Indoor activities
Find indoor activities for half term holidays, bank holiday weekends, seaside escapes and city breaks. Take your pick from indoor attractions and such as free museums and other indoor attractions such as aquariums and galleries, or if you’re feeling braver, there are climbing centres, underground caverns and cycle velodromes. You can tour television studios and explore living history heritage attractions, or even whet your whistle on a brewery tour. Whatever you fancy doing, England is packed with indoor activities and things to do on a rainy day.
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Get on board at the National Railway Museum
The world's largest railway museum is home to a staggering collection of restored locomotives, including the fastest steam engine of all time.
Location: York, North Yorkshire
Rainy Day Activities: Step back in time at York Castle Museum
Travel back in time on a rainy day at this trend-setting museum, which transports visitors back through 300 years of history.
Location: York, North Yorkshire
Rainy Day Activities: Discover military history at The Royal Armouries
Britain’s national museum of arms and armour is home to a fascinating and unique collection, including the only existing suit of armour built for an elephant.
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire
Sit in Harry Potter's classroom at Durham Cathedral
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry came to life via a number of locations across the UK, one of which was the awe-inspiring Durham Cathedral.
Location: Durham City, Durham
Bag some bon bons at England’s Oldest Sweet Shop
Evoke happy childhood memories with hundreds of retro sweets at The Oldest Sweet Shop in England.
Location: Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Rainy Day Activities: Explore mining history at Woodhorn Museum
Explore hundreds of years of mining heritage at this unique museum in Northumberland, built from what was once the largest pit village in the world.
Location: Ashington, Northumberland
Rainy Day Activities: Hop from gallery to shop at the Salts Mill
Found near Bradford, the Yorkshire Salts Mill is an indoor hive of art galleries and indie shops, set within the culturally rich World Heritage Site of Saltaire.
Location: Saltaire, West Yorkshire
Discover 2,000 years of history at Durham Cathedral
Open Treasure is Durham Cathedral’s new world-class visitor experience, located in the most intact surviving set of medieval monastic buildings in the UK.
Location: Durham City, Durham
Peep into Durham’s locomotive past
Discover Durham’s role in the development of the railways at Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon.
Location: Vale of Durham
Take a tour of the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth
Admire historical artworks in a grand setting at Chatsworth.
Location: Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Rainy Day Activities: Discover Sheffield’s story at Kelham Island Museum
The ‘Steel City’s’ unique industrial story is brought to life through interactive galleries at this captivating indoor museum.
Location: Kelham Island, South Yorkshire
Rainy Day Activities: Relax in Harrogate’s Turkish Baths
Use the next rainy day as an excuse for a spa treatment in these elaborate Turkish baths, recently restored to their former glory.
Location: Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Hunt for ancient treasures in The Yorkshire Museum
This grandiose Georgian museum is filled with curiosities from an eye-popping Viking treasure hoard to dinosaur fossils and a working observatory.
Location: York, North Yorkshire