Easter egg hunts

Where to start? It has to be Easter egg hunts. Because they’re a rite of passage over the hols and there are plenty of cheap and cheerful trails to tick off. Over at the crumbly Beeston Castle, kiddies can nose around its ramparts in search of clues, winding up with a chocolate treat as you gaze across the astonishing views unfolding from this Medieval stronghold. All for just £2 a pop. Head to Blakemere Village near Northwich, where an Easter trail has sprung up in its enchanting woodland, and maps are available to buy for just a fiver. As for Chester Zoo, it’s pulling out all the stops with a ‘Really Wild Egg Trail’, with a bunch of huge painted eggs cropping up in and around the animal enclosures for kiddies to tick off.

Arley Hall’s gardens are bursting back to life and freewheeling kids will relish running about for its Easter scavenger hunt, chocolate included of course! And with it being school hols, BeWILDerwood has curated a whole collection of Easter-inspired fun, from meetings with Cedric the Easter Bunny to tales beside the Storytelling Stage and a giant Easter egg trail. (5-27 April).

Castaway Play is an eternal crowd-pleaser for kiddies with its soaring tree houses and bridges. But it also truly excels over Easter with a bunch of Easter egg hunts, meet-and-greets with dinosaurs and Peter Rabbit, and a whole host of crafts. 12 – 13 and 18 – 21 April. Same can be said for Quarry Bank Mill, with its Easter Adventure Trail, where littles one hop, skip and jump along its blooming garden paths (bunny ears optional), which unveil a prize of chocolate at the end. Plus Easter craft activities, colouring in, dressing up, and hands-on weaving on giant frames inside the mill. The playful sprawls of Biddulph Grange Garden are also hosting trails for little legs, with the promise of chocolate towards the end spurring them on. And at Lyme Park, hunt for colourful wooden eggs along its garden trail (amid its herds of deer) with a bunch of games and challenges along the way. Or take your brood to Hare Hill and to its walled garden and wild pockets, where they can claim a chocolate prize if they complete all Easter-themed activities. Finally head over to Kenyon Hall Farm for a foray into its wild and dreamy patches of farmland for Easter trails. And whatever you do, don’t miss a good rummage in its perennially popular farm shop. It’s exquisite!

Spring truly has sprung, and to capture all the spring feels for little ones, head over to Blaze Farm in Macclesfield where you can stare as lambs are born, follow nature trails and grab an ice cream using milk from the neighbouring Peak District. Open from Sat 5 April to 21 April.

Hawarden Estate is the sublime setting for The Great Easter Show 2025 on Sat 19 April. Centred around the estate’s epic farm shop, the show will bring together a collective of fairground rides, live music, vintage games and market stalls piled high with artisan goodies. And tickets also include entry to Hawarden’s dog show, where you can watch pooches crowned for everything from ‘waggiest wail’ to ‘best rescue dog’ and ‘owner who looks like their dog’. Tickets are £18 per adult and £15 per child. Under 5s are free. 

Tatton Park is ablaze with action this Easter. The estate’s stableyard will be transformed over the long weekend with an Easter pop-up market. Expect stalls of piping hot food, steaming coffee and nibbles for grazing, plus a handful of homewares and local art. Tie this in with a ride on the whopping 50-metre high giant wheel that’ll also be popping up on the estate for the first time. All this plus easter egg hunts in the gardens, meetings with chicks and lambs at the farm, and a family trail in the mansion with a little help from the Easter bunny. Book online to save 10%. 

Foodie thrills

Fancy yourself as something of a foodie? Then you better make tracks to Chester during the Easter weekend when this gargantuan Taste Cheshire Food and Drink Festival will be taking over the racecourse. And given it’s the 25th anniversary, things are set to be bigger than ever. A whole culinary cohort of guest chefs will be popping up for cooking demos, from Simon Rimmer to Miguel Barclay and Jay Tanner of Twenty Eight, Chester’s innovative British tapas space that made its mark this year on the Top 100 Restaurants in the UK. On the bill there’s also kids’ and adults’ cooking classes, plus a whole host of stalls to whet your appetite. Fancy making a weekend of it? Forget the drive home. You can pitch your tent or park up your camper van on the Roodee Racecourse, too. Tickets from £12 a day; £24 for all three days. Two adults camping for four nights and entry into the festival each day from £100. 

