The National Railway Museum is free and sits next to the station, which makes York close to the perfect day out by train with children.
Two beaches, a harbour, rock pools and a boating lake. The classic British seaside day, and most of it costs nothing.
A national museum with a roof terrace, an extinct volcano you can climb, and a free museum devoted entirely to childhood.
Kelvingrove and the Riverside Museum are both free and both brilliant, and that is before you reach the parks.
A free museum in a Victorian mansion, three good parks and a hill with a tower on it. All within reach of one of the finest station frontages in Britain.
Underground air raid shelters cut into the sandstone, a Tudor hall in its own park, and a viaduct that dominates the whole town.
Manchester has more free museums than you can do in a day, and the best ones are the sort that let children push buttons and pull levers.
Every one of Liverpool's national museums is free, and they are clustered close enough together that you can do two or three in a day.
The Royal Armouries alone justifies the trip, and it costs nothing to get in. Leeds has a surprising amount of free family stuff.
A T-Rex, a Roman wall, a giant turbine ship and a quayside full of bridges, none of which charge for entry.
A free museum with a stuffed polar bear, free botanical gardens and more green space per person than most British cities.
Every Hull museum is free, and the Maritime Museum has just reopened after a twenty million pound rebuild.