Days Out in Dorset With Children, Checked October 2026

The days out most Dorset families search for are the Tank Museum at Bovington, Monkey World near Wool, Corfe Castle and the Swanage Railway that runs beneath it, and Moors Valley near Ringwood. All five stay open into the winter, and so do the eight below them. Every entry was checked against the attraction’s own website on 28 October 2026.

We have not reviewed these places and nothing here is our verdict on them. Each entry sets out what the attraction itself publishes: what there is for children, the price, the age at which children start paying, winter opening and closed dates, parking, and dog rules where they are stated. Prices are for the winter season unless we say otherwise. Three favourites close for the winter in the next few days; they are listed at the end.

Animals and big attractions near Wareham

The Tank Museum, Bovington

The museum promises “tanks in action, crew days, events, and more” in its arena, and lists a café, soft play and a shop on site. Tickets booked online are 20% cheaper than on the door: an adult is £19.80 online (£24.75 on the door), a child aged 4 to 17 is £8 (£10), and a family of two adults and two children £47.96 (£59.95). Under-4s are free, and every ticket includes a free annual pass, though not for its special event days. It is open 10am to 5pm and allows four to five hours for a visit, but is closed on 4, 12, 18 and 27 November and 24 to 26 December, and warns of disruption from a new exhibition until January 2027. Parking is free. Dogs are not allowed inside, other than assistance dogs. Bovington, BH20 6JG.

Monkey World, near Wool

Monkey World is an ape rescue centre on 65 acres, and its facilities page lists three adventure playgrounds, the largest being the Great Ape Play Area “at the far end of the park, past the capuchin complex”, with “climbing frames, cargo nets, swings & slides”. It is open every day from 10am to 5pm, closing only on Christmas Day. Prices are £18 for an adult online (£19 at the gate), £12 for a child aged 3 to 15 (£12.75), and £50.75 for a family of two adults and two children (£53.50); under-3s are free. The Treetops café is open all year; off season, hot food stops at 2.30pm. The walk-through lemur enclosure is closed until further notice, though the lemurs can be watched through a window at feeding time, noon to 1pm. Longthorns, Wareham, BH20 6HH.

Farmer Palmer’s Farm Park, Organford

Farmer Palmer’s says it is a day out for “children 8 years and under”, with more than 20 attractions including animal barns, guinea pig cuddles, soft play, indoor and outdoor bouncy castles, pedal go-karts, a tractor trailer ride and a woodland Dinosaur Roar Trail. Its times and prices page gives autumn and winter hours of 9.30am to 3pm on weekdays and 9.30am to 4pm at weekends. Online, a weekday ticket is £16 and a weekend ticket £18 for adults and for children aged three and over alike; two-year-olds are £9 or £10, and under-2s are free. Walk-up tickets cost £3 more. Through November it is closed on Thursdays, and on Mondays to Wednesdays in November online tickets are £5. Farmer Christmas days run on various December dates; the farm says it then closes over Christmas and reopens on 9 January 2027. Wareham Road, Organford, Poole, BH16 6EU.

Purbeck and Swanage

Corfe Castle

The National Trust describes the castle as a royal palace and fortress “partially demolished in 1646” after the Civil War, “with fallen walls and secret places”. Through November it is open every day from 10am to 3.30pm, with the tea room open 11am to 4pm; it closes on 25 and 26 December and shuts at 12.30pm on Christmas Eve, according to the Trust’s published calendar. Off-peak admission without Gift Aid is £15 for an adult, £7.50 for a child aged 5 to 17 and £37.50 for a family of two adults and up to three children; under-5s and members go free, and tickets do not need booking. Parking is charged for non-members. See our Corfe Castle visitor guide for the walk up from the village. The Square, Corfe Castle, Wareham, BH20 5EZ.

Swanage Railway

The heritage line runs steam and diesel trains for six miles between Norden, Corfe Castle and Swanage. A day freedom ticket is £27.50 for an adult and £14 for a child aged 5 to 15, and a family ticket for two adults and three children (or one adult and four) is £77.50. Under-5s, dogs and bicycles travel free. Check the running dates before you go: the railway’s calendar shows Flying Scotsman services on 1 November, then no public trains until 28 and 29 November, when the Christmas and shuttle service starts with the Father Christmas Yuletide Express. That runs again on 5, 6, 12, 13 and 19 to 24 December, and the normal timetable returns from 28 to 31 December. The calendar says more dates are being added. Our Santa specials and grottos guide covers the Christmas trains.

