Cheap or Free Things To Do In Essex During The School Holidays
I can appreciate that at the moment people may not have a huge amount of disposable income. Essex has lots of great paid attractions but the costs can soon add up. Unfortunately there may be some driving involved, depending on where you live, and some towns may have paid parking. However, I can give you some tip and ideas for cheap or free things to do in Essex during the school holidays!
Cheap or Free Things To Do In Essex
Parking Tips
A great app to download is the MI Permit parking app. You’ll find car parks all over Essex on there. You can pay for parking on your phone and even ‘top up’ if you end up staying longer, without needing to return to the machine in the car park. It’s also a great planning tool. You can see information about all the car parks, including all the charges, helping you to find one that may be cheaper than another.
Some car parks also have free or cheaper parking on Sundays or Bank Holidays. So if you’re looking to have a day out, maybe going on a Sunday instead of on a Saturday will save you a few pounds!
Beaches
⛱Free
🚙Parking: Mix of free and paid options depending on location
Essex has the 2nd longest coastline in the UK, so why not head to the beach?! You can find a full Guide To Visiting The Best Beaches In Essex in this post. But here are some of the best beaches in Essex:
Take a picnic, towel, swim stuff and a bucket and spade and have hours of fun digging or paddling in the sea. Another option is Brightlingsea which has a large shallowing paddling pool area. Southend also has water fountains along the promenade if kids want some free water fun!
💰Cheap fun tip: Head to one of the arcades and play on the 2p machines! Even if you change £1 into 2p coins, that gives 50 turns on a machine! Hopefully those 50 turns will pay out more coins so if you play it right, the money may stretch further. Some machines also have little prizes inside which is an added bonus.
Geocaching
🌿Free
🚙Parking: Free options available as Geocaching can be found ALL OVER Essex
A fun free app to download is ‘Geocaching‘ it’s a global scavenger hunt with HUNDREDS of locations in Essex. You create an account and can search the map for all the locations. Most geocaches consist of a small hidden container that has a log inside. When you find it, you sign and date the log and return it to where you found it. Some have switchable items that you can take and replace with something new. Take a pen in case it’s a small container that doesn’t have a pen or pencil inside.
Once you have signed the paper log, you can go back onto the app and log that you’ve found it on your own personal digital record. You can also write a comment about if it was hard or easy to find, or what you thought of the location (visible to other users). It’s good to check the comments and see when the last time it was found as sometimes they do go missing.
Playgrounds & Parks
🛹Free
🚙Parking: Mixture of free and paid options
Essex has hundreds of playgrounds and parks across the county. One of my friends in the US recently did a ‘playground crawl’ of every park in their town and then they rated their favourite ones (the kids are a little older).
When I was a kid, we had a playground nearby, but it was always a treat to go to the one on the other side of town. Because we didn’t go to that one very often, it always made for a fun change. Just like the beaches, take a picnic or a ball and stay for a while.
Some larger park areas in Essex that are worth mentioning: Hylands Park (Chelmsford), Great Notley Country Park (Braintree), Castle Park (Colchester), Promenade Park (Maldon)
Woods & Walks
🌳Free
🚙Parking: Mostly free (Hatfield Forest £8)
Similar to the parks and playgrounds, why not get out and explore nature’s playground by visiting Essex woodlands. You’ll find walking trails and some have bird watching hides and more.
To give it another fun dimension, how about find a scavenger hunt or a nature trail online?! For example, the Woodland Trust has scavenger hunt ideas on their website. Instead of printing them, you could either write a list in a notebook or on a phone or iPad. If you are taking a notebook, also take a couple of crayons. Find interesting textures or leaves to get rubbings of.
Check out: Broaks Wood (Halstead), Highwoods (Colchester) or a walk along The Flitch Way (my favourite section is Braintree to Rayne). For a nature trails: Abberton Reservoir Nature Discovery Park (nr Colchester) has a Bramley Hedge wooden sculpture trail (map available for £1 but it can be done without a map). Hatfield Forest is huge, but parking is very expensive.
Essex Libraries
📚Free
A great free resource are the Essex libraries. They are all over the county, so no matter where you live, there should be one within a short distance. If you don’t want to take books home, many have areas where you can just sit and read for a while.
There’s also a free ebook library, where you can download books to an e-reader or iPad. Similar to the library, you get a 3 week rental duration and once the 3 weeks is up, it automatically returns the book.
When I was at primary school I used to love the summer reading programme. You could do something similar at home though with a notebook. Include things such as: giving the book a star rating, name a favourite character or part of the book and write a short summary of what happened.
Free Essex Attractions
🏰Free
Essex has several free historical attractions and museums such as:
- Tiptree Jam Museum (Tiptree)
- Cressing Temple Barns (Crossing, Braintree)
- Chelmsford Museum (Chelmsford)
- Bocking Windmill – has free opening days in the summer months (Braintree)
- St Botolph’s Priory ruins (Colchester)
- Beacon Hill Fort (Harwich)
- Flatford Mill (East Bergholt, Colchester)
- Chappel Viaduct (Wakes Colne)
Local Events
Keep an eye out on local town social media pages. Towns like Braintree and Southend are very active on their ‘visit the district’ Facebook pages. They will often share local events that are taking place, include free activities for children, especially in the school holidays. Alternatively many towns have community Facebook groups that are ran by locals, where events are shared.
At Home Fun
Of course there are other fun things that can be done at home or on rainy days. Some things may have a small cost, but it’s cheaper than going out for a day trip. For food based activities, reusable ice lolly makers are a fun summer activity. The cups can be filled with any flavour of juice, squash, fizzy drinks and then put in the freezer to solidify.
Alternatively, buy a cheap cupcake making kit from the supermarket. The kids can be involved in making them, mixing, decorating etc and then there’s a fun treat to eat at the end!
On a hot day, if you have some spare paint brushes floating around, a mess free water play idea is to fill a bowl with water and then ‘paint’ a fence, a brick wall or path. Eventually the water will dry and the drawings will disappear. Obviously this may require a private garden or driveway.
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I hope you have found a couple of ideas for free things to do in Essex. If you have any questions about any of the places mentioned, please feel free to drop a comment below!
