Sunday may be wet - so looking for Indoor places, Surrey/Berks/North Hampshire

[nannynick]

Myself and a 7 year old are looking for somewhere to visit, which will occupy us for 3 to 4 hours on Sunday afternoon.

Weather looks like it may be wet... so Legoland/Chessington may not be overly suitable.

So I would like suggestions for Indoor locations (not soft-play).

Any suggestions?

So far I've thought of:

In-Tech at Winchester
Lookout Discovery at Bracknell
Milestones at Basingstoke (not sure how interesting 7 year old will find that one)

We find Chessington okay in light rain - that is if the 7 yo will entertain the soft play and theatre for a bit?

There is a bugs exhibition on at the new place in Woking - Lightbox??? Not sure if it's open Sundays?

The Lightbox isn't that big - I don't think it'd take 4 hours even with a long lunch. Does look fun though.

Is he a museum type child - Mine quite like Haslemere Muesum - I think mostly for the mummified cat etc and endless taxidermy items. Not 3-4 hours but stretched out with Pizza Express opposite. Spectrum - mixed activity ticket is always popular.

Thanks for the suggestions. He has decided that he wants to see sea animals. So we are going to try to get to Sea Life in Brighton (will be a long trip, but nearest Sea Life to us I think - He has a Merlin Pass and I get in with his Merlin Carer Pass). I can't imagine us being at Sea Life for more than 2 hours... but the drive time is 1.5-2 hours each way, so that will make it quite a long trip.

I've heard about Haslemere Museum never been. Alas it does not open on Sundays. As a child I loved Horniman Museum (Forest Hill, South East London) but getting there is such a pain, I don't like driving inside the M25 area these days. It has lots of stuffed animals and a recent edition is a small aquarium.

cargirl ( and anyone else in Woking) did you see my post about cheap tcikets for the theatre this afternoon?

There is a sealife in Portsmouth also www.bluereefaquarium.co.uk/portsmouth.htm - not large but OK and if there weather is nice an ok area for walking along the seafront. I am sure that I have seen a free child entry offer for this very recently if I can find it will post the link.

Forgot to add - what a shame Haslemere does not open on a Sunday - it is a good local - low price rainy day option - but only if open of course.....

That's a shame NannyNick you could have gone to sea life at chessington, although probably only an hours worth of entertainment value.

My other thought (but couldn't get on line) was brooklands museum as they had free concorde flights during August for children and then mercedes benz world if you had time. Thought I'd add these in case anyone looked this thread up in the future for ideas.

I didn't know Chessington had a SeaLife centre.

Have to say though, that having visited SeaLife in Brighton today, I'm not that keen to visit another one. J seemed to like it, but did want to keep putting his fingers in the water of the tanks, then sucking his fingers. Liked walking through the underwater tunnel.

there is also the one in London that is covered by the annual pass.

urgh at sucking fingers covered in tank water (I dont like sea food much!)

Pity you've ruled out soft play. My son at that ages loved the artic jungle in Crawley, especially the climbing wall they have in there which is included in teh admission price.