Liverpool family holidays and breaks

Liverpool, reborn over the last decade or so, is one of Britain’s most hip and happening cities, as well as one of its most fascinating, by virtue of its maritime heritage, making it a great destination for family breaks or base for family holidays in the north-west.

After a triumphant year as European City of Culture in 2008, it has plenty of new attractions – the stunning waterfront Liverpool Echo Arena (fronted by a temporary big wheel), the excellent Liverpool One retail and leisure centre, a new cruise-liner landing point, and best of all the waterfront Museum of Liverpool, a world-class urban-history attraction.

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What to Do

Start family holidays with an hour-long overview of the city aboard The Yellow Duckmarine, a Second World War landing vehicle that begins at the waterfront and takes in Liverpool’s best-known sights before splashing down in Salthouse Dock, with trips accompanied by live commentary. Older kids might like to see the city from a rather different angle, on one of the Shiverpool ghost tours.

Take a 50-minute Big Mersey Adventure ferry ride to discover the city’s history-laden waterfront, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Stop off at Seacombe Ferry Terminal for Spaceport, an attraction based around Space and Space travel, and at Woodside Terminal, for U-boat Story, a real German sub with interactive displays. (Note that the Seacombe terminal also houses model boats, a large café, a soft-play area and a mini-karting track that replaced the old aquarium.)

The Mersey Ferries Terminal itself is now home to the second site of The Beatles Story, which takes you on a journey into the life, times and culture of the iconic pop group as well as their music. The first site at the Albert Dock has a Discovery Zone with interactive activities for kids including creating your own newspapers and playing a Beatles tune on a giant floor piano, but call ahead in termtime when it's often booked out for school visits.

Make time for some of Liverpool’s museums and galleries, including the new, free Museum of Liverpool in its slick waterfront building, showcasing the city's unique contributions to popular culture as well as social, historical and contemporary issues. For instance, the Wondrous Place gallery looks at how Liverpool has produced such an amazing roll call of creative folk, from musicians to footballers, as well as examining the development of the Liverpudlian dialect, Scouse. See our feasture on a Liverpool city break including the Museum of Liverpool.

A real crowd-pleaser (and one that is free to boot) is the World Museum Liverpool, formerly the Liverpool Museum and now boasting galleries such as World Cultures, the Bug House – including a 2m animatronic house-fly – an aquarium, the Weston Discovery Centre (archaeology and ethnology), the Clore Natural History Centre, and the Treasure House Theatre (music, dance and more), plus two cafés and a Fair Trade shop.

Otherwise, explore Liverpool’s seafaring heritage at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in the Albert Dock, also free. Housing the International Slavery Museum and Customs & Excise National Museum, plus displays on emigration, on merchant seafaring, on the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II, and on the tragic sinkings of the Titanic, Lusitania and Empress of Ireland, it's best suited to older kids, although there's a small, slightly scruffy maritime-themed play area for tots. The top-floor restaurant (see below) is excellent with kids of all ages.

Also at the Albert Dock is the northern outpost of the world-renowned Tate Gallery of modern and contemporary art, the Tate Liverpool, another free venue (except for special exhibitions) with plenty of events, workshops and amenities for families, plus another excellent family-friendly café and a great shop.

For more free art, head to the wonderful Walker Art Gallery of fine and decorative European pieces dating from 1300 to the present day: everything from portraits of Tudor royals to Hockneys (not for nothing is it dubbed ‘the National Gallery of the North’). Kids are more than welcome here: the dedicated area for children up to eight, Big Art for Little Artists, hosts activities inspired by the Walker’s world-class art collections, including puppetry, storytelling and dressing up.

Take in yet more culture at The Bluecoat, Liverpool's creative hub, showcasing visual art, music, dance, live art and literature in a gorgeous historic building with a leafy courtyard that kids love to run around in. Family events at weekends link in with current exhibitions. The downstairs café and upstairs bistro are both great for families.

Swing by Underwater Street, a discovery centre where under-11s can try out a mass of hands-on activities from panning for gold, experimenting in a lab or building a house to standing inside a giant bubble, climbing a rock wall or exploring an underground water cave.

Don’t miss Liverpool Cathedral, the UK’s largest, and holder of several other records – it has the world’s highest and widest Gothic arches and its highest and heaviest peal of bells. Climb the tower for views of the city and beyond, and visit The Great Space, where you can watch a panoramic film including a ‘fly-through’ the cathedral and helicopter-shot aerial views of the city. There are also special audio tours for kids, interactive computer terminals and a café-bar with fabulous views.

