It’s been a fun crazy few months here at NMB HQ, our first long haul holiday with kids to Disney World, school allocation day, a morning at the newly opened Winchcombe Fun House soft play and also exploring Dinky Street role play centre (both near Cheltenham), along with lots of garden fun and Cheltenham park trips. Now, I’m not one to shy away from taking two kids out, yes, I often suddenly get that “this was a stupid idea swallow me up right now” feeling especially in the supermarket, and more recently I’ve struggled with soft play as B just wants to follow H in the older kids areas. It’s utterly exhausting and that’s where Winchcombe Fun House came into it’s own. It was awesome, perfect for both girls to explore together. B, at 22 months could do it all once she realised she had to pull herself up the steps and when she got tired as H just gave her a boost up.
I didn’t manage to get any good photos of the girls because they were always running away to play more. The ball pool, slide, across the bridge… they’d smile for 3 seconds, just enough time for me to pick up my phone!
I’ll definitely be back as it was a fantastic set up. Shiny and new. Up to the latest standards in soft play: padded underneath, and super think padding around the poles, double the requirement apparently -don’t quote me on that, that’s just what I was told!
On to some basics…
Location: Withybridge Farm, Winchcombe
Age range: 0-7
Opening times: vary!
These vary – often 10-1 or 10-3pm but do check the Winchcombe Fun House Facebook page as it does vary daily, and also close for parties!
Cost: It’s great value: £3 each child!
Review: Our morning out at Winchcombe Fun House
It took a few minutes for us to find it, but if you drive from Cheltenham it’s on the other side of Winchcombe just before the railway bridge, if you come from Tewkesbury way/Evesham it’s before Winchcome just after you go under the railway bridge.
There is a sign for a gym and other things – that’s it! Follow the track up past the house on the right, and there is a car park on the left. It was full so we parked just before that. There are several ‘units’ and the soft play is in pretty much the furthest one along. There is a sign.
Inside, we paid and then went in the door to the soft play. Tables are situated along the length of the soft play frame so you can always see your kids. And, the soft play itself is not too deep, and is split over two floors, and is a nice size for preschoolers. You can basically always see them.
I’ve seen on their Facebook page it’s most preschoolers during the week, probably mostly due to their opening times, but we were there during Easter holidays and it was the same. It was brilliant and felt really safe for a 4 year old, and almost 2 year old. They managed to do it all themselves which is definitely a #rockingmummylife moment!
✔️ Great that ticks my box for having a few minutes to relax with a coffee, and not chase them through soft play.
Actually when we visited there were around 8-10 adults, and roughly 16 kids I think, and all the adults were sat having a chat while watching their kids.
There is also an enclosed little ones area with the usual soft blocks and a seesaw.
✔️ Coffee
There isn’t a full on cafe, some kids snacks and teas and coffees for adults. They encourage you to take packed lunches! Perfect in my book. It’s always nice to take a packed lunch for the kids, cheaper, and it doesn’t get wasted!
There was also a microwave for use too…
And, you can see IKEA highchairs – always a good sign in my book! The tables are lovely and clean too, with a plant which makes it seem much more cafe like than soft play!
✔️ Quiet soft play
Yup you read that right, as this is small compared to Pingo’s or the Play Farm and diddy compared to Rugrats and Halfpints, it’s quiet.
They are only allowed 30 kids, which to be fair would be chaos, so I doubt they reach that too often! There were a few settees and 5 tables I think, so a nice number for adults to sit at. I do believe they might be adding some more at the far end.
✔️ Clean
The toilets were clean! Always a good test my mums says!
I know it’s new, but it’s lovely to see a clean soft play. They were in putting the balls back in the ball pool many times while we were there, and whenever anyone left their table was immediately disinfected. And something I’ve never seen before, every so often balls were being tidying back into the ball pool! It felt clean. It felt cared for; and I really hope it stays that way.
Actually, the floor is white so that’ll be a good sign in future! Even more so when you consider the soft play unit is reached via a gravel path, and it’s all situated on a farm!
Winchcome Fun House Fun factor??
Absolutely! We had tears when we had to leave and naps all the way home. That’s a winning formula for sure. Well, kind of!
The Winchcombe Fun Factory soft play is absolutely on my favourite days out with kids near Cheltenham list.
It’s great value, clean, fun and well thought-out. It’s a great size and also suits younger kids where they can run around with their older siblings.
Winchcome Fun House is 100% New Mummy Blog recommended!
P.S. not at ad, sponsored, collaborative or anything. Paid for by us and they didn’t know I was a blogger.
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