Experience based birthday ideas for a 9th birthday

[wintergolds]

Looking for some ideas for an exciting day out/ experience this February for my soon to be nine year old boy, please.

Things that we’ve done and he loved previously -
Legoland
We the curious (Bristol)
London Aquarium

He loves lego, art/ animation, Mario’s world, enjoyed some climbing and skiing activities but not very sporty. We’ve done the museums and zoos but looking for something a bit more wow.

We are 10 miles north of London, could travel anywhere under 3hrs.

I’ll really appreciate some help

We took 3 of DS1s friends with us to watch a film for DS1s birthday

He is desperate to try go karting but it is expensive and I am not 100% all his friends are tall enough so that might be a just him and DH thing rather than a taking friends along thing.

How about an Escape room?

DH, DD8 and I did a thing called Prison Island recently. It’s near Holloway Road station. There are 30 or so rooms, each with a different challenge to do/solve. Some (easyish) physical challenges, some puzzle type challenges etc. Pricey but so much fun. DD8 is very keen to go back.

Go karting sounds great but my dc is on the shorter side. I’ll measure him and double check but likely something for next year.

Would WonderLab in the science museum be as good as We the curious?

Can I ask out of curiosity- do you also take them for a meal after the movie @Girasoli May be, I can organise something like that last min…

A Gdd and friends of the sort of age enjoyed Going Ape.

And one of those wall- climbing experiences - don’t know what they’re called.

No we didn't, we just bought everyone pop corn/drinks and then after the movie handed everyone a party bag with a fancy cupcake inside (instead of birthday cake)

Ooh I've thought of another thing...we've never done it but pizza express does birthday parties where you can make your own pizza. That always seemed like fun.

Skegness Aquarium do snorkelling and feeding baby sharks for that age group, they’re on Virgin Experience Days.

You could do a VR experience!

These are expensive, but I bet he would never forget it: https://www.londonzoo.org/plan-your-visit/zoo-experiences

Ooh also my nephew did a motocross experience near Slough - not for the faint hearted but great even in bad weather.

Or you could do a mountain bike experience - depends where you are but you can hire bikes in Swinley Forest and do a short training with a pro as a family if you aren’t used to biking off-road - I know he’s not sporty but it’s muddy and thrilling

Thank you for the responses