The Lake District is, of course, best known for its lakes and the wonderful walking amid beautiful landscapes, but there is always the chance that on some days you might not quite have the weather to go outside for extended periods of time.

For times like these, you may find yourself looking to The Fun Factory in Bowness-on-Windermere for entertainment if you have little ones in tow.

Located just outside the main town of Bowness-on-Windermere, The Fun Factory is a soft play centre that also has an ice cream parlour attached to it, allowing parents and kids to take ice cream treats through to the main soft play seating area if so desired.

Offering a range of the usual soft play slides, crazy coupes, easy access for buggies around the seating areas, and a handy cafe towards the back of the soft play area, this is a fairly large soft play set-up.

The older children’s section for play was very popular and had a good range of slides and other challenges for little ones, but this was probably the only real highlight of the soft play centre.

The under-4s area is ruined by a slide that is both far too steep and has a nasty drop at the bottom, making it hazardous for our little girl and to other children who were older than her who tried to use it. Thankfully, we had been warned by a watching mum that the slide was a little over the top and so waited at the bottom to catch our little girl as she was sliding down. Despite this, a bang to the head ensued and we didn’t let her go down on her own after that.

As well as this, several bits of equipment didn’t seem to work properly, including an air machine that failed to do much at all and the cars for little ones were commandeered by some very energetic nine-year-olds, who ran various little toes over whilst tearing around the place.

Price-wise, all children cost under £5 to get in and younger ones only pay around £3, making this an affordable option for most families to visit during a stay in the lakes.

On a final note, be warned that despite an advertised (on Google anyway!) closing time of 5:30pm, the last entry is 4:30pm on most days and the staff offer no leniency to this whatsoever. We had planned to go on our first night in the Lakes and got stuck between road closures coming over from our cottage in Coniston. Despite phoning to explain the situation, the door was left firmly closed in our faces by the staff who had previously suggested that if there were still families in the centre (which there were) that we would still be allowed to enter were we five minutes late…

Where it is: The Fun Factory, Glebe Road, Bowness-on-Windermere, LA23 3HE
Contact number:  015394 42577