Family-Friendly Things To Do In The South Downs
If you’ve chosen to visit the South Downs National Park with your family, you’ve made a great choice. It’s a fantastic destination for families, offering a wide variety of activities that cater to all ages and interests, from outdoor adventures to nature reserves, beaches and historic sites.
Our guide to family-friendly things to do in the South Downs takes in everything from easy cycling routes to clifftop walks and Roman relics, with giraffes, motor racing and boat trips thrown in, as well as lots of useful information to help you plan your visit.
Outdoor adventures
Seven Sisters Country Park
Encompassing the glorious stretch of coastline along the Seven Sisters cliffs and the estuary that leads inland from Cuckmere Haven, the beautiful Seven Sisters Country Park is a great choice for a family day out, with opportunities for walking, cycling and kayaking, fabulous coastal views and plenty of places to stop for a picnic.
The Seven Sisters Visitor Centre at Exceat has a car park and lots of useful maps and suggestions for things to do here. The Cuckmere Cycle Company, right next to the visitor centre, rents out bikes, including mountain bikes, e-bikes and trailers for small children. From here you can follow a concrete track beside the Cuckmere River to the beach (20 minutes), or choose from a variety of traffic-free routes around the park.
Nearby on the bank of the river, Buzz Active Cuckmere rents out kayaks and paddleboards (with buoyancy aids and wetsuits if you need them), and you can paddle all the way down to Cuckmere Haven, where the river meets the sea. Look out for wading birds, sea birds and birds of prey en route; if you’re lucky, you may even spot a seal.
If you prefer a walk you can take an easy Miles Without Stiles route to the beach (2.5 miles out and back), then join the South Downs Way, which runs along the cliffs with panoramic views all the way to Birling Gap and Beachy Head.
Queen Elizabeth Country Park
In the west of the national park, Queen Elizabeth Country Park has more than 2,000 acres of woodland and downland to explore.
Three waymarked walking trails range from the 1.7-mile Downland Trail to the 5-mile Woodland Trail (with a shorter version for families with young children), or you could climb up to the top of Butser Hill, the highest point in the South Downs, for sweeping views over the park and out to sea.
There’s also a choice of cycling trails (3.7 and 4.6 miles) and mountain bike trails to explore. Southern Ebike Rentals (open at weekends and during school holidays), close to the visitor centre near Waterlooville, rents out electric mountain bikes, and can advise you on purpose-built trails, circular routes, or places where you can join the South Downs Way.
Queen Elizabeth Country Park also has a good collection of play facilities including a woodland adventure playground for younger children and an assault course with monkey bars, a rope swing and scrambling nets for older kids, as well as bookable sessions for laser tag, tree-climbing and willow-weaving, and self-guided orienteering courses.
If you’d prefer to just relax and enjoy the fresh air you can, of course, stop anywhere you like for a picnic, or book one of the park’s barbecue sites and enjoy a family feast.
Stanmer Park
Stanmer Park is a pretty 1,200-acre country estate surrounding Stanmer House, a historic 18th-century Georgian manor a little way inland from Brighton. Easily accessible by car, bike or bus, it’s a great place for a relaxed family day out, with a nature reserve, an arboretum, lots of open grassland and the house itself to explore.
There’s a wide choice of trails and woodland walks here, including a 5-mile woodland trail, and other shorter routes that take in the estate’s monuments and historic landmarks, and you can spot butterflies, kestrels and deer in the nature reserve.
Stanmer House has a tearoom, and there's also Circa in the Park, a kiosk selling coffee, snacks and ice creams. The kiosk is also home to Brighton Bike Hire, where you can rent mountain bikes to explore the park on two wheels.
Educational attractions
Weald and Downland Living Museum
Learn about rural life in the South Downs through the centuries at the Weald and Downland Museum, an open-air attraction near West Dean with more than 50 relocated historic buildings to explore, including an Anglo-Saxon hall house, a watermill and a traditional blacksmith’s smithy. There are fascinating collections of agricultural machinery and tools, domestic artefacts and historic vehicles to discover, seven period gardens, a Tudor kitchen where you can find out how food was prepared and made in the 16th century, and a barn where you can play traditional games.
Several trails, including a Sculpture Trail, wind through the museum’s peaceful 40-acre estate, and offer the chance to see teams of heavy horses in action while they work the land. Alongside all of these, the museum hosts a regular programme of events and exhibitions at weekends and during school holidays, taking in theatre performances, historical reenactments, craft workshops and agricultural demonstrations.
Fishbourne Roman Palace
You can travel even further back in time on the edge of the South Downs in Chichester, where Fishbourne Palace (April to November, from 10am) is the largest Roman home in Britain. The excavated site features impressive original floor mosaics and a reconstructed Roman garden, alongside a museum where you can view pottery, jewellery and tools discovered at the site. Films and interactive exhibits trace the history of the palace, and you can even take a peep at the archaeological digs that continue today.
Family-friendly activities take place here throughout the year, including arts and crafts, activity trails and the chance to dress up as a Roman soldier, as well as living history events with demonstrations of weapons, armour and combat.
Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft
During the early 20th century, sculptor Eric Gill founded a guild of artists and craftspeople in the village of Ditchling, and the community expanded over the years to include weavers, silversmiths, painters, carvers and printmakers. The Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft is a testament to their creativity, inspired in part by the natural beauty of the South Downs. It’s home to a fascinating permanent collection that explores the lives of these artists, with many examples of their work, alongside a series of temporary exhibitions.
