School holiday ideas: rainy day escapes

At the Airkix centres in Milton Keynes, Manchester and (newly opened) Basingstoke, lucky kids can find themselves blown up in the air by a?powerful wind machine to create a?floaty feeling similar to skydiving.
‧ 0845 331 6549, airkix.com. Minimum age four, from ￡30pp

Visiting a cave is a great wet-weather option. Some of the biggest and best include: in North Yorkshire, Ingleborough Cave near Clapham Village (adults ￡7, kids ￡3.50) and the nearby White Scar Cave (￡8.50/￡5.50); in Derbyshire, Speedwell Cavern near Castleton (￡9.50/￡7.50), which has underground boat trips; Cheddar Caves (from ￡16.65/￡10.80) in Somerset; and Dan-yr-Ogof (￡13.75/￡8) in the Brecon Beacons.

Waterworld, Staffordshire

If they're gonna get wet, they may as well get really wet, in one of the UK's massive indoor waterparks. Waterworld (adults ￡14.50, kids from ￡7.49) at Festival Park in Stoke-on-Trent has rapids in the dark, ringos and a wave pool; Wet 'N Wild (adults ￡11.95, kids ￡6.95) in North Shields, Tyneside, is one of the UK's biggest, with a flume running down three floors and a black hole ride; the LC in Swansea (adults ￡7, kids ￡4) offers up Wales's biggest indoor pool, with a rollercoaster water slide and whirlpool.

Build confidence and learn what could be a thrilling lifelong hobby. There are hundreds of indoor walls around the country: download a list of some of them from the British Mountaineering Council or see ukclimbing.com to search for one near you.

Prevail Skatehouse, Poole

Suitable for over-fours, skate parks offer sports including BMX, scootering, inline skating and skateboarding, with lessons and sessions for youngsters. Prevail Skate Park (from ￡3.50 an hour) in Poole, has skate and BMX schools in the holidays, plus under-13s sessions and parties. Unit 23 Skatepark (￡9 for two hours) in Dumbarton, has rails and a foam pit. High ollie competitions, coaching, and a new foam pit this summer are part of the package at Rampworx (from ￡5.50 for two hours, summer holiday pass ￡99) in Liverpool.

Adventure Kidz in Aylesford, Kent (adults free, kids from ￡4.95) has indoor high ropes, quad bikes and a soft play area; Kidspace adventure parks in Croydon and Romford (adults from ￡2.75, kids from ￡5.95) offer classes in football, dance, music and karate, plus climbing frames and slides; Playzone in Swansea (adults from ￡1.25, kids from ￡1.99) and Portsmouth are massive warehouse spaces filled with slides, tunnels and climbing frames.

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