Photo: Doyle of London (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons
Things to do in Bedfordshire
The best holidays are planned around great days out. Here's what's on the doorstep in Bedfordshire, from big-ticket attractions to rainy-day savers.
🎟️ This weekend near Bedfordshire
Events from
Skiddle
Fri 13 Nov · 10:00
The Shoosmith Gallery Presents: 'Echoes Across Borders'
Delapre Abbey, Northampton · 20.5 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Northampton Audio Tour: From Castles to Cultural
Northampton Castle, Northampton · 21.5 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Bedford Audio Tour: Journey Through Bedford's Timeless Tapes...
St Paul's Church, Bedford, Bedford · 2.5 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 19:00
Secret Affair + Purple Hearts
Roadmender, Northampton · 21.4 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Aquariums
Museums & Galleries
1.4 mi from Bedfordshire
Moot Hall
Moot Hall is a small museum in Elstow, Bedfordshire, run by a team of volunteer staff. You can explore galleries of modern and old pictures of the hall, view visitors' photos, and...
✓
2.6 mi from Bedfordshire
The Higgins
The Higgins Bedford brings together a former brewer's house, brewery buildings and a Grade II listed gallery to tell the story of the Higgins family alongside Bedford's wider histo...
✓
2.6 mi from Bedfordshire
Panacea Museum
The Panacea Museum tells the extraordinary story of the Panacea Society, a religious community founded in Bedford in the early twentieth century. Spread across several Victorian bu...
✓
2.6 mi from Bedfordshire
John Bunyan museum
The John Bunyan Museum in Bedford tells the story of the town's famous preacher and writer of The Pilgrim's Progress, through recreated scenes from his life, audio, and hands-on in...
✓
5.2 mi from Bedfordshire
Military Intelligence Museum
This Bedfordshire museum is the only one in the UK dedicated entirely to the history of military intelligence, covering the army, navy and air force from the Boer War to the presen...
9.5 mi from Bedfordshire
Thurleigh Museum
Thurleigh Museum is a memorial dedicated to the personnel of the 306th Bomb Group, who flew from this Bedfordshire airfield during the Second World War. Housed in an original Small...
✓
10.5 mi from Bedfordshire
Woburn Heritage Museum
Woburn Heritage Museum is a small, free-entry museum set inside the beautiful Old St Mary's Church in the heart of Woburn. Inside you'll find local history, artefacts and stories o...
11.2 mi from Bedfordshire
Cowper and Newton Museum
The Cowper & Newton Museum occupies the house in Olney's Market Place where poet William Cowper once lived, three years after John Newton arrived in the town as curate. Inside, you...
✓
11.7 mi from Bedfordshire
Garden City Collection Study Centre
UK archive and museum resource centre in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
11.7 mi from Bedfordshire
St Neots Museum
St Neots Museum tells the story of this busy market town on the River Ouse, from prehistoric times through to the modern day. Housed in the Old Court, a former police station and l...
✓
✓
✓
12.7 mi from Bedfordshire
North Hertfordshire Museum
North Hertfordshire Museum sits next to the Town Hall in Brand Street, Hitchin, displaying collections from the former Letchworth and Hitchin museums. You'll find everything from a...
12.9 mi from Bedfordshire
British schools museum
The British Schools Museum occupies "the last surviving Monitorial Schoolroom in the world", a "grade II* listed building" that "opened in 1837" within a school "founded in 1810"....
✓
12.9 mi from Bedfordshire
The International Garden Cities Exhibition
Museum in Letchworth Garden City, England, UK
13.2 mi from Bedfordshire
Ashwell Village Museum
Historic building museum in Ashwell, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
13.5 mi from Bedfordshire
Baldock Museum
Baldock Museum is a small, volunteer-run museum telling the story of this Hertfordshire market town, founded by the Knights Templar around 1148 on the site of an earlier Iron Age a...
13.6 mi from Bedfordshire
Brickz
Brickz is a museum in Central Milton Keynes dedicated entirely to LEGO®, home to over five million bricks. Inside, you'll find large, unique displays created by a community of buil...
✓
Theme Parks
12.4 mi from Bedfordshire
Gulliver's Land
Gulliver's Land is a theme park resort in Campbell Park, Milton Keynes, designed for children aged 2-13. You'll find rides in Western World and the JCB Zone, plus a Dinosaur and Fa...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
17.1 mi from Bedfordshire
Go Ape Salcey Forest
Go Ape Salcey Forest is a treetop adventure park set in an ancient Northamptonshire woodland, offering high ropes courses and zip wires for families. Younger children can try the e...
