Photo: Derek Voller (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons
Things to do in Essex
Wondering what to do in Essex? This guide lists the area's attractions — zoos, museums, theme parks and more — with distances, so you can plan every day of your trip.
🎟️ This weekend near Essex
Events from
Skiddle
Fri 13 Nov · 19:00
Comedy Night
JobServe Community Stadium, Colchester · 19.0 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Mega Mega: Romford's Suburban Sound Revolution
ATIK Romford, Romford · 19.8 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Colchester Audio Tour: Echoes Through Time Tour
Colchester Castle, Colchester · 17.9 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Colchester Audio Tour: Unsung Hands
St John's Abbey Gate, St John's Green, Colchester, Colchester · 17.7 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Aquariums
Museums & Galleries
4.2 mi from Essex
Chelmsford Museum
The Museum of Chelmsford, set in Oaklands House in Oaklands Park, takes you through the city's history from the Ice Age to the present day, with a mammoth, an Anglo-Saxon burial di...
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4.6 mi from Essex
The Museum of Power
The Museum of Power is housed in a former water pumping station, with a collection ranging from a working overhead machine shop to a petrol powered iron, and its centrepiece is the...
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5.8 mi from Essex
Combined Military Services Museum
The Combined Military Services Museum is a militaria collection covering weapons, uniforms and equipment from Victorian times through to the Gulf Wars. You can explore firearms cap...
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6.4 mi from Essex
Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome Museum
Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome is a WW1 aviation museum set among the largest surviving Great War aerodrome buildings in Europe, in the Essex countryside near Maldon. You can expl...
8.7 mi from Essex
Warner Textile Archive
Warner Textile Archive is a research facility dedicated to the history of the luxury textile manufacturers Warner & Sons, tracing their story back to the seventeenth century. Here...
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8.9 mi from Essex
Braintree Museum
Braintree Museum is a local history museum in Braintree, open all year round from Tuesday to Saturday, 10am till 4pm, with last admissions at 3.30pm. You can explore an engaging ex...
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10.2 mi from Essex
Coggeshall Museum
Coggeshall Museum tells the story of this small Essex town from its earliest times, with a changing collection of artefacts loaned or donated by local people. It's a good stop for...
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11.6 mi from Essex
Dunmow Maltings
Great Dunmow Maltings is a Grade II listed hall in the centre of Great Dunmow, a short walk from the High Street, used for community events, classes and private hire. Inside you'll...
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13 mi from Essex
Mangapp's Farm
Mangapps Railway Museum is a privately owned working railway and museum set on a farm at Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex. You can ride along a 1 mile standard gauge passenger line, expl...
13.3 mi from Essex
Radio Caroline Ross Revenge
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting... — Wikipedia
14.5 mi from Essex
Great Bardfield Cottage Museum
Local museum in Great Bardfield, Essex, England, UK
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14.6 mi from Essex
Brentwood Museum
Brentwood Museum is a small cottage museum housed in a quaint Victorian cemetery lodge, once home to the sexton and his family. Inside you'll find hundreds of household items refle...
15.1 mi from Essex
Leigh Heritage Centre
Leigh Heritage Centre occupies the old Smithy in the heart of Old Leigh, rescued and restored by the Leigh Society after years of disrepair. Inside, you'll find displays on local h...
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Theme Parks
16.6 mi from Essex
Adventure Island
Adventure Island is a free entry theme park on Southend seafront, packed with over 40 rides and attractions, a six storey Soft Play, prize arcades, cafes, restaurants and sideshows...
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20.7 mi from Essex
Wyvernwood
Wyvernwood is an outdoor theme park in Suffolk where you step through the Magic Portal into the Enchanted Lost Kingdom, meeting characters, watching theatrical shows and taking on...
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25.6 mi from Essex
Diggerland Kent
Diggerland Kent is located in Medway Valley Leisure Park, where guests of all ages can ride, drive and operate real diggers in a safe and family friendly setting. Alongside the dig...
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Water Parks
22.1 mi from Essex
Aqua Action
Aqua Action is an inflatable aqua park set on a lake on the London/Essex border, offering a 55-minute session that suits families, friends, stag and hen groups, birthday parties an...
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29.7 mi from Essex
Aqua Park Alton
Aqua Park Alton is a floating inflatable water park on Alton Water, with slides, a kicker feature, jump stations, a giant swing, and the Monkey Dome climbing obstacle, all tackled...
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Zoos & Wildlife
11.1 mi from Essex
Barleylands Farm Park
Barleylands Farm Park is a family-friendly attraction in Great Burstead and South Green, Basildon, combining a working farm with animal experiences, a Craft Village of independent...
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14.3 mi from Essex
Colchester Zoo
Colchester Zoological Society is a large wildlife attraction set in 60 acres of parkland and lakes, home to over 150 species from Komodo dragons to white rhino, giraffes, ostrich,...
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15.9 mi from Essex
Old Macdonald Farm
Old MacDonald's Farm is a family attraction in Brentwood, Essex, offering animals to meet, rides, and both indoor and outdoor play areas whatever the weather. It's designed as a bi...
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23.7 mi from Essex
Lee Valley Animal Adventure Park
Lee Valley Animal Adventure Park is a children's animal adventure park in Waltham Abbey, within the wider Lee Valley Country Park. The farm has a big variety of animals which you c...
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26.2 mi from Essex
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...
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Where to stay near Essex
Places to stay within easy reach of these days out.
More around Essex
Haunted Britain
Essex is a county of two halves for days out: a lively coast and theme-park energy on one side, and a quiet interior of barns, towers and branch-line railways on the other. You can do both in a weekend if you plan it properly, and with around 170 places to stay listed on BritStays you have plenty of scope to base yourself somewhere that suits the kind of trip you want.
