October Half Term is looming and we have started to have the discussion about who is taking what time off work to look after the girls. As per usual we will be tag teaming, some Daddy days, some Mummy days and some Granparents days. Hopefully we will be able to find a day or two when we are all together.
As always, I am on the hunt for things to do with the girls over the holidays and have found 14 activities taking place across Torbay. So instead of you having to go on the hunt for ideas I have put these together in a list below. If you are a local or visitng, hopefully you can find something from the list for you and your family. And if you are looking to venture further afield take a look right at the bottom as I have also included some other activity lists that cover beyond the Bay.
Greenway – Pumpkin poetry trail
Date: Saturday 21st to Sunday 29th October
Time: 10:30 am to 4:30 pm
Price: Usual Admission + £1 per child
Pumpkins will be dotted around the garden, carved with poetry as part a special creative trail this half-term, encouraging families to discover words around the garden and write their own poetry.
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Dinosaur World’s – Dinosaur Halloween Horrors
Time: 11 am to 5 pm
Price: £5.95 per visitor
Halloween Horrors have invaded Torquay’s Dinosaur World. Save the dinosaurs from the wicked witch and the ghastly ghosts and ghouls, and take the Halloween Horrors Hunt to win a Dinosaur Expert Certificate and a FREE 160-million-year-old fossil.
And from 3.30 pm everyday visit for our ‘Lights Out Torch Tour’ to explore the exhibition in the dark, listen to a scary ghost story, and meet Terry the baby T Rex. Will you be brave enough?
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Halloween Half Term Fun – Kents Cavern
Dates: Saturday 21st to Tuesday 31st October
Time: 9.30 am to 4.30 pm
Price: Usual admission
There’s lots to do this October Half Term at Kents Cavern with cave tours, the Witch’s Hat joke trail, Spooky Dig and the Underground Pumpkin hunt. No need to book – just turn up!
Hunting for Gold Trail – Coleton Fishacre
Dates: Saturday 21st – Sunday 29th October
Time: 10:30 am to 5 pm
Price: Usual admission + £1 per child
Avast me hearties, there’s a hunt for gold around the garden at Coleton Fishacre. Can you search for the golden symbols hidden in the garden and claim a small prize as your reward?
Paignton Zoo – Halloween Horrors
Dates: Saturday 21st – Tuesday 31st October
Times: 10 am to 4.30 pm
Prices: Usual admission + £1.50 per trail sheet
Take part in our Trick or Treat trail to receive a chocolate treat and a wolf mask. There will also be ghost train rides throughout the day plus spooky animal talks at various times:
- Crocodile Swamp Discovery, daily at 11.15 am.
- Bug talks and bug-eating challenges, daily at 12.30 pm.
- Maned Wolf talk, Monday & Friday at 3.30 pm.
Also create your own ‘slime’ in their special slime workshops from the Tuesday to Friday at 2 pm, 2.20 pm & 2.40 pm. These sessions will be taking place in the Education Centre.
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Living Coasts – Deep Sea Creatures
Dates: Saturday 21st – Tuesday 31st October
Times: 10 am to 4.30 pm
Price: Usual price plus £1.50 per trail sheet
Visit Living Coasts this Halloween to discover more about the weird and wacky creatures that live in the darkest depths! Follow their ‘Deep Sea Creatures’ trail to receive a special Halloween prize. Catch spooky animal talks and creepy puppet show. Watch their animals receive some eerie enrichment and much more!
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Occombe Farm – Meet our Animals
Date: Wednesday 25 October & Friday 27 October
Times: 10 am to 11 am
Prices: £2.50
Come and discover the farm animals of Occombe and even get the chance to feed some of them! All attendees must pay and all children must be accompanied by a paying adult. Booking is a must!
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Goodrington – Rockpool Ramble
Date: Wednesday 25 October
Times: 3 pm to 4.30 pm
Price: £3.50
Join the marine ranger and explore the incredible marine life that lives in Torbay’s rock pools. Discover feisty crabs, slimy anemones, wriggly starfish, sneaky prawns and more in the rock pools of Middlestone! Booking is a must. Meeting point is opposite the Seashore Centre and it’s suitable for all ages. Children must be accompanied by a paying adult.
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Cockington – Tree Skeletons
Date: Sunday 29 October
Times: 1 pm to 2.30 pm
Price: £4
Come and meet some of the park’s special trees and listen to some tree stories as you wind your way around the ‘tree zoo’! Meeting point: Cockington Visitor Centre. Suitable for: Ages 4-11. Booking is a must.
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Occombe Farm – Gruesome Bugs and Beasts Quest
Date: Monday 23 October – Friday 27 October
Time: 10 am to 3 pm
Price: £2.50
Learn the most disgusting slimy and smelly facts about our bugs and beasts this half term, on our Gruesome Occombe Quest! Can you discover who is the most gruesome of them?
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Babbacombe Model Village – Halloween Evenings of Mini Horrors
Date: Wednesday 25th to Tuesday 31st October
Time: 10.30 am with last entry at 7.30 pm
Haunted House 4D starts from 5 pm.
Spookillumnations are on from 6 pm (5 pm after the clocks go back).
The Workshop of Horrors tours and miniature fire effects around the gardens start when it is fully dark from 6.30 pm (5.30 pm after the clocks go back)
Price: Usual admission
Check out the spookilluminations, sound, fire and lighting effect which create an amazing atmosphere from dusk
The workshop of horrors tour is a spoof tour and is the spooky highlight of their Halloween experience. Go behind the scenes, on an eerie tour by lantern light, through the woods and past ‘abandoned’ haunted workshops. Hang around for a chilling ghost story! This ‘experience’ starts after dark and lasts about 20 minutes, spaces need to be booked on arrival.
The 4D cinema takes you on a 3D journey through an eerie haunted house with bone-rattling and spine-tingling special effects. Seats need to be booked on arrival,
Plus see all the miniature halloween characters take over this land of little people – who, or what, will you see! Hunt for ‘Thing’ from the Addams Family – there are 6 hidden in the gardens.
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Torbay Libraries – Spooky stories & craft activities
Date & Time:
Torquay Library – Tuesday 24th – 10.30 am & Wednesday 25th – 2.30 pm
Brixham Library – Wednesday 25th – 10 am
Churston – Thursday 26th – 2.30 pm
Paignton – Thursday 26th – 2 pm
Cost: FREE
Spooky stories and frightful craft activities for children ages 4 to 11 on a theme of Halloween. All materials supplied. Email torquaylibrary@torbay.gov.ukto book your place.
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Meet Melody the Mermaid at Brixham Library
Date: Thursday 26th October
Time: 10:30 am
Cost: FREE
Come along and meet Melody the Mermaid. Melody swims off the shores of Torbay and if the tides allow and the sea is calm she swims into Brixham harbour to meet friends of the Mermaids and to spread Mermaid magic to young and old. Her Mermaid grotto travels around the country where she enchants and enraptures with tales from the deep blue sea, and her magical world of wonder. Booking is required.
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Date: Tuesday 24th to Tuesday 31st October
Time: 11 am to 7 pm
Cost: Usual admission
Dare you join in the scary Halloween activities on board the Golden Hind this October in Brixham? There be pirate fun, Captain Blackheart, Sid the Skeleton & friends, spiders & spooks and join the ‘Rat Race’ and ‘Sid’s Skeleton Trail’. There will be fancy dress spot prizes for the scariest outfits. Trick or treat us if ye dare!
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Please don’t forget all the FREE activities offered by Play Torbay!!!!!
http://playtorbay.org.uk/holiday-Programme/