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8 Best Adventure Days Out In Essex
There are two sorts of adventure in Essex and they ask opposite things of you. At Go Ape Chelmsford and Nuclear High Ropes you turn up at an appointed hour, get buckled into a harness, stand through a briefing and then climb; somebody else owns the clock and the day arrives pre-shaped. The three Treasure Trails here — The Colchester Mystery Treasure Trail, The Chelmsford Mystery Treasure Trail and Saffron Walden Spy Mission Treasure Trail — open no gate and set no start time, and you work round a town at whatever speed suits you. Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker breaks the pattern, being the only one of the eight carrying an indoor flag.
Top adventure days out in Essex
Showing 1–8 of 8
AdventureGo Ape Chelmsford
Activity CentresNuclear High Ropes
AdventureKelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker
AdventureSaffron Walden Spy Mission Treasure Trail
Parks and PlaygroundsGreat Notley Discovery Centre and Park
Parks and PlaygroundsGrays Beach Riverside Park
AdventureThe Chelmsford Mystery Treasure Trail
AdventureThe Colchester Mystery Treasure Trail
Fit the format to the child, not the child to the format. Some children need the structure — the queue, the harness, the instructor telling them what happens next — and fall apart without it. Others need to be let loose with a puzzle and no supervision they can see. The low-commitment middle ground is Great Notley Discovery Centre and Park, or else Grays Beach Riverside Park: turn up, stay as long as it works, leave without having booked anything.
Adventure Days Out in Essex: FAQs
What are the age and height rules for the ropes courses?
They vary by course and sometimes by which circuit within a course, so check the operator's own page for the exact site rather than trusting a general figure. What is consistent is that there is a minimum height, that younger children go on a different course from teenagers, and that an adult often has to go up too. Settle all of that before booking, because a child turned away at the harness is a ruined morning.
Is a treasure trail actually any good?
It depends entirely on whether your children like puzzles more than they dislike walking. A trail is a set of clues pinned to a town rather than a place with an entrance, so there is nothing to look at while somebody sulks and nothing to fall back on. Families who already enjoy walking find it turns an ordinary town into an afternoon worth having. Families who do not are simply walking, with extra steps.
How long does each type take?
A booked session at a ropes course typically runs to a couple of hours plus the briefing and the queue, and once it is over the day is yours again. A trail runs to however long your slowest walker takes, which with young children is longer than the distance suggests. Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker sits somewhere in between and is the only one on this list you can do properly in bad weather.
It is raining. What survives?
Very little, and better to learn it now than on the morning. Seven of the eight entries are recorded as outdoor, leaving Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker as the only one with an indoor flag. Ropes courses generally run in light rain and stop for wind rather than water, but a wet trail round a town with children is a hard sell. Have a completely different plan for a washout rather than trying to salvage this category.