Sports-mad kids will know that the city is home to two major football clubs: Liverpool and Everton, both of which offer stadium tours. Liverpool’s ground, Anfield, also has a museum including the Champions League trophy and two film-shows.

A little outside the centre, towards the airport, Speke Hall, Gardens & Estates is a stunning Tudor house with period interiors (including a secret priest hole and a thunderbox loo), landscaped gardens, and countryside and woodland walks with views over the Mersey Basin towards North Wales. There are family trails in both the house and gardens, children’s Tracker Packs, behind-the-scenes tours and podcast-tours. Within the grounds, the Home Farm Visitor Centre is a restored Victorian farm building with a kids’ play area with adjacent picnic tables, an orchard, a restaurant and a shop.

On the northwest outskirts of the city, Croxteth Hall & Country Park is another country estate with an historic hall, a Victorian walled garden and a home farm (the park is free; the attractions can be visited individually or by a combined ticket, which saves you money). It's also home to Jungle Parc Liverpool, a high-wire family adventure park with treetop courses involving rope bridges, cargo nets and zip-lines. The kids’ courses have three levels and are suitable for ages four and up (minimum height 1.05m).

Just 13km north-west of the city lies Knowsley Safari Park, which has free-roaming exotic animals galore, from African wild dogs to wildebeest, a bug house and a bee house, a woodland walk, Mizzy Lake Farm, and lots of animal-themed amusement rides. In November and December there’s also a Santa’s grotto, and the site is also home to another high-wire adventure course, Aerial Extreme.

Where to Stay

Open since late 2010, base2stay offers boutique-chic at non-boutique prices in a beautifully restored historic building in the UNESCO World Heritage listed Ropewalks area (very handy for Liverpool One). Families are more than welcome, with mini-kitchens in all units, the freedom to order in breakfast boxes and other takeaways, and various configurations of rooms and suites, including the Secret Garden Suite for up to five with its own decked outdoor space.

There's more boutique offerings at Hope Street Hotel, which though it feels more like a restaurant-with-rooms (its London Carriage Works restaurant – see below – is one of the best in the city) is also welcoming to families, who are usually accommodated in studio-rooms with a double room and a sofabed. Put out an SOS and staff will whip a box of toys, colouring books and DVDs up to your room; babies' supplies including nappies, wipes and changing mats can be provided, as well as cots and a nanny/babysitter.

If you're on a tight budget and don't mind the impersonality of a chain, the Novotel Liverpool represents superb value given its facilities, which include a small but very good swimming pool, a children's play area in the lobby, and superior and executive rooms for up to 4 (two on a sofa-bed).

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When

Weather-wise, it’s seldom great in Liverpool, so take your pick of the seasons in which to get drenched and thank the stars for the wealth of indoor attractions to keep you busy on family breaks or holidays.

How

Liverpool is easily accessed from around the UK by train, with London just over 2hrs away.

For those coming from further afield, John Lennon Airport is located just south of Liverpool. See our family holidays car-hire page.

Eat

Many of the best places to eat with families in Liverpool are within museums: we recommend the eateries at the Merseyside Maritime Museum (the Maritime Dining Rooms), at The Bluecoat (see above) and at the Tate Liverpool (see above).

The London Carriage Works at the Hope Street Hotel (see above) is widely regarded as one of the best places to eat in the region, although the generally good food can be offset by very slow service. Kids get colouring materials and, in the absence of a dedicated kids' menu, the chefs will cook them up whatever they fancy, within reason!

Other locals' recommendations for those with kids in tow are HOST and The Quarter, both near the Hope Street Hotel; Egg Café on Newington, for vegetarians; Casa Italia; the Everyman Theatre Bistro; and Tokyou on Berry Street. Award-winning Spanish restaurant and deli Lunya (handy for base2stay – see above – for whose guests it provides breakfast boxes) is great fun with adventurous kids – a children's tapas menu features specially selected dishes from the main menu including patatas bravas, deep-fried ham croquettes and thick Spanish omelette.

Liverpool also has the usual family-friendly chains, some of them in the Liverpool One shopping centre, including a Wagamama – always great standbys for family holidays. Alternatively, there’s a famous Chinatown where lovers of Asian food will find plenty of delicious edibles from the familiar to the more adventuruous.

Cost

With plenty of competition between hotel providers in Liverpool after scores of new openings in the past few years, you should be able to get a good deal for family holidays here. And with most of the city's major attractions free, you don't need to spend a fortune to enjoy your stay, especially if you choose self-catering accommodation.