30 free things to do in Liverpool with kids that are actually worth leaving the house for
Museums with rooms built for under 6s, parks with proper playgrounds, a farm with meerkats that runs on donations and a beach in every direction. All checked by us, with the parking and toilet details that decide whether a free day out stays free.
Every parent in Liverpool knows the feeling. It is Saturday morning, the kids are already bouncing off the walls, and the last day out cost more than the big shop once you added parking, a cafe lunch and the thing from the gift shop that broke in the car.
Here is the good news. This is one of the easiest cities in the country to entertain children for nothing. The big museums do not charge. The Victorian parks are everywhere. There is a beach at the end of the Merseyrail line in three different directions.
The catch is always the small print. A free museum with no car park. A free beach with a £9 car park. A free farm that only keeps going because people put something in the tin.
So this is the free list with the small print included. Every place here says free on its own website or council page, and the cards at the bottom show the day we last checked.
The free museums, and which room to head for first
Start at the Museum of Liverpool on the Pier Head if your children are under six. Little Liverpool on the ground floor is a gallery built for them, and it runs in timed sessions, so ask at the desk for the next slot the moment you walk in and plan the rest of the visit around it. Upstairs is the city itself: the football, the music and the people. An eight year old will give you a good hour, particularly in the football bit.
The Walker Art Gallery on William Brown Street has Big Art for Little Artists on the ground floor, a hands on gallery made for under 8s. Do that first, then pick two or three rooms upstairs. Nobody in history has done a whole art gallery with a four year old.
Sudley House in Mossley Hill is the quiet one. A Victorian merchant's house with its original paintings, gardens to run around in and a small cafe. It does not take long, which is rather the point. Pair it with Sefton Park and you have a morning.
Bluecoat on School Lane is a free arts centre with a Children and Family Zone in the Hub, with toys, busy boards and books, open on normal days without booking. Baby changing is on the ground floor and there is a garden out the back. Closed Mondays except bank holidays.
Over the water, the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight is free, and the village green and gardens are a few minutes' walk. Port Sunlight station is about 20 minutes from Liverpool Central, which makes it one of the nicest no car days out on this list.
Further out, The Atkinson on Lord Street in Southport has a free museum and gallery with an ancient Egypt room, open Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm and closed Sundays. The World of Glass in St Helens is free to walk round; the live glass blowing is a paid extra at £5 for adults and £3.50 for children, and the car park is charged after the first ten minutes. The Williamson Art Gallery in Oxton is free, all on one floor, with a free car park on Mather Road and a Changing Places toilet. Birkenhead Priory is the oldest building on Merseyside and free to enter, with free guided tours several times a day. It is shut Mondays and Tuesdays and only opens from lunchtime on weekdays, so weekends give you the longest window.
Parks with the playgrounds worth driving to
Sefton Park is the big one: a boating lake, a playground, the Fairy Glen and the Palm House, which keeps its own hours and is closed Fridays and Saturdays. Calderstones Park in Allerton has the Linda McCartney playground for toddlers, a larger wooded play area next to it, a miniature railway that runs on donations and the Storybarn, whose sessions are ticketed through The Reader and need booking before you set off. Park at the Calderstones Road or Yew Tree entrances.
Croxteth Hall Country Park in West Derby has accessible, junior and infant play areas, estate roads for bikes and a free car park off Muirhead Avenue East. The gates lock at 5.30pm in winter and 6.30pm in summer, and the car park cannot be reserved, so go early on a sunny Sunday. Otterspool Park and Promenade has free parking in the Mersey Road car park, play areas, a free skatepark and a promenade wide enough for a bike, a scooter and a parent trying to keep up with both. Festival Gardens next door is gated and shuts at 6pm.
Everton Park has the best view in the city from the vantage point off Heyworth Street, a playground with accessible equipment, a skatepark and a mini roads track for learning to ride a bike. The council lists no toilets or cafe, so go prepared. Newsham Park, Princes Park, Stanley Park between the two football grounds, Walton Hall Park and Allerton Towers are all ordinary public parks with playgrounds, no entry charge and mostly street parking.
On the Wirral, Birkenhead Park has a playground, a visitor centre with a cafe, toilets and baby changing, and is open all day. There is no car park inside the park at the moment, so park on the surrounding streets and walk in. Royden Park at Frankby has woodland, a lake, a cafe and a miniature railway, with pay and display parking from £1.20 an hour. In St Helens, Taylor Park has two play areas, a cafe in the old Boathouse, free parking and a flat tarmac loop round the lake marked every 100 metres, perfect for a child who has just lost the stabilisers. Sankey Valley Country Park runs for miles along the old canal.
Free, with animals
Tam O'Shanter Urban Farm beside Bidston Hill is a community farm with level paths, a cafe, free parking and no entry charge. It runs on donations, so take some change for the box; it is the best value morning on the Wirral. Red squirrels live in the pinewoods at Formby, where the beach and woods are free but the National Trust car parks are £9 a car for non members. We have a whole squirrel spotting adventure for that one.
The coast
The Iron Men on Crosby Beach are 100 cast iron figures along three kilometres of sand, and nobody charges you to look at them. Check the Gladstone Dock tide times first, because the figures disappear for an hour or so either side of high water, and the council warns of soft sand and mud, so stay within 50 metres of the promenade. West Kirby Marine Lake has a wall you can walk right round with the beach on one side and the lake on the other; the Dee Lane car park is pay and display. Wirral Country Park at Thurstaston has a visitor centre, cafe, toilets and the start of the Wirral Way, and Eastham Country Park has woodland, a historic bear pit and river views, with parking from £1.20 an hour.
Southport and St Helens
Hesketh Park in Southport has restored gardens and fountains, a cafe, toilets and an observatory that opens for free on set dates. The Botanic Gardens in Churchtown has a lake, an aviary, a play area and a car park reached from Verulam Road rather than the main entrance. Dream at Sutton Manor is a 20 metre white head on top of an old colliery spoil heap beside the M62, with woodland walks around it. Expect an uphill walk and a certain amount of "are we there yet".
The FamDays verdict
The best day out in Liverpool for a fiver is still a free museum, a park and a bag of chips. Pick one from the museums, one from the parks, check the parking before you leave, and keep the gift shop money for the ice cream van.