The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday, and if you time your visit right you can take advantage of a regular programme of events, including creative workshops for children and occasional talks and tours exploring the museum and the surrounding village.
Wildlife encounters
Arundel Wetland Centre
Close to Arundel Castle, the Arundel Wetland Centre, run by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust is a haven for wildlife enthusiasts. It's open seven days a week, with lots of activities for families to enjoy.
A network of nature trails follows pushchair-friendly paths and boardwalks through the reed beds, lakes and ponds by the River Arun to bird hides where you can look out for kingfishers, oystercatchers,red kites, kestrels and sparrowhawks. You can meet the resident pelicans, feed diving ducks and climb aboard an electric boat for a guided safari along the river. A regular daily programme of educational talks introduces the reserve’s residents, and there are pond dipping sessions at weekends and school holidays.
A visit here is a great way to learn more about the wildlife of the South Downs, and you can find full details of all the talks and activities throughout the year on the centre’s What’s On page.
Pulborough Brooks Nature Reserve
In the east of the park, Pulborough Brooks is a beautiful RSPB reserve with great views across the South Downs and nature trails that explore the surrounding wetlands, woodland and heathland. Hides for birdwatching offer the chance to spot nightingales, barn owls and peregrine falcons, among others, and there’s also a wild play area for children and plenty of places to stop for a picnic.
A regular programme of family-friendly activities and seasonal events includes guided reptile safaris, pond-dipping sessions and summer evening bat-spotting walks.
Marwell Zoo
A trip to the zoo is usually a winner with children, and the 140-acre Marwell Zoo is surely one of the best the UK has to offer. It’s home to more than 140 different species, including tigers, leopards, meerkats, penguins and giraffes, plus a walk-through aviary and a tropical house with amphibians and lizards.
If your younger children are getting tired, you can hop aboard the road train for a trip all around the park. For more energetic youngsters there are five adventure play areas with climbing nets, swings and slides. Other things to look out for include the ever-popular animal feeding sessions. Meanwhile, if you want to stop for lunch yourselves, you can choose from several picnic areas and food outlets.
Before you visit the zoo, go to the website to download a free app that has maps of the park, along with details of trails through the zoo, animal feeding times and special events.
Fun-filled events and festivals
Arundel Festival of the Arts
If you’re visiting the park during the last two weeks in August, the vibrant annual Arundel Festival of the Arts is a good bet for all members of the family. Now approaching its 50th year, it features live music, theatre performances and art exhibitions in indoor and outdoor venues, as well as street entertainment, open-air screenings of popular films, markets with stalls selling street food and crafts, Morris dancers, vintage car rallies and fashion shows.
It’s a great way to meet the local community and many of the events are free, but if you’d like to attend a ticketed event, we’d recommend booking in advance. Full details of all events, activities and performances are available on the festival’s What’s On page.
Goodwood Revival
The annual three-day Goodwood Revival is a celebration of motor racing and fashion at the historic racing circuit on the Goodwood Estate. It revels in its vintage theme, with many participants dressed in period costume from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and attracts more than 100,000 people every year.
Alongside the thrilling classic car and motorcycle races, there are also air displays, live music peformances, a vintage fairground, family film screenings and a plethora of stalls selling food and retro clothing. It's hugely popular and tickets always sell out quickly, so make sure you book in advance.
Family-friendly cycling routes
If you’d like to take your family cycling in the South Downs National Park, there are lots of places to choose from. Here are some of our favourite easy cycle trails.
Centurion Way
Start: Chichester
End: West Dean
Distance: 5.6 miles (9km) one way
Time: 1 hour
The gentle Centurion Way is a family-friendly trail that follows a flat and well-maintained trail along the former Chichester to Midhurst railway line, and it's perfect for a family ride or a walk. It passes through beautiful countryside, with sculptures to spot along the way, and you can turn it into a full day out by visiting the woodland nature reserve at Brandy Hill Copse or taking a short detour to Fishbourne Roman Palace.
Cuckoo Trail
Start: Heathfield
End: Shinewater Park, Eastbourne
Distance: 8.7 miles (14km) one way
Time: 2 hours
The safe and pleasant Cuckoo Trail is a mostly traffic-free route that runs right through the heart of the South Downs, following another former railway line. It’s well-signposted all the way, and there are lots of places to stop for a picnic. Look out for butterflies, woodpeckers and wildflowers as you pedal, and sculptures and art installations beside the path.
South Downs Way
We couldn’t talk about cycling here without mentioning the South Downs Way. This 100-mile long-distance path from Winchester to Eastbourne is entirely within the national park and travels through a varied landscape of rivers, grassland, chalk ridges and dramatic cliffs with views out across the English Channel. While we don’t expect you to take on the whole thing, there are lots of family-friendly sections where you can enjoy a bike ride or a walk.
If you’re looking for ideas for where to start, we’d suggest the beautiful section from Alfriston to Eastbourne along the Cuckmere Valley, or the ride from Pyecombe to Devil's Dyke, which has fabulous views of the Sussex countryside. If you’d like to choose your own route, the South Downs Way and National Trails websites both have comprehensive guides.
Whether you want to see Roman mosaics, kayak along a peaceful river, meet a meerkat or go for a spin on a vintage fairground ride, the South Downs has something for you. It’s time to start planning your adventure.
If you’re looking for a place to stay while you’re visiting the South Downs, Pitchup has a range of the best campsites in the South Downs.