28Jun/25

Top Family Days Out in Manchester

Lancashire, Manchester

Manchester is a brilliant city for families, offering a rich blend of culture, green spaces, entertainment and hands-on learning. With its compact city centre, excellent transport links, and wide range of indoor and outdoor attractions, it’s easy to plan a day out that suits all ages and interests.

From interactive museums to massive parks, and from cutting-edge sports venues to imaginative play zones, Manchester caters to both locals and visitors looking for engaging, child-friendly experiences. Whether you’ve got toddlers, teens or a mix of ages, you’ll find plenty to keep everyone happy in and around the city.

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21Jun/25

Top Family Days Out in Leicester

Days Out, Leicestershire,

Leicester and its surrounding areas offer a fantastic mix of family-friendly activities, blending rich history, vibrant culture, and plenty of green spaces. Whether you live locally or are planning a visit, the city and nearby countryside provide a wealth of opportunities to explore, learn, and have fun together. From interactive museums to sprawling parks and immersive wildlife experiences, Leicester has something to spark the imagination and keep children of all ages entertained.

We’ve gathered some of our favourite days out in and around Leicester—places we’ve explored ourselves as well as others we know to be well-loved by families across the region. Each destination offers a unique experience, whether you’re seeking educational adventures, outdoor fun, or a little bit of both.

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08Jan/24
A review of the Futliit LED backpack. The photo shows the rucksack on a staircase.

Product Review: Futliit LED backpack

Features, Travel product

This winter, we’ve been road testing a great product – a Futliit LED backpack. It’s a regular, good quality backpack suitable for adults or children with a very welcome feature – inbuilt LED lights.

On the face of it, the Futliit LED backpack looks like a regular one. At the touch of a small button or two, it lights up and enables the wearer to be seen in the dark. This is a great backpack for early morning or evening commutes, night-walking, or the walk to and from school.

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01Dec/21

The Railway Children at Hull Truck Theatre

Hull,

This year’s seasonal family show (it is NOT a panto) at Hull Truck Theatre is The Railway Children. We were invited to the press night to go and take a look, and we are very pleased that we did. This is rescheduled from 2020 and I think we can forgive them as well, you know, pandemic and all that, and because it’s a gem of a show which is perfect family entertainment and could be their best yet.

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02Nov/21

Liverpool FC Stadium Tours, Liverpool

Days Out,

Disclosure – Liverpool FC Stadium Tours provided us with a family ticket for this review. All opinion (and chants of YNWA) is our own

It was about 1992 when I last set foot in Anfield. It was for a match and I went with my Dad, a lifelong Liverpool fan, my brother, uncle and cousins. We travelled the almost three hours on the train, ran from Liverpool train station to Anfield in time for kick off. Watched the Mighty Reds beat Nottingham Forest, then walked back to the train station and travelled three hours back home. I didn’t get to see much of the stadium, and very little of Liverpool itself.

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15Oct/21

YHA London Central, London

Days Out

Over the summer, we decided to take advantage of lots of people avoiding the big cities and made a trip down to London. The twins were desperate to go again and see more of what we didn’t see on previous trips. We will run out of things to see at some point, I’m sure, though I’m an adult and still haven’t seen everything myself!

For our stay, we opted to stay with YHA (again!). I love YHA and YHA London Central didn’t disappoint. Previously we have stayed at YHA St Pauls in London as well as other YHAs around the UK.

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15Oct/21

Lone Flyer at Hull Truck Theatre

Days Out

Thank you to Hull Truck Theatre for inviting us to see their latest show Lone Flyer: The Last Flight of Amy Johnson. It was a much welcomed return to the theatre for us. It’s been far too long!

Lone Flyer is a two-man/woman play all about the life of Hull’s famous pilot Amy Johnson. Amy is played by local born actress Louise Willoughby and everyone else (Amy’s father, her first love, her husband, her engineer friend, and even her best friend Winifred) is played by the very versatile Benedict Salter.

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