Free Days Out in Coventry

Coventry Cathedral is unusual in being two structures, the bombed shell of the old one open to the sky and the modern building beside it. Children generally find the ruin more immediately gripping than the new cathedral, and the contrast between them is the whole point of the place. It is worth a short explanation beforehand, because arriving without context makes it look like a building site rather than a memorial.

Coombe Abbey Park is the larger and more varied, with woodland and water and enough space to fill a day. Ryton Pools Country Park is more compact and easier to manage with young children who tire quickly. Both are a drive rather than a walk from the centre, and both reward taking food with you rather than relying on finding somewhere once you are there.

There is a fragment of one, which is a useful thing to be clear about in advance. Caludon Castle Park is a public park containing the standing remains of a medieval castle rather than a castle you tour. Children who are told to expect ruins in a park are pleased; children promised a castle are not. Managed correctly it is a good short local outing with something genuinely old in the middle of it.