Free Days Out in Cambridge

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences is the usual recommendation because fossils and dinosaur material do their own persuading, and no child needs to be told why a large skeleton is interesting. The Fitzwilliam Museum is a major art and antiquities collection and rewards an older child who is already curious. Whipple Museum of the History of Science is the most specialised of the three and the best fit for a particular sort of ten-year-old.

Cherry Hinton Water Play Area and Lammas Land Pool are warm-weather propositions, and outdoor water facilities generally run to a summer season with hours that change year to year. That makes them the entries here most likely to disappoint someone who checked a directory in March. Confirm the season and the day's opening with the operator before you drive over with towels in the boot.

Footprint Tours Cambridge covers ground on foot with a guide, which is a good way to see a city and a hard way to entertain anyone under about eight. Older children who can walk and listen at the same time get a lot from it. Younger ones will need the tour to end before it does, so it is worth being honest with yourself about whose day this is before you join one.