bath

Looking for some rainy day fun? Head to Better Extreme Bath for a family trampolining sesh

Ok, so it’s yet another rainy weekend. You’ve used up all of your rainy day play ideas and can’t face spending another hour at soft play or the faff of a swim. The weather’s far too ghastly to even entertain going outside. And you’ve watched Frozen so many times recently that your kids are now calling themselves Elsa and Anna. What can you do?

This was our predicament at the weekend. We were running low on ideas until we started an internet search and came across Better Extreme, a trampoline park in Bath. *There are others around, which I’ll link to at the end of the post, but we didn’t fancy venturing too far with Storm Dennis on the rampage.

The smile says it all – the trampoline park was a winner!

Both our girls are heavily into jumping right now so a trampoline park sounded right up their street. Plus, every weekend Better Extreme hosts a “Family Bounce” session that’s suitable for anyone under the age of 12 (and parents/carers, of course). Ideal. If you fancy trying it out mid-week instead, they actually do a “Toddler Bounce” session on a Thursday morning, which would probably be even better if you’re like us and have very little ones (it’s only for under 5’s).

For smaller children, Better Extreme is fantastic. It’s housed in a big open and light space with a variety of different areas. You’ve got your standard trampolines – the main area is split into lots of individual trampettes so that people can jump at their own speed… AND there are trampolines on the walls too so if you feel like it you can really go big.

Then there are the games areas – there’s a basketball dunk court and a dodgeball court, which, when you’re not competitively playing the game (which we obviously weren’t) is just a great space for running around, climbing, sliding and throwing balls around.

There’s even a nice enclosed area for under 8’s that has smaller trampettes and a little foam pit that’s great for jumping into or just rolling around in!

Even though there were a few older kids there, I never felt concerned about ours getting knocked around; the girls were just delighted to have free reign to explore! Amazingly, despite it being the first weekend of half term, and a ghastly day, it was pretty quiet, which meant it was actually a really relaxed experience.

Big kids (or fun-loving adults) can go large and jump into a giant foam pit. Me and the hubby had a go (I did a very sensible pencil jump, his dismount was more daring), but we were instantly shown up by two girls who both did front flips into the foam.

If you’re up for extending the day, there’s also a soft play area and cafe on site (access will cost you extra). Bath Sports and Leisure Centre also has a great swimming pool that we’ll be checking out another time.

The small print…

Prices: The sessions aren’t cheap. A family bounce session ticket costs £15 (1 under 5 and 1 adult) so we booked two of those. Otherwise adult tickets are £11 and junior tickets are £8.50. You can’t go in without their branded grippy socks so that’ll cost you an extra £2 per person on top of the ticket price. The good thing is that you get to keep the socks so subsequent visits will be cheaper.

Timings: Family bounce sessions are 10-11am on Saturdays and Sundays. Toddler bounce sessions are 10-12pm on Thursdays. A full programme can be found here. On the website it says arrive 30 minutes before your booked session. This isn’t necessary – we arrived bang on time at 10am (you try getting there 30 mins early, on a Saturday, with two under 4’s and a 45 minute car journey!) and had no issues (though we had booked in advance online). Once you’ve got your socks, you just need to watch a 2 minute briefing video (health and safety and all that) and then you’re free to bounce.

Parking: The only reason I’d suggest allowing extra time before your session starts is the parking. Extreme Bath is linked with the Bath Sports and Leisure centre and parking is limited. You can park for 3 hours for £3.60 but if you show your ticket at the desk when you sign in, you can claim a refund of £1.10.

Location: Bath Sports and Leisure Centre, North Parade Road, Bath, Somerset, BA2 4ET.

As I mentioned before, there are alternative trampoline parks in Bristol. Here are the links:

AIRHOP – https://www.airhop-bristol.com/
FLIPOUT – https://www.flipout.co.uk/

The Bath Skyline: Great for family rambles, fairies and fearless adventurers

If you’re looking for a family friendly walk in the Bath area, then I have just the thing for you – the Bath Skyline. Now, you may well balk when I tell you that the Skyline is a six mile walk that takes up to four hours (I’m with you – there’s no way I’d consider attempting that with two young whippersnappers in tow). However, the walk can be broken up into shorter sections, meaning that the whole family can enjoy it, even if those little legs aren’t willing to wander far. 

