools and museums, aimed at 5-11 year olds with creative play and storytelling around the museum’s unofficial inhabitants including moths, silverfish and spiders, making snail banquets and bug hotels along the way.
Website: postalmuseum.org
Address: The Mail Rail at the Postal Museum, 15-20 Phoenix Pl, London WC1X 0DL
Extra spring opening date: Tuesday 30 May (May Half Term)
Kids Rule at Eltham Palace and Gardens
Best for:all ages
If you are already missing the recent Coronation fanfare and high tea events, this Kids Rule half-term celebration will put the pomp and ceremony back in the frame. As a nod to the crowning of King Charles III, there will be a throwback party to King George VI’s 1937 coronation, as you do, with recreated scenes at Eltham Palace and royally-dressed people popping in for tea. Kids can pick up a regal crown on entry to wear and join in with the interactive activities that will be going on, plus the gardens themselves are a sight to behold.
Website: english-heritage.org.uk/eltham-palace-and-gardens
Address: Eltham Palace and Gardens, Court Yard, London SE9 5QE
Time Travellers at LookOut, Hyde Park
Best for: ages 5+
More royal larks can be had at Hyde Park’s look out centre this half term including a chat to Queen Victoria, as part of a travelling back in time event that delves into the history of the Royal Parks. There will, of course, be costumes to dress up in. Kids can also make a plant print, have a go at calligraphy, postcards and some quintessentially British bunting, or the more ambitious among them can design their own park, which should keep them occupied for a good chunk of time. There will also be lots of traditional family games to argue over.
Website: royalparks.org.uk/hyde-park
Address: Hyde Park, London
London Transport Museum – festival of curiosity
Best for: ages 5-14
The clue is in the title. So it’s curious things for curious minds, where imaginations can be wild and free. You can problem solve on steam trails and learn about engineering – including how they trial climate change solutions, which all children would benefit from knowing. Sustainability is a theme throughout, with thoughts of what a greener city could look like in the future and what vehicles could use as fuel, which, given that King Charles runs his Aston Martin on wine and cheese, means that it’s anyone’s guess where that could lead. There is also the chance to build a prototype that could contribute to positive change. Workshops and storytelling sessions are suitable for different age groups.
Website: ltmuseum.co.uk
Address: London Transport Museum, London WC2E 7BB
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London Zoo Festival
Best for: all ages
The London Zoo is a half term win-win at the best of times, but this festival will throw even more interest into the mix with a programme of animal, nature and mindfulness-related arts, crafts and chats. All age groups will be up for something, whether it's dancing in a tulip tent and playing animal noise bingo (yes, that’s a thing), or hanging out in the foxglove fortress (ages 10+) and making shelters in a girl guide/boy scout style, while learning the hows and whys of animal tracks and trails. Babies, meanwhile, will be at home just chilling in the lilac lounge sensory sessions.
Website: londonzoo.org
Address: London Zoo, Outer Cir, London NW1 4RY
CBeebies: Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre
Best for: ages 3+
CBeebies is back at the Globe Theatre after its success last year, and it’s another chance to get the kids an early education on Shakespeare and really sell it to them before they realise it’s on the secondary school syllabus and must be taken seriously. This year it’s Twelfth Night, and all performances will be recorded in front of a live audience to be broadcast on the small screens next year. If you want to extend all the Bard-heavy fun, there’s an interactive Twelfth Night workshop for ages 3-5 (plus an adult needs to be in tow) in one of the Globe rehearsal rooms.
Website: shakespearesglobe.com
Address: Shakespeare's Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, London SE1 9DT
Best half-term activities in the UK
Hay Festival, Wales
Best for: all ages
If you like books and you like the ruggedly beautiful countryside, you’d do well to make it to the Hay Festival this half term, which is a stone’s throw from Brecon Beacons National Park. Comedians and musicians will frequently add to the bookish mix and there’s something for all ages. There are ‘Hay on Earth’ sustainability food talks, Loose Ends with Clive Anderson, brass bands, yoga, poetry – including an afternoon of poetry with the great Michael Rosen, as well as crafts, workshops and lots and lots of chats.