Family days out
The obvious headline act is Adventure Island, the seaside theme park that most Essex families will have been dragged round at least once. It rewards an early start and a plan: decide in advance which rides the children actually want, and accept that you'll be doing the small ones twice.
For a gentler, muddier day, Old Macdonald Farm is the straightforward choice — animals, space to run about, and the sort of morning that ends with everyone asleep in the car. Just over the Suffolk border, Jimmy's Farm & Wildlife Park works the same way on a slightly bigger scale, and is an easy add-on if you're staying in the north of the county.
In warm weather, two open-water options sit within reach across the Hertfordshire border: H2O Rampage Aqua Park and Aqua Splash Redricks Lakes. Both are inflatable-course affairs rather than pools, so check minimum ages and swimming requirements before you promise anything.
Rainy-day options
Essex does small museums well, and they come into their own when the forecast turns. The Flitch Way Railway Carriage Museum is a proper curiosity — railway history in the carriages themselves — and pairs naturally with Heritage Centre & Platforms 5 + 6 if you've got a train enthusiast in the group. The Ancient House Museum is the sort of compact local collection you can do in an hour and still come out knowing something new.
The most unusual indoor outing is Radio Caroline Ross Revenge, the former pirate radio ship. It's a niche day rather than a general-interest one, but anyone with an interest in broadcasting or 1960s music will find it memorable.
If you're happy to cross county lines, Manningtree Museum, Hollytrees Museum and The Munnings Art Museum are all within striking distance in Suffolk, and the last of those is a genuine art collection rather than a local-history room.
Outdoors and heritage
Hedingham Castle and Layer Marney Tower are the two heritage visits worth building a day around. Both reward a slow wander outside as well as in, so take a flask and don't rush them. Coggeshall Grange Barn, the county's National Trust property on this list, is a short but genuinely impressive stop — a vast medieval timber frame that takes ten minutes to look at and rather longer to stop thinking about.
New Tavern Fort suits anyone who likes fortifications, gun emplacements and a good view. For big houses, Barrington Hall and Creeksea Place are both stately-home visits where opening arrangements vary considerably, so confirm before setting off rather than turning up hopefully.
How to group them into a day
- Heritage day: Hedingham Castle in the morning, lunch, then Coggeshall Grange Barn and a slow drive back.
- Family day: Old Macdonald Farm first thing, then home for a rest — or Adventure Island all day with nothing else planned.
- Wet-weather day: Flitch Way Railway Carriage Museum, lunch, The Ancient House Museum.
- Something different: Radio Caroline Ross Revenge in the morning, New Tavern Fort after.
Two paid attractions in a day is usually one too many with children. Pair one ticketed visit with one free walk and you'll all enjoy it more.
Where to eat
We don't currently have any Essex eateries with verified five-star hygiene ratings to point you towards, so rather than guess, here's the practical approach: check the Food Standards Agency rating on your phone before you commit, book ahead for Sunday lunch in the villages near Layer Marney Tower and Hedingham Castle, and assume anywhere close to Adventure Island will be busy and queue-heavy at peak times. Packing a picnic for farm and castle days is rarely a wasted effort.
Making it a short break
Three nights is the sweet spot. Base yourself centrally and you can do a coast day, a heritage day and a rainy-day-or-farm day without long drives. If the group splits by interest, Jimmy's Farm & Wildlife Park and The Munnings Art Museum give you two very different half-days in the same direction.
Practical points: check seasonal opening before travelling, as several of these close or reduce hours out of season; book Adventure Island wristbands online where possible; take wellies for Old Macdonald Farm whatever the forecast says; and confirm whether Barrington Hall and Creeksea Place are open to visitors on your dates before you build a day around either.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best things to do in Essex with children?
Adventure Island is the big one for thrill-seekers, while Old Macdonald Farm suits younger children and anyone who prefers animals to queues. In summer, H2O Rampage Aqua Park and Aqua Splash Redricks Lakes, just over the Hertfordshire border, add inflatable water courses to the mix. Jimmy's Farm & Wildlife Park in neighbouring Suffolk is another good family day if you're based in the north of Essex.
Where can I go in Essex when it rains?
Indoor options include the Flitch Way Railway Carriage Museum, Heritage Centre & Platforms 5 + 6 and The Ancient House Museum. Radio Caroline Ross Revenge, the former pirate radio ship, is the most unusual wet-weather visit. Across the border you'll also find Manningtree Museum, Hollytrees Museum and The Munnings Art Museum in Suffolk.
Are there any National Trust properties in Essex on this list?
Yes — Coggeshall Grange Barn is the National Trust property listed for Essex. It's a medieval timber barn and a relatively short visit, so it works well paired with a castle or a walk rather than as a full day on its own.
Which castles and historic houses can I visit in Essex?
Hedingham Castle and Layer Marney Tower are the two main castle and heritage visits, and New Tavern Fort will appeal if you like fortifications. For stately homes, there's Barrington Hall and Creeksea Place, though opening arrangements vary, so check before travelling.
How many days do I need for a short break in Essex?
Three nights works well. That gives you one coast or theme-park day, one heritage day around Hedingham Castle and Coggeshall Grange Barn, and one day kept flexible for the weather, with a museum or Old Macdonald Farm as the fallback.
Where should we eat during a day out in Essex?
There are no five-star-hygiene-rated eateries listed for Essex on BritStays at present, so check the Food Standards Agency rating before you book. Reserve ahead for Sunday lunch near Layer Marney Tower and Hedingham Castle, expect queues close to Adventure Island at peak times, and consider taking a picnic for farm and castle visits.
More ways to explore
Not booked yet? See the best places to stay in Essex.