Am I over ambitious thinking 12 year old and I can cover Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing in one day?

[Rainbowshine]

I’m filling in some school holiday time with days out. I’ve looked up opening times and last admission etc for Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing. Both are things of interest for DS who is 12. We’d take a packed lunch so no queuing for the cafe! Has anyone done both in a day? Was it manageable without being too much? Any thoughts welcome!

I think you definitely can, unless he is likely to get sucked into having extensive conversations with every volunteer and reading every single label in depth.

When we went pre-children we did both without realising that they were actually different attractions (we thought the museum was an exhibition of the main Park) and it fitted into a (fairly full) day.

Thanks @BestZebbie DS has two modes in terms of attention to detail, 200% and wants to know everything about one random thing and then the next thing it’s minus 200% and will shrug his shoulders when you point at something else that you think he’ll find interesting so it sounds doable!

Bletchley Park tickets used to be valid for a year, I haven’t been recently to know if they still are so that might be worth checking as then you could go back if interested. As an adult there’s a huge amount there, each visit I find new things but do find my brain gets overloaded so a lunch break is good. Even one day now and returning in the future would be a great start.

@WindyBeech I’ve just checked and the tickets are still valid for a year, so OP, you can always go back later in the year if you didn’t get enough time.

But I think a day trip is reasonable to see both of them. Unless it’s changed drastically in the last few years the computer museum really is quite small, although fascinating.

And if your DS is into those things you may also want to consider the centre for computing history in Cambridge. I’ve not managed to get there yet but highly recommended by DH!

I haven't been to the National Museum of Computing, but we were at Bletchley Park from when it opened until after 5pm, so I couldn't have fitted another visit anywhere in that day.

I guess it depends if you are the sort of person who goes into a room, nods their head and wanders out..... if you are the sort of person who wants to listen to all the memories that they have recorded and read all the information....... or if you are somewhere in between.

Also, if these things are a long way from where you live and this is a one time only chance to see them or if you are within a couple of hours and could make two day trips out of this.

Bletchley Park is enormous... I took an 11yo there last year and after about 3 hours with lunch in the middle we'd both had enough, without having visited everything on the site.

Thanks so much everyone for sharing your experience. I’m about 90 minutes away so I could easily return to BP at half term or a weekend. I’ll go on the basis that we’re not planning to listen to all the audio descriptions and every label and that a return visit would be possible if DS is keen. He can be a bit fickle about what appeals to him at any given moment!

We did last October as a family of 4 we were visiting from Scotland, very achievable

We went and we didn't feel like we'd seen the whole of Bletchley Park even just trying to go round that alone in a day. But we're more of the "read everything" camp.

We’ve just been to Bletchley Park. Absolutely loved it. We were there for 6 hours and I could happily have gone back the next day if we didn’t live so far away.

Interested in this.

We went to Bletchley Park years ago, like last century! It was part of an arranged tour so we had to go round at the same time as everyone else in the group and I think if it had just been us we would have taken longer as it is a subject we are both fascinated by.

Also we want to go to the National Museum of Computing so will probably have a trip to do both.

We live quite a long way away so it sounds like we should stay over one or two nights to give ourselves time.

You really don’t need to stay 2 nights. I think they are both on the same site. If you are prepared to spend the whole day there you can do both. If you want to explore every single thing in detail, then you might need another morning but you need to judge your level of interest.

That’s a huge amount to cover in one day. It’s roughly four hours for each. You’d literally be running to cover it all.

We spent a day at Bletchley then went again another day later in the year. Computer Museum took us a day.

If you want to try and absorb some of the theory behind the code breaking then you need time to listen and understand. Unless you have a PhD in Probability…

I think most dc cannot absorb all of that for 4 hours. Adults maybe.

We did Bletchley Park in a day and it wasn't long enough. Physically you can do both but you'll be skimming and not getting the best out of either location. But a lot depends on how absorbed your DS becomes at the first place you visit.

If your youngster is interested in Bletchley Park, have you been to the Cabinet War Rooms? I wasn't exactly interested but ours was. It was brilliant.

I agree Bletchley park has a lot to see I would allow a day. Also if in staying near Milton Keynes go to the Milton Keynes museum https://miltonkeynesmuseum.org.uk/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Business-profile&utm_campaign=CTA

it’s really worth a visit.

To provide a counter argument, we went a couple of years ago so our DC must have been 13 and 11. We didn’t do the Museum of Computing as we’d used up all of their tolerance doing 3 hours at Bletchley. They thought we had covered everything in more than enough detail;
DH (did a degree in history so fairly interested) thought we’d done it in enough detail; I meant to take advantage of the year pass and go back on another occasion but never got around to it. I did think of suggesting to my dad that we go next time he visits but, if he found out the ticket was valid for a year, he’d want to stay for the entire year!

I think it's just about possible in terms of time, but in terms of energy and enjoyment it might be better to do them on separate days (especially since the ticket seems to be valid for a year).

Why not see how the first one goes, and then make a decision?

We definitely needed to do 2 trips, although my DC are both autistic and very into computing, so that might not be the case for everyone. In fact DD very happily went back for a 3rd day when her school ran a trip there later that year. I'm sure they'd go again if we suggested it. I think the site is very well set up for people with autism, incidentally.

Did both in a day and that included being shown around parts of the site by my (late) Ddad who was based there.
As other have said, if time runs away from you just go back on the same tickets.

Thanks for the further thoughts and experiences. Cabinet War Rooms might be good for autumn half term as we usually have a day in London but have been to the Science Museum and Natural History Museum several times so something different would be good.

I will aim to do both as DS is good at lots of information and discerning what he wants to spend more time on and then looking at other things superficially. We can easily go back using the annual tickets to BP so I will prioritise the Computer museum