City
5 Best Activities In Buxton
Buxton is high up and knows it. The town sits well above most of England, weather arrives early and leaves late, and a family day here gets planned with a spare fleece in the bag.
The Pavilion Gardens is the centre of it, with gardens to run around and indoor space attached for when the hill weather does what hill weather does. Go Ape Buxton is the big outdoor commitment, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery the indoor one, and Little Rascals Buxton the release valve for anybody under six. Five places, split more or less evenly between roofed and open.
Showing 1–5 of 5
AdventureGo Ape Buxton
Parks and PlaygroundsThe Pavilion Gardens
MuseumsBuxton Museum and Art Gallery
Indoor PlayLittle Rascals Buxton
AdventureThe Buxton Mystery Treasure Trail
12 more within 10 miles of Buxton
Blue-John Cavern and Mine
Speedwell Cavern
Treak Cliff Cavern
Kinder, Edale and the Dark Peak
Jungle Monkey
Peak Cavern
Lyme Park
Peveril Castle
Havoc VR - Adlington
Substation Macclesfield - Climbing Centre
Superbowl UK Macclesfield
Mermaid's Pool at the Peak District
High town, changeable sky, five places to choose between. Anchor the day on the gardens, add one more thing to it, and Buxton behaves itself in almost any weather it decides to throw at you.
Visiting Buxton with kids: FAQs
What should we do first?
The Pavilion Gardens, almost always. It is central, it has gardens and indoor space in one place, and it works as the fixed point that the rest of a Buxton day attaches to. Small children get room to run, older ones get something to look at, and nobody has committed to a full day yet.
Is Go Ape suitable for younger children?
Go Ape Buxton runs courses at different levels, and height and age limits apply and vary between them, so the honest answer is to check the specific requirements before promising a six-year-old anything at all. What is certain is that it is the most physically demanding option on this list.
It is cold and grey. Where do we go?
Buxton Museum and Art Gallery for children old enough to look at things, and Little Rascals Buxton for the ones who are not. Three of the five entries have indoor space, a reasonable ratio for a town this high, though it does mean the choice narrows quickly on a genuinely bad day.
Anything that gets us walking round the town itself?
The Buxton Mystery Treasure Trail is designed for that. It makes children look up at buildings they would normally ignore, and it stretches across a range of ages, since the younger ones spot things while the older ones work out what the answers mean. Pick a dry day.