The best Bristol attractions for families this summer
BRISTOL is brimming with culture, from its graffiti-style street art to the lively Harbourside – once a bustling trading dock but now home to some of the city’s best restaurants and hotels.
And if you’re travelling with kids you’ll be spoilt for fun.
Here, David Whitley picks out Bristol’s top attractions for families.
First up
Aerospace Bristol (aerospace bristol.org) celebrates the city’s illustrious history of making aircrafts.
My hope is that my two girls are just happy looking at lots of planes, but inside there’s so much more than aircrafts through the ages.
My little engineers were put to the test as they tried to work a replica riveting gun. Then, using a joystick, they were tasked with positioning a plane’s wings for landing.
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The star of the show, however, is the last Concorde to ever fly. We were all stunned that it could reach speeds of up to 2,179km per hour.
Upon seeing the massive banks of controls in the cockpit, my youngest decides she wants to be a pilot when she grows up.
“Then I can press all the buttons,” she reasons.
Entry for a family of four to the museum costs £52.
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The surprise hit
Finding Nemo (and hundreds of other fish) at Bristol Aquarium (bristolaquarium.co.uk) is sure to keep any youngster happy.
There’s a sunken shipwreck, a sting ray enclosure and a wild rainforest exhibit with tropical plants and fish aplenty.
But the stand-out attraction in Bristol has to be the SS Great Britain (ssgreatbritain.org).
Once the biggest passenger ship in the world, this pioneering ocean giant endured 8,000 miles of stormy seas in the ’70s on a voyage back from the Falkland Islands.
Now it’s a grand museum with an on-board restaurant and a climbing experience where youngsters can clamber up the rigging of the ship.
My girls were more fascinated by the ship’s interior, wanting to open every door and see who occupied every room.
They decided that being next to the butcher’s room must be stinky, and they giggled with delight when they saw one crew member had a pet monkey.
Family tickets cost £4.
The main event
In some senses, the Wild Place Project (wildplace.org.uk) is a zoo with thoughtful enclosures — the Meerkats are in a walled garden, and the furry lemurs have their own playground to run around in.
But the Bear Wood offers something much more exciting. It is presented as a trip through time, showing how much British woodland has been lost over the centuries.
It also charts the extinction in the UK of the animals like Wolverines, Lynx and Wolves.
Tickets cost £14 for adults and £11 for children.
Kids’ choice
Most visitors enjoy the shops, cafés and bars of Clifton, but my girls just want to run around — and The Clifton Downs, a big park with an adventure playground, fits the bill.
In between clambering on rocks, we visit the Clifton Observatory. There’s a lovely view of Avon Gorge and the Clifton Suspension
Bridge from the top, but the girls were more interested in Giant’s Cave.
My five-year-old led the charge down 130 steps to an opening in the cliff, halfway up the gorge.
The family feast
The Wave (thewave.com) is a remarkably ambitious project — an inland surfing lake in the middle of a farm.
The Play in the Bay session, where kids get to paddle in the smaller waves, is sadly scuppered as there needs to be one supervising adult in the water for every child under nine years old.
And the surf isn’t the only reason people visit — the grub is certainly crowd-pleasing and the menu changes weekly.
My girls adored watching the surfers making a splash as we tucked into a delicious fish and chip dinner. They also do proper cooked breakfasts.
Somewhere to stay
Mollie’s Motel and Diner (mollies.com) has a niftily stylish, design hotel vibe and it’s way cooler than a standard motel.
Adjoining twin or bunk rooms make it family-friendly, with stays for four people costing from £120 a night.
The girls demolish the banana split breakfast pancakes with unrestrained gusto.
The outskirt location near Aerospace Bristol, the Wave and the Wild Place Project is great if coming by car.
Maybe next time. . .
We The Curious (wethecurious.org), a hands-on science museum, was closed for repairs after fire damage.
But the inventive exhibits, workshops and activities seem perfect for inquisitive little experimenters.
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The verdict
Bristol’s attractions are arguably better suited to eight-year-olds than five-year-olds, but it’s an easy city to tackle on a budget.
For more information, see visitbristol.co.uk.