The section of the Skyline that I’d recommend for families with young children is the area around Claverton Down. This is where we found ourselves last week. The Skyline is managed by the National Trust and, during school holidays (February to October), those lovely National Trust folk put on a little thing called Wild Wednesdays – a group that runs from 10:30-12:30pm providing nature themed activities for children (at a charge of £2 per child). What’s even better is that Wild Wednesdays takes place in a gorgeous area of woodland that has been transformed into an incredible woodland play area. So not only can you partake in such activities as potato printing, crown making and leaf collaging, you can also enjoy a scavenger hunt AND go crazy on an abundance of natural wooden play structures that are scattered amongst the trees in what was once a working quarry.

Just some of the activities on offer at Wild Wednesdays
In the midst of autumn crown making

We’re talking a course of not just stepping stones, but stepping logs too, wobble beams, traverse ropes, a walk on see-saw, wooden hop-skotch, a winding woodland walk, a den building area, and an amazing rope swing! The Little Big One was in her element. 

Traversing the stepping logs
Den building fun

As well as being home to an incredible adventure playground, this section of the Bath Skyline is also home to the Long Wood Elf and Fairy Foray. On the short amble through the woods to the play area (about 400m), there are 15 elf and fairy doors to be found. A great incentive to encourage little ones to stay on the ground (and off your shoulders!)

Don’t miss the elf and fairy trail!

One thing to mention about the Bath Skyline is that there are no parking facilities. However, in the school holidays when Wild Wednesdays is running, the National Trust put on event parking at Ralph Allen School (the entrance to the Skyline walk from here is across the road, through a field, into the woods and around a 400m walk, which is where the elf and fairy trail comes in mighty handy). If you’re visiting outside of school holidays or at the weekend, you can park in the city centre and catch a bus to your desired starting point. This handy little guide has all the details you need. 

For more information on family friendly activities being run by the National Trust on the Bath Skyline, check out their Facebook page. 

A spot of see-sawing

A bucket load of spaghetti and a touch of magic: Dragonbird Theatre for the under 5s

Way back in March (yes, I’ve been meaning to write this one up for a while now!), the Little Big One and the Not So Tiny One had their first taste of the theatre. This wasn’t any old theatre, this was Dragonbird Theatre; a hugely interactive, highly engaging and genuinely really funny performance all rolled into a neat 12 minutes (the perfect length for holding little ones’ attention). Dragonbird was set up by two former drama teachers and performers – Tilly Langdon and Lotte Norgaard – who do everything from creating great props and writing scripts to embodying some brilliant characters that perfectly capture children’s imagination.

Chef Gherkin and Princess Pompusknickers

We booked tickets for Chef Gherkin and his Magic Mixing Machine, which was a fabulous story about a French chef and his magic mixing machine… and a royally fussy eater called Princess Pompusknickers! As mentioned above, the performance was relatively short, but was engaging throughout. Audience participation was actively encouraged with the children helping Chef Gherkin and Princess Pompusknickers make the worlds biggest pizza, balance cheese, stir tomato sauce and wrestle spaghetti!

Said spaghetti wrestling

After the show, we were all invited to step into the story and help create some of our own magic. Before helping Chef Gherkin create his culinary masterpiece, we joined in with a song about washing our hands (a good lesson in food hygiene) and our armpits (because, well why not?) Then we made our own stick-on pizzas with velcro toppings and took them up to the front so that Chef Gherkin could put them in his oven. Finally we all sat around a big “table” together and made a giant plate of spaghetti (made of ribbons) and tomato sauce (containing cloth tomatoes and beanbag cheese). And in true Chef Gherkin style, and much to everyone’s delight, we finished the morning with spaghetti confetti, throwing our ribbon spaghetti up in the air to make a delightful mess (which, you’ll be pleased to know, was tidied up afterwards with a very impressive team effort).

On the menu today: Velcro pizza
All hands on deck for spaghetti mixing!

Designed for children from birth up to 5 years, this is a great activity to encourage imagination and creative play. Tilly and Lotte make the experience completely immersive so even if your child is a little on the shy side, everyone feels involved – but can join in as much, or as little, as they like. My two are not backwards in coming forwards (they’re possibly two future thespians in the making) so for them, this was a great morning out. I’m planning to buy tickets for another show very soon.

Spaghetti Confetti!

Based in Bristol, the Dragonbird Theatre do performances all over Bristol and Bath as well as using venues in Chew Magna (this is where we saw them), Clevedon and Radstock. Upcoming dates can be found here.

Tickets cost £4.50 and everyone over 4 months needs a ticket.

The Little Big One meets Dragon