Middlesbrough gets written off unfairly. It has two free museums, one of the best municipal parks in the region, and a genuinely strange piece of engineering in the Transporter Bridge.
The North York Moors and the coast are both a short train ride further on if you want to extend the day.
Free things to do in Middlesbrough with children
- Dorman Museum — Local and natural history, with dinosaur and wildlife galleries aimed at children. Free entry.
- mima — The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. Free, with a family studio and regular drop-in making sessions at weekends.
- Albert Park — Victorian park with a boating lake, play areas, an aviary and a cycle circuit. Free.
- Stewart Park — Woodland, animals and the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, set in parkland. The park is free.
- The Tees Barrage riverside — Free to walk, and you can watch the white water course being used without paying to go on it.
Worth paying for
Not free, but cheap enough to be worth it, and all reachable without a car:
- Captain Cook Birthplace Museum — Small admission charge, in Stewart Park, covering Cook's voyages.
- The train to Saltburn — Half an hour to a Victorian seaside town with a cliff lift, a pier and a beach.
Getting to Middlesbrough by train
Middlesbrough station is central, with Albert Park and the Dorman Museum a walk of about fifteen minutes.
Going by train also means nobody has to find a parking space, and children can move about, look out of the window and eat crisps for the whole journey.
Click here to book train tickets to Middlesbrough
Opening hours, admission prices and booking requirements change, and some attractions close on certain days or for refurbishment. Always check the attraction’s own website before you set off. This page was written in August 2026.
Disclosure: the train ticket link on this page is an affiliate link. If you book through it I may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
