Bosworth field, space centre in leicester - where to stay?

[legalalien]

In the title really. Am thinking of driving from London and doing a one night stay somewhere in the midlands so that we can visit the above, and perhaps one other interesting for an 8 year old who quite likes history thing. Any suggestions as to where we should base ourselves or what else we might want to see?

No suggestions but just wanted to day that the Space Centre was superb; one of the best days out we've had. Lots to see, reasonably priced and a great planetarium show that was included in the ticket price.

Thanks ! Have been meaning to go there for a while....

We did exactly that trip (from Bristol tho') a year or two ago. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on St Nicholas Circle - it's just west of the town centre so easy to walk into town to restaurants (and not too far from the carpark where Richard III was found, and opposite some roman ruins which you can see from some of the rooms) but a bit tricky to find the car park entrance as it's on an island in the middle of a one way system.

We got a deal which gave us the room for one or two nights (can't remember exactly) plus entry to the Space Centre and a couple of other attractions. I think it was well worth the money. The Holiday Inn has a swimming pool too which the kids loved, but we didn't actually have much time to use it.

Other hotels in the area do the same deal and there's a few Premier Inns too, so lots of reasonable options.

Leicester is quite small so the city centre HI or Premier Inn will be very near shops and restaurants. The Space Centre is out of the centre, not too far but a car drive away. There's a museum next to it which is pretty interesting, and free if I recall correctly. Lots of victorian loos, old toys and the like.

We really enjoyed our trip although in part that's because DH and I met in Leicester (20 years ago this year...) and we really enjoyed just wandering about seeing how things had changed. But I think it's worth going even without that.

Can I just add that bosworth is just a field! Space centre is excellent for kids. I would recommend staying somewhere near bradgate park which is beautiful and worth a walk around. And free too

Thanks for the tips. I have ended up booking a night in Coventry as I found a good deal and ds wants to see the ruins of Coventry cathedral. If we're efficient we might also fit in the road transport museum ( anyone been there?)

Fully expecting a field, ds enjoyed the field at bannockburn last year so we should be ok as long as we bring a print out of the set up and try and imagine where the armies were. I gather the field is a different one from what was previously thought? I love to think of previous generations of tourists looking at the "wrong" field.....

There is a visitor center at Bosworth which is worth seeing, when we went they had a medieval village camped outside which was very interesting. Lots of gory explanations from the barber surgeon, archery displays etc.

Have just looked and there are quite a few interesting half term activities

www.bosworthbattlefield.com/index.htm

And i now know why Quorn is called Quorn.

Road transport museum y Coventry is quite nice. They do have some child friendly activities.
If you want a good open space head to Warwick castle which is not far from Coventry.
Lived in Leicester for a decade and never saw science museum. Guess I shall head back with DS and then see it..laziness destiny and all that.

I love the Transport museum, really interesting (if you like transport)
New wal museum in Leicester is also good (and free) its only small but has mummies and dinosaur bones there.

The new walk museum looks good and there are gallery trails to print out on their website. But the art gallery is closed for refurbishment until summer, and it looks really good! Think i'll have to go back to leicester in the summer (i can see that the midlands are a bit of an untapped resource) :)