Playdium

Playdium sits just outside Morpeth and is basically an indoor play complex - the sort of place that keeps kids occupied for a solid couple of hours on a rainy afternoon. There's a decent soft play area, trampolines, climbing frames, and various rides scattered about. It's not Six Flags, but it does what it says on the tin.

Families with younger children will get the most mileage out of it. Toddlers find the soft play genuinely engaging, and kids aged five to ten have enough variety to stay entertained without getting bored halfway through. Older kids and adults? Less so - unless you're accompanying someone else, there's not much pull for you.

The real value comes when the weather turns nasty. Northumberland's got brilliant parks for holiday stays - Tranwell Farm Holidays is barely two miles away, Parkdean Resorts Sandy Bay is under six miles off, and Hillside Huts offers cosy cabin accommodation nearby. If you're based at any of these and wake up to drizzle, Playdium is a handy backup plan rather than a destination in itself.

Timing-wise, go early if you can - it fills up quickly with school groups during term time. A morning session is usually quieter than afternoon. Two to three hours is about right for most visits before the novelty wears off and kids start asking for the arcade machines.