✓
✓
✓
✓
22.3 mi from Bedfordshire
Wicksteed Park
Wicksteed Park is a free-to-enter, Grade II listed urban park in Barton Seagrave, North Northamptonshire, founded in 1921 and run by a charitable trust. Over 25 rides sit within 28...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
25.3 mi from Bedfordshire
Go Ape Wendover
Go Ape Wendover sits at the highest point of the Chiltern Hills, offering treetop high ropes and ziplines amid vibrant forest scenery. You can take on the testing Treetop Challenge...
✓
✓
✓
✓
Water Parks
12.2 mi from Bedfordshire
Splash ‘n’ Play
Splash 'n' Play is an outdoor splash park at Willen Lake in Campbell Park, Milton Keynes, with over 60 water features including a super splash bucket, water tunnel, sail boat, wate...
✓
✓
✓
Zoos & Wildlife
8.4 mi from Bedfordshire
Knotts of Tempsford
Knotts of Tempsford is a family-run working farm in the Bedfordshire village of Tempsford, where you can meet animals ranging from pygmy goats and micro pigs to llamas and leopard...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
9 mi from Bedfordshire
Woburn Safari Park
Woburn Safari Park is a wild animal park set across 360 acres, home to hundreds of exotic and endangered species. You drive your own vehicle through the Road Safari, passing rhino,...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
17.9 mi from Bedfordshire
Whipsnade Zoo
Whipsnade Zoo, formerly known as ZSL Whipsnade Zoo and Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, is a zoo located in Whipsnade, near Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England. It is one of two zoos that... — Wikipedia
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
20.6 mi from Bedfordshire
Shepreth Wildlife Park
Shepreth Wildlife Park, near Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, is a wildlife attraction where you can see the park's wildlife and take part in animal experiences. You'll find VIP experien...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
22 mi from Bedfordshire
Hamerton Zoo Park
Hamerton Zoo Park is a zoo and wildlife attraction in Hamerton and Steeple Gidding, Huntingdonshire, marking 35 years of conservation, education and family fun. There's always some...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
24.6 mi from Bedfordshire
Johnson's Zoological Gardens
Johnson's Zoological Gardens in Old Hurst, Huntingdonshire combines a working farm, zoo and tropical house with a farm shop, butchers, tea room and steakhouse. You can see the site...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
25.2 mi from Bedfordshire
The Raptor Foundation
The Raptor Foundation is a long-running Cambridgeshire charity dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing injured birds of prey, with around 170 birds on site, many from r...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
27.4 mi from Bedfordshire
Waddesdon Aviary
Architectural structure in Waddesdon, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
29.6 mi from Bedfordshire
Hertfordshire Zoo
Hertfordshire Zoo sits at Brickendon Liberty in East Hertfordshire, set within Broxbourne Woods, and offers a full day out mixing animals with dinosaur attractions. You can watch b...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Where to stay near Bedfordshire
Places to stay within easy reach of these days out.
More around Bedfordshire
Haunted Britain
Bedfordshire is an easy county to plan around. The big draws sit outdoors — chalk downland, an odd and rather lovely tree planting, and a Tudor curiosity in National Trust care — and the indoor options are small, local museums rather than sprawling visitor complexes. That combination suits a certain kind of day out: one proper walk, one modest museum, and no rushing between them.
The three National Trust places to know
Three National Trust sites anchor most days out here. Dunstable Downs is the obvious headline — open chalk grassland with the sort of wide views that make a flask of tea worth carrying. It's the place to go when the weather is behaving and you want the children to run off some energy without paying for the privilege.
Whipsnade Tree Cathedral is the quieter one, and a good pairing with the Downs. It's a planting of trees laid out in the shape of a cathedral, and it rewards a slow wander rather than a brisk march. Willington Dovecote is smaller again — a surviving Tudor dovecote — and works best as a short, curious stop rather than a whole afternoon. Check National Trust opening arrangements before you set out, as smaller properties often open on limited days.
Heritage and museums within the county
Bedfordshire's own museum offering is compact. Moot Hall is the sort of local museum that takes an hour and leaves you knowing something you didn't, and Rushden Hall and Museum combines a historic house setting with its collections. Both are sensible rainy-day fallbacks, and both are better suited to an unhurried morning than a hurried hour squeezed between other plans.