Website: hayfestival.com
Address: Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales, LD3 8NL
Journey to Mars at Aerospace, Bristol
Best for: all ages
Such is the fascination with Mars by us on Earth that some people are prepared to sign up to missions to permanently live there in the knowledge that they would most likely never see their home or loved ones again. Will we ever colonise Mars? That’s the burning question. Installation artist Luke Jerram will have his Mars artwork on display, which will detail the planet’s surface in extraordinary detail, as if having a ringside satellite view from the air. There will also be a model of the Mars Express Orbiter, which was used for the European Space Agency’s first planetary mission, as well as a full-scale model of the Beagle 2 – built for a mission to look for evidence of life on Mars.
Website: aerospacebristol.org
Address: Aerospace, Hayes Way, Patchway, Bristol BS34 5BZ
Half Term at the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester
Best for: all ages
Robotics and creative stuff are on tap throughout half term. There’s a drone display, artificial intelligence programming, coding and general technological wizardry. Kids can meet and greet a robot dog who will be generally hanging out around the museum (in an unmenacing way), and there’s a Stephen Hawking at Work display, which has objects from his office – so we’re imagining that there will be more than a few bic biros, a notebook and a stapler in the belongings of an esteemed scientist. A surprising item, though, is a jacket that Hawking’s was given by the Simpsons creators.
Website: scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk
Address: Science and Industry Museum, Liverpool Rd, Manchester M3 4JP
Graffiti workshops, Leake Street at the Southbank
Best for: ages 8+
The former railway arches at Leake Street were turned into an art space next to a tunnel in 2008 by Banksy, not that anyone would have seen him. And now artist in residence Marc Craig (or Max The Virus as he’s known in the art tunnel world) will be at the graffiti teaching helm in the space, giving instructions as well as a tour of the ever-changing art ‘scene’ there. It doesn’t get much more fun when you’re 8 and above than spray painting a blank canvas on the inside of a tunnel with whatever design comes to mind – that you can take home afterwards. Workshops will be going on throughout 2023 and all protective gear is provided.
Website: southbanklondon.com/raffiti-workshops-leake-street
Address: Leake Street, London
Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
Best for: ages 10+
Calling all teenage fashionistas – this is the last chance to catch Dame Mary Quant’s fashion-forward exhibition that has transferred from London’s V&A for a final run in Glasgow. Quant’s iconic designs were all the rage at the Bazaar boutique on the King’s Road in Chelsea at the height of the Swinging Sixties, showcasing her radical minidress-making skills that liberated a generation of women. There will be lots of clothes, make-up and accessories popping up from the archives at the V&A as well as items from private collections that were offered up to exhibit after a public appeal.
Website: glasgowlife.org.uk/kelvingrove-art-gallery-and-museum/mary-quant-fashion-revolutionary
Address: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Argyle St, Glasgow G3 8AG
DNA VR, London and Manchester
Best for: ages 7+
If the Metaverse is the future, then here’s the place to hone your survival skills. It’s a virtual gaming arcade where you don headgear and gloves and enter a variety of imaginary worlds in which you can fly through the air, boldly go into space, swim underwater – oh, and shoot lots of zombies. Games are age appropriate, and each group has their own supervisor to ensure no one gets into difficulty – the experience can be quite discombobulating. Multiplayer arcade games include Elven Assassin, in which you and your friends protect a village against orc invasion, and there also escape rooms, in which you work as a team to problem-solve and, for instance, foil a dastardly plan to set off a nuclear weapon in New York.
Website: dnavr.co.uk
Address: multiple locations
Blood and Guts walking tours, Edinburgh
Best for: ages 10+
It’s a given that many older kids will be enthralled by a walking tour with a focus on the dissection of bodies and gory diseases, along with intriguing treatment methods and the location where surgeons and anatomists did their important work. Who wouldn't be? If you’re not gored out by the end of the walk, there’s free access to the Surgeons Hall museums with the tour ticket, so you can peruse the many medical instruments, brains in jars and skeletal displays at your leisure.
Website: museum.rcsed.ac.uk
Address: Surgeons Hall Museums, Nicolson St, Edinburgh EH8 9DW