Family activities at Dunstable Downs

child in blue all in one looks up at a wooden reindeer with a red painted nose — Discover our Christmas trail at Dunstable Downs this December | © National Trust Images/Beth Weston

There are loads of different family activities designed to help you explore and discover Dunstable Downs. However you choose to spend your day with us, your adventure starts here.

Christmas

Breakfast with the Elves

This festive season, enjoy a cooked breakfast and step into magic as View Café is transformed into our cheeky elves workshop.

Date: weekends and select weekdays 30 November – 23 December.
Times: 9.00am-11.00am.
Price: £6.50 per child, £13.50 per adult. Car parking admissions apply.
Booking: pre-booking required.

Family Trail: Chaos at Christmas

For Christmas to go ahead, the elves must find their missing baubles!

Dates: Saturday 30 November - Tuesday 31 December (closed on 24 and 25 December).
Times: drop in between 10.00am-3.00pm.
Price: £3 per trail. Car parking admissions apply.
Booking: no pre-booking required.

Festive Evenings

Dates: Friday 6, 13 and 20 December.
Times: 5.00pm-7.00pm.
Price: £8 per person. Car parking admissions apply.
Booking: pre-booking required.

Kite flying

The elevated position of Dunstable Downs makes it a perfect location for flying kites. You can bring your own or you can purchase one from our shop with kites priced from £8 each.

Balance bikes

You can borrow a balance bike from our visitor centre free of charge. Perfect for pre-school children learning to ride a bike.

Sensory Bags

We are delighted to introduce our sensory bags, available to borrow from 22 July 2024. With a great selection of sensory items to provide stimulation, create calm, and engage with your senses, these can be curated and signed in and out from our Visitor Welcome Hub. They are to help visitors with autism, sensory processing disorder, or those who think they would benefit from them during their visit.

Build a den

Venture into Chute Wood and tick off no. 4 of our '50 things to do before you’re 11¾' at our new den building area! Castle, cave or pirate ship... let your imagaination run wild and build the hideout of your dreams using an array of specially placed deadwood!

Try geocaching at Dunstable Downs

Up for a challenge? We have hidden six camouflaged geocaches across the Downs, taking you to places you may not have visited before. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt which you can take part in using one of the free geocache apps, including one at geocaching.com. It will guide you to within a few metres of the geocache hiding place and once there, you will need to use your eyes to seek out the cache.

Get your free geocaching account and start hunting today.

Try Geocaching at Dunstable Downs with our geocaches hidden on the downs. Waterproof camo boxes with note pads, pencil and other knickknacks in — Try Geocaching at Dunstable Downs | © National Trust / Fiona Partridge

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