Rainy days: cross the county line
If the forecast collapses, Bedfordshire's position pays off, because it's ringed by neighbours with good indoor attractions. Worth having on your list:
- The National Museum of Computing and Buckinghamshire County Museum, both in Buckinghamshire
- The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, and Saffron Walden Museum, also listed under Cambridge
- The Canal Museum in Northamptonshire and the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust Museum in Leicestershire, a good double bill if canal engineering appeals
- North Weald Airfield Museum and Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens, both listed under London
- Long Crendon Courthouse in Buckinghamshire, for a short heritage stop
Families and younger children
For indoor play and theme-park-style days, Northamptonshire is the direction to look: Kidsplay Activity Land, Gambado and the Eco Park all sit over that border, and Brickz is listed there too for anyone whose children build rather than climb.
In summer, the water parks are the reliable crowd-pleasers. H2O Rampage Aqua Park and Aqua Splash Redricks Lakes are in Hertfordshire, and Peterborough Wake Park is in Cambridgeshire. These are open-water sites, so book ahead, check age and height rules, and take a full change of clothes and towels for everyone — including the adult who swore they weren't going in.
How to group it into a sensible day
Two patterns work well. The outdoors day: start at Dunstable Downs while the light is good, move on to Whipsnade Tree Cathedral for a gentler second walk, then finish with Willington Dovecote if time allows. Bring layers — the Downs are exposed and the wind finds you.
The mixed day: a museum in the morning, when small children are at their most patient — Moot Hall or Rushden Hall and Museum — then outdoors in the afternoon. If rain is forecast all day, commit to one indoor destination properly rather than chaining three together; the computing museums and the canal museums each deserve more than forty minutes.
Where to eat
We don't have any verified food hygiene ratings to pass on for this region, so we'd rather not point you at anywhere specific. The practical answer: check the Food Standards Agency's online register for any place you're considering — it's free and takes seconds — and read recent reviews rather than old ones. For Dunstable Downs and Whipsnade Tree Cathedral, a picnic is genuinely the better plan anyway. If you're visiting a water park, assume queues at peak times and bring more food than you think you need.
Turning it into a short break
There are 93 places to stay on BritStays across Bedfordshire, which gives you room to base yourself centrally and fan out. Two nights is the sweet spot: one day spent locally on the National Trust sites and a county museum, one day pushed out to whichever neighbour suits your group — Northamptonshire for young families, Buckinghamshire or Cambridge for museum-minded travellers, Hertfordshire for water.
Book outdoor activities first and leave the museums flexible, since they're the easier thing to reschedule. Check opening days for the smaller sites in advance, take cash as a backup, and keep one wet-weather option unbooked but decided on — it saves a soggy argument in a car park.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main National Trust places in Bedfordshire?
There are three: Dunstable Downs, Whipsnade Tree Cathedral and Willington Dovecote. Dunstable Downs is open chalk downland with wide views, Whipsnade Tree Cathedral is a tree planting laid out in the shape of a cathedral, and Willington Dovecote is a surviving Tudor dovecote. Check opening arrangements before travelling, as smaller properties often open on limited days.
Which museums are actually in Bedfordshire itself?
Moot Hall and Rushden Hall and Museum are the two museums listed within Bedfordshire. Both are compact local museums rather than large visitor attractions, so allow about an hour or so each rather than building a whole day around one.
What can we do in Bedfordshire if it rains all day?
The county's own indoor options are Moot Hall and Rushden Hall and Museum. Beyond the county line you have The National Museum of Computing and Buckinghamshire County Museum in Buckinghamshire, The Centre for Computing History and Saffron Walden Museum in Cambridge, The Canal Museum in Northamptonshire, Foxton Inclined Plane Trust Museum in Leicestershire, and North Weald Airfield Museum and Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens listed under London.
Where should we go with young children?
Northamptonshire has the cluster of family attractions: Kidsplay Activity Land, Gambado, the Eco Park and Brickz. For outdoor free-running space within Bedfordshire, Dunstable Downs is hard to beat.
Are there water parks near Bedfordshire?
Yes, though they sit in neighbouring counties. H2O Rampage Aqua Park and Aqua Splash Redricks Lakes are in Hertfordshire, and Peterborough Wake Park is in Cambridgeshire. They are open-water sites, so book ahead, check age and height requirements, and bring towels and a full change of clothes.
Can you recommend somewhere to eat in Bedfordshire?
We don't currently have any places to eat with verified 5-star hygiene ratings for this region, so we'd rather not name anywhere. Check the Food Standards Agency register for any venue you're considering, and for days at Dunstable Downs or Whipsnade Tree Cathedral consider taking a picnic instead.
More ways to explore
Not booked yet? See the best places to stay in Bedfordshire.