15 Actually Good Things To Do With Kids In The Cotswolds

The Cotswolds is brilliant with children. But if we're being truthful, telling a nine-year-old that you're spending Saturday looking at another beautiful honey-stone village isn't always met with wild excitement.

So this is our guide to things children might actually want to do. Animals. Trains. Castles. Giant playgrounds. Dinosaurs. A beach that shouldn't really be here. And enough places to run around that the adults might get five minutes' peace.

1. Cotswold Wildlife Park

Best for: a proper whole day out. Kids will like: rhinos, giraffes, lions, penguins, the train and an enormous playground. Parents will like: it's genuinely rather beautiful.

This isn't just somewhere to stare at animals through fences. The wildlife park sits around a Victorian manor house and gardens, which means you'll occasionally find yourself looking at a rhino wandering across a lawn and wondering if you've accidentally arrived at the world's strangest country house. There's loads here, so don't try squeezing it into two hours.

Harriet says: "If there are giraffes, I'm interested." Georgie says: "PENGUINS."

Absolutely verdict: MAKE A DAY OF IT.

2. Cotswold Farm Park

Best for: younger children. Kids will like: feeding animals, bouncing pillows, tractors, soft play and mud. Parents will like: they should sleep afterwards.

Adam Henson's farm park is basically what happens when somebody asks: how many things can we give children to do on a farm? Animals, rare breeds, play areas, sandpits, ride-on tractors, indoor soft play and seasonal activities. Spring brings lambing and chicks; later in the year there are flower fields and pumpkins.

Georgie verdict: this could take some time.

3. Ride a proper steam train

Steam. Noise. Old-fashioned stations. Countryside. Much better than explaining railway heritage to children. The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway runs between Broadway and Cheltenham Racecourse with stops including Toddington and Winchcombe, so you can turn the train itself into part of a bigger day out.

4. Sudeley Castle

A castle with actual history, gardens big enough to run around, and a decent adventure playground. The deal is simple: adults get the Tudor bits, children get the playground and a pheasantry.

5. Birdland, Bourton-on-the-Water

Penguins in the Cotswolds. Also a marsh walk, a play area and a dinosaur trail. Small enough to do in a morning, which is sometimes exactly what you want.

6. Crocodiles of the World, Brize Norton

The UK's only crocodile zoo, which is a sentence that sells itself to most children. Indoors, warm, and a very good rainy-day answer.

7. Cotswold Country Park & Beach, Cirencester

The beach that shouldn't really be here. Lakes, sand, paddling, inflatables in summer and plenty of space. Bring towels and low expectations about staying dry.

8. The Model Village, Bourton-on-the-Water

A one-ninth scale version of the village you're standing in, including a model of the model village. Children find this genuinely funny. So, quietly, do adults.

9. Cotswold Motoring Museum & Toy Collection

Old cars, old toys, and Brum. Compact, cheap and surprisingly charming.

10. Batsford Arboretum

"We're visiting a collection of trees." Possibly not the greatest sales pitch. But Batsford has around 60 acres, walks, a children's play area and trails, and it's close to Moreton-in-Marsh. Go in autumn and even the children might admit trees are quite impressive.

11. Westonbirt Arboretum

Same basic problem. Lots of trees. Except these are really good trees. Make it less about botanical education and more about exploring outdoors and you've got a surprisingly good family day.

12. Walk to Broadway Tower

This is how you trick children into going for a walk: give them something obvious to reach. Broadway Tower gives you exactly that, with huge views from the top of the Cotswold escarpment. There's a shorter tower circular and a longer walk up from Broadway village. Then go back to Broadway for cake. This is important for morale.

13. Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Technically Oxford rather than the middle of the Cotswolds. We're including it anyway. Dinosaurs, fossils, skeletons and an extraordinary building — plus hands-on fossil tables and children's trails.

Absolutely verdict: WORTH LEAVING THE COTSWOLDS FOR.

14. National Trust roulette

There are loads of National Trust properties around the Cotswolds. Our approach: find one with a good children's trail, somewhere to run around and cake. The children get an adventure. The adults can pretend this is an educational day. Everybody understands the arrangement.

15. Do something completely free

You don't actually have to pay for an attraction. Pick a village. Find a short circular walk. Take a picnic. Find a stream. Climb a hill. Give the children five pounds each to find the most ridiculous thing in a village shop.

The Cotswolds itself is the attraction. And sometimes those are the days they remember.

Harriet & Georgie's picks

• Harriet's pick: to be chosen by Harriet.
• Georgie's pick: to be chosen by Georgie.
• Dad's pick: almost certainly something involving a pub at the end.

The Absolutely Cotswolds rule

Would we actually take Harriet and Georgie there? That's the test. No attraction gets onto the page merely because it is "nestled in the picturesque rolling hills of the Cotswolds". Nobody aged nine has ever requested more picturesque rolling hills.