Outdoor Activities in Hereford

The Waterworks Museum is the only listing with indoor space, so it carries the entire wet-weather load on this page. Everything else asks you to accept the weather rather than dodge it. If rain looks likely and the group includes small children, a woodland route such as Haugh Woods Butterfly Trails copes with drizzle better than open ground does, because the canopy takes the sting out of it.

Short, contained and interesting beats long and scenic at that age. Llama Trekking at Old King Street Farm has animals doing the entertaining, which buys patience that a footpath will not. Curious About Hereford turns the town itself into the activity, so you can stop, feed everybody and pick up where you left off. The Herefordshire Trail is a long-distance path — take a piece of it, not the whole idea.

Two of the seven are built for exactly that. The Viking Games and HS Activities are both listed as activity centres with outdoor space and no indoor alternative, so they need a decent forecast and a willingness to get filthy. Older children who would flatly refuse a walk will often take on something with an instructor, a challenge attached and other people watching.

Give it a target and an ending. Haugh Woods Butterfly Trails gives children something to find, which is a far better structure than distance covered. Curious About Hereford applies the same trick to the streets. Agree in advance where you are turning round, and say it out loud before you start — the argument you avoid is the one about how much further there is to go.