Fun and Educational Family Day Out in Liverpool

We love heading to Liverpool , a city so rich in culture and we often head there whenever we needed to renew our passports or on days out.

In today’s post, we are sharing about our visit Liverpool last year when we had a family friend visit us and we were surprised how much we managed to squeeze in a day and on a budget as well!

For those not familiar, Liverpool is the metropolitan borough in Merseyside, North West England.  It is England’s only UNESCO City of Music and has produced many notable musicians, including the Beatles.  Liverpool is pedestrian friendly, hence walkable especially around the city centre, so easy to get around if you are taking the train into the city for a day trip.

Did you know that people who reside in Liverpool are called Liverpudlians or Scousers, which derives from the word Scouse (lobskause) which was a popular dish brought to the city by sailors from Scandinavia? This dish soon became popular with tourists and the nickname stuck.

Keep on reading to find out how our day when and what we did.

The World Museum

The World Museum is the oldest museum in Liverpool, originally opened in 1853 in the Ropeworks district of Liverpool, and it moved to its present site on William Brown Street in 1860. It has expanded to become one of the great museums of the British regions, with collections and displays of life sciences, earth sciences and human cultures around the world.  Entry into the museum is free but donations in kind accepted.

You could easily spend hours and hours in the museum, we spent a few good hours, exploring the Antiquities, World Cultures and National History sections. Again, such a fun learning experience for my son who enjoyed discovering about bugs, Egyptian mummification, as well as looking at the bone/skull specimens and fossils of animals.

There are lots of learning opportunities and I would recommend families with young kids to visit the World Museum as the staff are friendly and take time to explain things to little ones.

World Museum is close to the entrance to the Queensway Tunnel and is FREE to enter, they do accept donations in kind.  if you are driving, there are pay and display parking outside the museum on William Brown Street and behind the museum on Hunter Street. It is located at : William Brown St, Liverpool L3 8EN

Liverpool One

We next walked to Liverpool One which is located in the heart of the city centre, right by the waterfront. The venue has over 170+ stores of popular brands, bars and restaurants, from high street favourites to designer fashion.

Again you could easily spend a day here especially if you enjoy shopping, eating and relaxing.  Liverpool Football Fans would be pleased to know that Liverpool FC and Everton FC stores both located on Upper South John Street.

We had a quick nosy around the branded shops before we went off to our next destination. If you are driving here remember to pre-book your parking slot with Q-Park online booking system.

Liverpool One is located at : 5 Wall St, Liverpool, L1 8JQ

Merseyside Maritime Museum

Our next stop was the Merseyside Maritime Museum which is located at the historic warehouses of the Royal Albert Dock.  We found our way to the Museum using google maps and there were also lots of signs posted around when we were unsure. Liverpool a such a tourist friendly city so don’t worry about getting lost while you are there.

 

Opened in 1980, the Maritime Museum is a great place to explore the history of the great port of Liverpool.  I would allocate at least an hour or two of visit time, we took just over an hour at the museum and managed to see all four floors of galleries.

 

The Merseyside Maritime Museum is such an interesting museum as we enjoyed learning about the Border and Customs and Immigration and all about the prohibited items. We also learnt about the sinking of Titanic and RMS Lusitania.  The Art and the Sea Gallery as well as the other exhibitions was also fascinating.

 

An educational trip for my son indeed, as the museum had a lot of interactive activities for little ones to participate in and I also found it engaging, so a fantastic trip for both young and old. 

Do note entry into the museums is FREE, donations are welcomed. The museum also includes a café, shop and lecture theatre and is located at : Royal Albert Dock,  Liverpool, L3 4AQ

 

Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool was at the Albert Docks when we visited but they have been temporarily moved to RIBA North, Mann Island while some renovation work takes place at the older location. We saw interesting art exhibition taking place at the museum and it was FREE to enter with donations welcomed.

I would say, it is worth visiting Tate Liverpool if you have never been there or to Tate Modern in London.  It was wonderful to see that they allocated a children’s area for families to chill and take a break if they needed to.

I enjoyed the visit there but felt the staff were not as friendly as the other museums we visited on the day, perhaps due to the ‘open concept’ of the art exhibition on exhibit there. I felt they seemed wary of our every move and did not interact with us as much. 

 

Next …

We next decided to explore Albert Dock and the head to the main town centre on foot. We passed many interesting pubs and bars.  We also passed St Luke’s Bombed Out Church which suffered catastrophic damage during the May Blitz of 1941, leaving only its external masonry standing. 

Overgrown and inaccessible, the site lay derelict for over 60 years, before being cleared, and transformed by a series of cultural events, reopening the space to the public and recently even housing a bustling cafe there.  We soon headed back to the train station to catch our train back.

 

What did we think of Liverpool?

Liverpool is such a pedestrian friendly city hence there was no need for us to drive there.  We took the direct train from Crewe Station to Liverpool Lime Street, and it took us less than an hour to get there.

All the places mentioned in this post, was accessed via foot, so make sure you wear a good pair or comfy shoes if you plan to do the same. The good weather made our experience even more memorable.  We also saw plenty of bike and electric scooters to hire around the city if you prefer to travel with wheels.

There is just so much to see and experience in Liverpool from Hop On Hop Off Bus Tours, to the various museums and galleries, ghost tours and night life, so I would recommend spending at least three full days there.  I would also recommend visiting the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, also known as ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’ and the Liverpool Cathedral which is breathtakingly beautiful.  But, if you just have one day, there is still so much to do, especially if you have good weather.

We walked everywhere and tried to visit as many places as we could on a budget.  We started at The World Museum, then headed to Liverpool One and after towards Albert Dock where we visited the Merseyside Maritime Museum and Tate Liverpool before stopping for lunch at Miller and Carter which we enjoyed thoroughly. Energised, we headed into town to see more of the city before heading back to the train station.

There is still so much more to see and explore in Liverpool so we can’t wait to go back there again.

FAQ

• The Tourist Information Centre is located in Liverpool ONE, the postcode is L1 8JQ
• There is no tourist tax for visiting Liverpool
• There are public toilets located in Liverpool ONE visitor centre, otherwise just head to a local pub or bar for a drink to use their facilities
• Click here for downloadable maps of Liverpool
• There is always something happening in Liverpool so it is best you know in advance if there is an event taking place by clicking here.

You may also want to read this:

Family Day Out Review: Bath Abbey

Family Day Out Review: Culzean Castle, Ayrshire

Family Day Out at BeWILDerwood in Cheshire

Photo copyright: Tate Liverpool/Museum Liverpool