11 Best Adventure Days Out In Surrey

Four things: the height limit on the course you want, whether a paying adult has to accompany them, how early weekend slots fill, and the operator's policy when weather closes in. Sites of this kind run on a timetable, and a family arriving without a booking on a bright Saturday is usually turned away. Ten minutes of checking removes every one of those risks.

Alice Holt Forest has nothing to pay at the entrance, which makes it the least committing thing on the list to try. Whether it fills a day depends on your children — some invent an entire afternoon from sticks and a path, others want a destination. The dependable version pairs it with the ropes course pitched in the same woodland: a booked slot first, then trees for as long as anybody lasts.

Rather less certainty than we would like. Our data has Reigate Caves down as outdoor with no indoor flag, which is plainly odd for caves and should be read as a recording slip rather than a description. Check opening arrangements with the site directly before travelling, since places of this kind often open on limited days, and ask about the footing and the lighting if a small child is coming.

This heading largely stops. Rock Up Walton-on-Thames holds the only indoor flag and is filed under sports and activities, so it becomes the wet-weather answer by elimination. Ropes courses generally keep going in drizzle and shut for high wind, and that is useful to know, since a light shower need not cancel a booking. A trail in steady rain, though, rarely ends well.