What’s the best child’s birthday party venue you’ve been to?

[Summerthunder]

Just looking for some ideas as we always end up at the local play gym. It’s a summer bday so could be nice to be outside if it’s warm but we’d need and indoor back up as we live in the north of England so who knows what the weather will do. It’s for a boy 5 years old. Thanks!

Do you have any village halls that also have an outdoor space?

Field Archery? My 5 yr old had a go
recently and loved it.

Or any visitor farms? Strawberry picking?

No village hall but there’s a cricket club and a golf club. I guess they will probably have their own events on at the weekends tho. There is a farm but it’s a bit of a way and I’ll check if they do parties tho

Archery could be fun but I’d just need a back up in case of rain

Farm park. We just had an amazing party at a farm park not too far away from a major city. They had an inside 'fun barn' with bouncy castles and inflatables which would have been enough entertainment in itself. Outside has all the usual jumping pillows, small animals, go karts and pony rides.

Ours was for a 5 year old too. The children loved it.

What kind of thing do you want?

Blue planet aquarium is fantastic, they also give you a guided tour and parents get in for free (and also smaller siblings tagged along). After the tour they take you for the party.

Rock and River in Mawdesley do great outdoor/indoor physical pursuits for birthdays. Den building, archery, kayaking, rock climbing, etc etc.

Dds best party attended was at a pony riding place.

Ds was kayaking at the local leisure centre.

Trampolining seems to be very popular for parties at the mo.

The sporty ones would probably go down a treat. He likes being outside and running about. He’d probably be happy with a picnic & run around in the park but I can’t face the logistics of calling 10 parents to rearrange if it happens to rain.

I might try the leisure centre

Do you have a country park type place that would let you put up a gazebo? We went to a local country park for a picnic with friends in the pouring rain and we put up a couple of gazebos and had a fantastic day.

The kids got soaked but they didn't care. Mine were slightly older but we had all ages from pushchair sized to grandparents/pensioners. We were only talking about it a couple of days ago saying what an amazing time we had had.

We also had a christening party with a bouncy castle where it poured. The children were allowed a water fight and all went home dressed in my cousin's t shirts!