Techniquest, Cardiff

Fun and learning for children of all ages. Brightly coloured exhibits sit in a light, spacious area surrounded by windows on two sides. Aimed at primary school children, there are lots of scientific activities and experiments they can take part in. Kids don’t always want to hear an explanation of how and why things work but by playing with these interactive exhibits they get to see it for themselves so are learning without realizing. Some activities are quite challenging and need a bit of patience but those will be enjoyed by the older children. The younger ones will like the water activites, making bubbles and the spinning globe. There is enough here to stay for a day. You can eat at Techniquest but the café is quite small so we chose to get lunch at one of the restaurants in Cardiff Bay.

A bright and colourful place with so much to do it’s hard to know where to start. Some of the exhibits do need explaining as we weren’t sure exactly how to make them work but there are plenty of staff walking around to help you. Quite a variety of difficulty levels mean there is something here for both younger and older children. Upstairs there were a lot of musical exhibits where the kids can make sounds and beats and even have a go at being a DJ. If you have time book a performance at the planetarium. We attended the over 7s show which was very educational and taught us all about Mars and the night sky. My son’s patience is not great though and he did get bored after 20mins (the show is around 35mins in total). If you are hungry there is a café serving hot food, drinks and snacks including kids meals. And of course there’s the gift shop with lots of reasonably priced souvenirs. If you have younger children, they run ‘toddler days’ with reduced entry and special activities. Definitely worth a visit, lots of fun and educational too.

The techniquest brand is well known and this is for a reason. There are countless activities for children to do and learn from at the centre. It is well suited to school age children and is definately an educational place to take your children so good for earning parental brownie points. The centre has a cafe and it will take your children a number of hours to work through all the exhibits. It is slightly pricey but worth it. The techniquest is situated in cardiff bay which is also a great place for a day out with lots of trendy restuarants, shops, a cinema, and the cardiff bay visitor centre. You can also take a boat trip to the Milennium stadium which I would throughly recommend and this is very cheap.