Stansted Airport all day with kids

jyonda

We will be landing at Stansted at 09:30 then catching an onward flight at 19:00 so it would be great to get some suggestions on how to kill the time. We could possibly do something in the local area with a hire car but I have no idea what is nearby. Anything would be better than mooching about all day trying to amuse two small children

thanks

benjus

How about Mountfitchet Castle(http://www.mountfitchetcastle.com/index.html)? About 5 minutes by train from the airport, then a short walk from the station.

If you want to go a bit further afield you could head up to Cambridge (about 30 mins by train).

Personally I would stick to rail travel and not add the expense and complication of a hire car.

richardw

Perhaps book a lounge to get some rest before your 7pm flight https://www.executivelounges.com/en/lounges/choose_lounge.asp?ID=808d7dca8a74d84af27a2d6602c3d786de45fe1e

jyonda

Unfortunately Stansteds lounge doesn't allow children under 12 and is not available to people flying on budget airlines, due to location. You can also only use lounges 3 hours prior to departure.

ince_mon

Or you could just hang about and watch the planes go in and out.;)

rbulph

Hatfield Forest is good for children to play in and for a picnic. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-hatfieldforest/

jyonda

Stansted airport lists 'arcade entertainment' amongst their short list of family facilities.

Arcade entertainment
The entertainment centre provides you with a selection of video games and for fruit machines for adults.

Their sentence structure, not mine.

Hatfield Forest looks nice . I'd sooner rent a hire car and go there for a few hours than pay for the castle and train fair. There's also the issue of hand luggage to deal with.

susancs

Lakeside shopping centre (one of the biggest in europe) is about a 40 min drive. They have a hanna banana restaurant there
http://www.hannah-banana.com/Pages/ImageGallery.aspx
Southend on sea is about 1 hour away.

stoneman

susancs wrote: »

Lakeside shopping centre (one of the biggest in europe) is about a 40 min drive. They have a hanna banana restaurant there
http://www.hannah-banana.com/Pages/ImageGallery.aspx
Southend on sea is about 1 hour away.

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
That looks like HELL!!

nt_639

It would not be a good idea to venture as far as Lakeside or Southend as this would involve the M25 & M11 which if it is a weekday, if there are any accidents etc the traffic can be cause horrendous queues & you would not want to risk missing your onward flight. I would suggest as someone else has said get the train to Stansted Mountfitchet & do the castle & toy museum. You could also go to Bishops Stortford which is 2 stops on the train & there is a multiplex cinema & bowling right near the station + several restaurants etc in the town. If you have luggage you could use the left luggage at the airport.

Nigel

hubblebubble

Within half an hour drive of the airport: Duxford air museum; Wimpole Hall (NT property, with kids adventure play area); Freeport outlet shopping centre Braintree, which also has restaurants, cinema, swimming pool, soft play centre and bowling; Chelmsford iceskating rink.

HTH