Theatre

London’s Natural History Museum is going on tour, and its thrilling Dinosaurs Live productions is stomping onto the stage of Storyhouse on Thurs 10 April. Bag tickets and you’ll be taken on a prehistoric journey to the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, gazing as the life-like dinosaurs come alive right on stage. At Storehouse’s Garrett Theatre, Curious Investigators is a highly visual show for 3-7 year olds, where a duo of inquisitive kids discover a mysterious egg hidden in the rubbish and need the audience’s help to rescue an unborn chick. And anyone with a slither of interest in music will love an afternoon with world record-breaking beatboxer SK Shlomo who has performed around the world with legends including Bjork, Ed Sheeran and Rudimental. Appearing at Storehouse on Sun 6 April.

Move quickly for the final few tickets of Mary Poppins at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. The award-winning Disney musical of the classic tale is on for just five weeks, featuring acclaimed Australian stars, Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers reprising their roles as Mary Poppins and Bert. Until 17 May. And if you have really young ones, they’ll go mad for Julia’s Donaldson’s Room on the Broom at The Lowry – iggety ziggety zaggety zoom. From 15-20 April. Also at The Lowry, you can catch the heartwarming The Koala Who Could, based on a the bestselling book, about Kevin, King of the staying-still-kings, and his friends the wombats, roos, and dingos as they learn that ‘life can be great when you try something new’. 8-13 April.

Budding scientists in your brood? Haul them along to Warrington’s Parr Hall where London’s Science Museum will be inspiring audiences with its live show on Sun 13 April.

For something completely different, Foamtastic arrives on Chester’s racecourse on Sun 13 April – a gargantuan and technicolour shindig where crowds are sprayed with foamy bubbles and coloured powder. Walk, dance and strut your way around the racecourse, smeared in kaleidoscopic colours, all to raise cash for The Hospice of the Good Shepherd.

How about a night at the circus in a cavernous big top tent and on-the-edge-of-your-seat performances? Gandey’s darts around the UK with its leftfield and jaw-dropping stunts that’ll leave you all starry-eyed and it’s landing at the Trafford Centre from 5 – 21 April (Easter Monday). My tip? It’s absolutely worth forking out the extra few pounds to sit ringside, where you can gaze at the costumes, the choreography and the daredevil stunts just a few feet away. Tickets from £9.99.

The great outdoors

Wild Play at Ashley’s veritable outdoorsy playground, Into the Wild, is back in this Easter. But it sells out super fast so quick smart on this one. Tucked away in this forest hideaway, whose ethos relies entirely on nature and the great outdoors, you’ll find new tree nets for clambering, zip lines, bushcraft fun, climbing frames, tipi film shows, plus Easter egg hunts and if you’re lucky, visits from the Easter Bunny. Running from 2-22 April. Prices from £2 for adults; £8 for 2-3 years; £9.50 for 4-12 years. 

Another one for those who revel in the Great Outdoors is Moorland Adventure’s Holiday Clubs at Tegg’s Nose with intros to orienteering, kayaking, climbing, caving and bushcraft. The first week is sold out but there are still space 15-17 April. Make them break away from the screens and try out Broad Leaf Forest Adventure, a Congleton-based forest school where rosy-cheeked kids from 5 to 11 embrace the wild and play and learn in the bracing weather.

Feeling hardy? For kids who fancy kayaking, climbing, abseiling and all that jazz, Astbury Water Sports Centre hosts some proper outdoorsy holidays clubs for kids seven plus, whatever the weather. 14-25 April.