Durlston Country Park, Swanage

Durlston is a national nature reserve of more than 320 acres on the clifftop south of Swanage. Its family page lists a Wild Play Trail with swings, a barefoot trail and “feely boxes”, four waymarked trails mostly suitable for buggies, and Woodland Explorer rucksacks for children aged 4 to 12, hired from the castle at £4 for half a day. The castle has “interactive displays, live wildlife cameras, a fossil room”, a café and baby changing; the park says the castle visitor centre is open every day from 10am to 5pm. Wild Wednesdays drop-in crafts run in the Learning Centre from 11am to 3pm in term time. The park’s pages list no admission charge; parking is paid on leaving, from £2.50 for an hour to £7.90 for five hours or more. Dogs are welcome in the castle and café on a short lead. Lighthouse Road, Swanage, BH19 2JL.

Dorchester and Weymouth

Dorset Museum, Dorchester

Dorset Museum covers “250 million years” of the county’s natural world and archaeology, with interactive exhibits for all ages and a free Bloomberg Connects audio guide. Children aged 15 and under get in free with an adult. An adult ticket is £13.95 online or £15.50 on the door and covers a year of return visits; 16 to 25s pay £11.70 online. It is open daily from 10am to 5pm, last entry 4pm, with a quiet opening from 10am to noon on the first Saturday of each month. The Taste café opens 9am to 4pm (10am on Sundays). There is no parking on site; Top o’ Town car park is about five minutes’ walk. From 30 January it hosts Mary Anning: Fossil Hunter. High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA.

Kingston Maurward Animal Park and Gardens, near Dorchester

Run by Coastland College on its Kingston Maurward campus, the animal park and gardens cover 35 acres and admission “is free”, the college says. The animals listed are donkeys, alpacas, goats, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs and a variety of birds, and there are indoor and outdoor play areas, garden walks, a café and a gift shop. In term time the animal park, gardens and shop open 10am to 4pm, and the Barn Café 10am to 3pm on weekdays and 10am to 4pm at weekends. The park’s own site adds that winter hours “may vary”, and that charges apply when events are running. Kingston Maurward Estate, Dorchester, DT2 8PY.

Sea Life Weymouth

The aquarium sits in Lodmoor Country Park, and its site lists Fairy Penguin Island, Caribbean Cove, a rockpool and a Night and Day Ocean display, with seals, sharks, turtles, rays, otters and octopus, plus the Castaway Bay splash pool and a Pirate Adventure mini golf (from £9). Tickets are from £14 for an adult booked in advance, and under-2s are free; prices vary by date, so check at booking. The aquarium’s published hours are 10am to 5pm until 1 November and 10am to 3pm from 2 November. A Christmas event is listed on its events page. Lodmoor’s pay and display car park is next door; the Lodmoor playground is in the same park. Lodmoor Country Park, Weymouth, DT4 7SX.

East Dorset

Moors Valley Country Park and Forest, Ashley Heath

Entry to Moors Valley is free and you pay for parking. The park’s site lists two large adventure play areas, a one-mile Play Trail through the forest, Tree Top and Music Trails, an accessible Bee Hive play structure and a steam railway, with Go Ape’s ropes courses charged separately. Parking is cheapest on term-time weekdays: a flat £2.70 from 2 November to 18 December and again from 4 January. Term-time weekends run from £4 for an hour to £14.50 for five hours or more, with a £2.50 early-bird rate if you leave by 10.45am. Over Christmas, from 19 December to 3 January, it is £5.70 for an hour up to £17 for the day. On 28 October the car park was open 8am to 6pm and the visitor centre 9am to 5pm; the park publishes a day-by-day calendar. Dogs are allowed on its trails. Horton Road, Ashley Heath, BH24 2ET.

Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne

The National Trust house has two play areas: the Woodland Trail play area and a Kitchen Garden play area for younger children, with a buddy swing for babies. On 28 October the Trust said sections of the Woodland Trail were closed after storm damage, with the house, garden, a 1.5-mile woodland route, the café and the shop open and a Pikachu art trail running. The garden and Stables Café open 9.30am to 4pm daily except Christmas Day; the house opens 10.30am to 3pm but is closed from 16 to 20 November and on 25 and 26 December. Without Gift Aid, an adult is £23, a child aged 5 to 17 £11.50 and a family of two adults and up to three children £57.50; under-5s and members are free. See Christmas at Kingston Lacy for the festive programme. Wimborne Minster, BH21 4EA.

West Dorset coast

Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre

The centre on the seafront at Charmouth is run by a small charity and is free to enter. Its site invites you to “meet the Charmouth dinosaur”, watch the fossil film in its Jurassic Theatre and find out how to look for fossils on the beach, and it runs guided two-hour fossil walks, booked through its events calendar. Winter opening from 1 November to 28 February is Thursday to Sunday, 10.30am to 4pm (last entry 3.45pm); it is closed Monday to Wednesday. There is step-free access to the side of the building through a 77cm doorway. Food and drink are not allowed inside, and dogs are not allowed except assistance dogs. Dorset Council has backed buying a future inland home for it. Lower Sea Lane, Charmouth, DT6 6LR.

Lyme Regis Museum

Lyme Regis Museum offers child-friendly museum trails and guided fossil walks with local experts. Its temporary exhibition In Search of Mary Anning: New Discoveries runs until 29 November. Admission is £9.95 for an adult and £6.95 for a child or student, with under-6s free; a family of two adults and up to three children is £26.95, and tickets give free return entry for a year. The museum showed itself open from 10am to 5pm on 28 October, but its visitor page lists only summer hours, closed on Mondays outside the Dorset school holidays; call 01297 443370 to check winter days before you travel. Bridge Street, Lyme Regis, DT7 3QA.

Closing for the winter

Three of the county’s best-known family days out shut in the first days of November. Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour closes for the season at 5pm on Sunday 1 November, the National Trust says. Abbotsbury Swannery closes on 1 November and reopens in mid-March. Nothe Fort in Weymouth closes for maintenance from 2 November and reopens in mid-February; its own page gives both 12 and 13 February, so check before you go.

How we chose

These are the family attractions in and around the Dorset Council area that people search for most, picked to spread across the county and to stay open through the winter. They are not ranked. Each one was checked on 28 October 2026 against the attraction’s own website, or the National Trust’s published prices and opening calendar; where a site does not give winter hours or a dog rule, the entry says so. Prices change with the seasons and storms close country parks at short notice, so look at the attraction’s own page on the morning you go. Run a place that should be here, or spot something that has changed? Email newsdesk@dorsetpost.co.uk.

For more ideas, see things to do in Dorset, what’s on in Dorset this month and Dorset’s pantomimes. For free outings, read our guides to Dorset playgrounds and walks in Dorset, and for somewhere to eat, Dorset cafes. Local businesses are listed in the Dorset Post directory.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best free days out in Dorset with children?

Children aged 15 and under get into Dorset Museum in Dorchester free with an adult. Kingston Maurward Animal Park and Gardens near Dorchester has free admission, and Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre on the seafront is free to enter. Moors Valley’s play areas and trails are free too; you pay only for parking, which is a flat £2.70 on term-time weekdays from 2 November to 18 December.

Which Dorset attractions are open in winter?

The Tank Museum, Monkey World, Corfe Castle, Kingston Lacy, Dorset Museum, Moors Valley and Sea Life Weymouth all publish winter opening. Check the closed dates: the Tank Museum shuts on 4, 12, 18 and 27 November and 24 to 26 December, Corfe Castle on 25 and 26 December, and Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre on Mondays to Wednesdays from 1 November. Brownsea Island, Abbotsbury Swannery and Nothe Fort close for the winter at the start of November.

Do under-5s go free at Dorset attractions?

At most of them, but the age varies. Under-5s are free at Corfe Castle, Kingston Lacy and on the Swanage Railway, under-4s at the Tank Museum, under-3s at Monkey World, under-2s at Sea Life Weymouth and Farmer Palmer’s, and under-6s at Lyme Regis Museum. At Farmer Palmer’s a child of three or over pays the adult price.