26 Best Activity Centres In Essex

Look at the physical end of the list first — Urban Xtreme for indoor energy, or the outdoor operators such as Thrive Outdoor if the weather allows. The thing to avoid is booking a seated creative session for a child who needs to move, then spending the hour managing them. If you want to try a craft venue anyway, go for a short session and go at the start of the day rather than the end.

From about four they work well, with two caveats. The first is time: a small child paints for less time than you have booked, so choose a smaller piece. The second is delivery — most studios need to fire the work, so it is usually collected later rather than carried home, and a child who has not been warned takes that badly. Manage those two and it is one of the more reliable wet-afternoon purchases.

Less than you would like. Small venues attract small numbers of reviews, and a run of five happy families produces a perfect score that a bigger operation with thousands of visitors can never match. Use ratings to rule out the clearly poor, then read the text: comments about staff, session length, cleanliness and how younger children were handled tell you far more than the number sitting above them.