Activities
A Break in Hull with the twins

A Break in Hull with the twins

A few weeks ago I took the twins to Hull to stay in my friend’s house for a few days while she was on holiday. Hull is my university city so I was excited to be back, and to take the time to visit some of the places I loved as a student. 

Despite being away from home by myself with the twins, we had a fantastic couple of days and I was thrilled that we came home with such lovely memories! 

I hadn’t really thought the journey through properly – the train from Manchester to Hull is 2 hours, which sounds perfectly manageable. However, what I hadn’t really thought through was the fact that I needed to walk 20 minutes to my local train station, get the train to Manchester, get two trams across Manchester, get to Hull, and then get a bus to the right part of Hull. This, along with some waiting around, meant that the journey was more like 6 hours from door to door. Thankfully, I had packed a bag full of snacks and a fully charged tablet with access to YouTube, meaning that the journey was absolutely fine, despite being long! Phew!! 

Once we arrived at my friend’s house, we settled in for the night and I mentally prepared for a whole day out and about with two toddlers! 

Our day out really was a success and it reminded me how much I love Hull. The weather was pretty pants, but we donned our waterproofs and got on with the day, armed with some great suggestions of activities from my friend. Here’s what we got up to;

1. Brunch at Zoo Café

Zoo café is a vegetarian café tucked off Newland avenue. I lived just off Newland Avenue for my three years at university so it was great to be back in the area. The café itself has a delicious menu, lovely seating areas, and truly wonderful staff. 

2. Gravity Trampoline Park

This activity had the potential to be a total disaster, but it was fantastic!! Gravity Trampoline Park is inside St Stephen’s shopping centre which means it’s really easy to get to from anywhere in Hull. They run toddler sessions, so we arrived, put our trampoline socks on, and got bouncing after a quick safety video. There were only a few other families at the session which meant it was really easy to keep an eye on both of my toddlers while they tired themselves out bouncing and running around! 

3. Hull Streetlife Museum 

After the trampoline park, we headed to the other end of town to walk around Hull Streetlife Museum. It can be found near the waterfront in the museums quarter, and there are a couple of other interesting museums there too if you have the time. Although some of the museum was closed off thanks to Covid, the thing I was really interested in seeing was accessible to us – the life sized mock up of a Victorian street! We were the only people around, so while Twin One was snoozing, I let Twin Two run around and explore the cobbled street and all of the old Victorian signage. We stopped for a few minutes to admire the gorgeous Museum quarter garden on our way out, and on a brighter day it would have been the perfect place for a toddler about!

4. Paragon Arcade

I’m forever jealous of my friend Violet posting gorgeous photos of Paragon Arcade online, so took the time to have a quick look!! It’s amazing how many wonderful independent businesses are crammed into this little space, but you can find amazing baked goods, great coffee, adorable kids clothes, and beautiful flowers all within a stone’s throw of each other. Definitely work checking out if you’re in Hull town! 

And that’s all we had time for! If I’d have had an extra day, I would have visited the gorgeous shops and eateries on Humber Street, popped into Hull Minster, and gone to The Deep to let the twins see the fish. 

My journey back was uneventful but on arriving back into Manchester I really appreciated the stark juxtaposition of Hull and Manchester. I’ve always said that Manchester is a particularly tricky city to entertain and keep toddlers safe in, but after being in such a lovely, child-friendly place, it was even clearer!  

Hull, I’ll be back soon, and thank you Violet for lending me your house for a couple of days!! 

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