If you’re looking for a day out this half term, I can strongly recommend the National Railway Museum in York. We went on Sunday and had a fantastic day.
The theme for this week is Big Fun with Little Trains and there’s loads going on. We had a go on the indoor pedal trains, the crafts table, the minature railway, the simulator ride and had a ride on the steam engine. We also took the road train into York city centre and spent at least 40 minutes trying to build a Meccano aeroplane that did not turn out like we wanted it to, no matter how much the lovely man tried to help us 😉
There’s so much going on and so much to see that even though we spent the whole day there, we still didn’t see everything but this week it’s really geared towards children so it’s an ideal time to visit.
We went by train as I have a Family Railcard and it only cost me and three children (Miss Frugal took a friend) fourteen pounds for return tickets which I thought was excellent considering we live over an hour away and our journey each way involved two trains. I’ve never been by train before and I was really surprised how close it is to the train station and how well signposted it was from the station.
If I’m honest, before we went, I really didn’t think that the museum would hold the children’s interest for the whole day but I was pleasantly surprised and at half past four I practically had to drag them away to get the train home. On the train home, they didn’t stop talking about the rides they’s been on and the trains they’d seen – the bullet was a particular favourite as you get to sit in one of the carriages while watching a video of the train in action in Japan.
We had a lovely meal in the restaurant while we were there but I think next time we go we’ll take a picnic as it can be pricey to feed the whole family in the restaurant and have snacks later if you stay all day and get hungry again.
The National Railway Museum is free admission which means it’s a brilliantly frugal way to spend a fun day with the kids and according to my two ‘it’s awesome’ so if you have a day to fill this week (or any other time), you should definitely visit.
Disclosure: We were invited to visit by the National Railway Museum and they kindly provided us with vouchers for the rides and a free lunch.
