Things To Do In Kent –  North Kent Highlights

 North Kent Highlights

See Kent’s suggestions for things to do and see in North Kent. Our highlights cover towns and villages in Dartford, Gravesend, Isle of Sheppey, Maidstone and Medway areas.
By Sophie Bland

Check out our West, South and East Kent’s pages too.


Things To Do

Diggerland
Medway Valley Leisure Park, Rochester
Time: Various dates throughout the rest of the – 10am-5pm
Price: Adults to age 65 & children 90cm or over: £22.80/Age 65 years + (ID required):  £11.40/Children under 90cm:  Free/Disabled visitor: £22.80/Disabled carer: Free/Booking fees apply./Pre booking advised
Diggerland has lots of rides and activities for all ages including the Skyshuttle, an indoor play area, mini land rovers, spin dizzy ride, or play skittles with a digger, ride dumper trucks, giant diggers, go karts, dig for buried treasure plus lots, lots more.

Diggerland Kent in Medway

Capstone Farm Alpacas
Gillingham
Time: Various dates available for bookings, mostly every Thursday, Saturday & Sunday. From 10am
Price: Meet & Greet – 1 hour: £5/Alpaca Trek (over 8’s only) – 1 hour 30 minutes: £20
Advisory Notes: Ages 8-11 must have an accompanying adult handling the Alpaca
Visit the alpacas at Capstone Farm where you can see them up close and even feed them in the meet and greet experiences they offer there. Capstone Farm started as a 300 acre farm with pigs, cattle, sheep, horses, orchards and arable land farmed by Bob Wills, until the mid 80’s when the council took the majority of the land back for what is now the Capstone Farm Country Park. It left enough land for a DIY Livery stable, run now by Wills’ granddaughter, Sharyn, who took over and added the Alpacas.

Rochester Art Gallery
Rochester
Time: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am-5pm
Price: Free
Rochester Art Gallery, housed in the Medway Visitor Centre has a varied programme of fine and decorative arts, recent shows have included textiles, craft, printmaking, and painting. The gallery holds four exhibitions a year to showcase the work of local, regional, and international artists and also runs workshops in a range of media. Until 16th April All That Remains: Thirty Years in the Making exhibition of work by Neil Bottle. With family stories, nostalgia and memories using exquisitely layered, cutting-edge digital design and precious fragments of the artist’s archive of family photographs. You can also see Unknown Soldier by David Tovey, a formerly homeless artist, educator, activist, and ex-soldier until 31st March.

Fenn Bell Conservation Project
Rochester
Time: Wednesday to Sunday 10am-5pm. School holiday times may vary
Price: Zoo entry – Adult: £7/Child – 2 to 15 years: £6/Child – under 2 years: Free/Group – 2 adults + 2 children: £23/Experiences – Junior Keeper for the day: £95/Keeper for Day: £125/Fox, Meerkat, Raccoon, Binturong or Lemur Experiences:/£55 per experience
The Fenn Bell Conservation Project, on the premises of a pub, is the first to hold a zoo licence in Medway. All the animals have come through rescue from other zoos, and they aim to offer them sanctuary while they educate visitors on the work of the project and the animals. The animals include foxes, racoons, meerkats, and lemurs. The Project offers experiences such as Keeper for a Day and a trip on a safari truck that runs around the zoo on certain days.

Capstone Farm Alpacas in Gillingham

Hysteria Escape Rooms
Chatham
Time: Wednesday to Saturday 10am-11pm, Sunday 10am-10pm
Price: 2-4 Players: £22 per person, 5+ Players: £20 per person
Challenge yourself to try something a little different at Hysteria Escape Rooms in Chatham, where they provide unique experiences that are fun for everyone as you work together as team to solve clues and attempt to escape in an hour or less. Kent’s 5 star escape room will also be hosting Christmas Chaos at Motel California until January 16th, in which a freak snow storm the night before Christmas has forced you and your family to abandon the car on Route 66. After trudging through the blizzard, you stumble across Motel California where the Manager hands you the keys to room 109, one that he says has been long disused. You take refuge in the dank and musty room but, realising supplies are low your parents face the storm once more, leaving you alone in the room with all the hidden Christmas gifts. Will you be naughty or nice?

Quiz Trail Rochester
Time: Daylight Hours
Price: Currently half price online: Normally £8 per Quiz Trail, now £4
Learn more about the history of Rochester in a self-guided walk that will take you on an easy to follow circular route, exploring all of the ‘must see’ places in the area. Fun for family and friends as you take part in different activities and work out clues along the way to discover your final answer, with an opportunity to enter a prize draw at the end. There are also lots of local stories and facts for you to learn, all presented in short snippets giving you the highlights. Lots of other towns in Kent too to explore with Quiz Trails.

Firefly Activities
Dartford
Time: Saturday 8am-3.30pm Sunday 8am-2.30pm Call to book and enquire about prices
Age Guidance: Archery suitable for ages 10 years+/Crossbow suitable for ages 14 years+/Axe throwing suitable for 12 years+
Firefly Activities is an archery ground open to all, located in the beautiful surroundings of Kent near Dartford. Includes axe throwing, archery and crossbow experiences. They also offer Skybow, where a foam disc is launched, and you shoot your arrow into it.

The Blue Town Heritage Centre
Isle of Sheppey
Time: Thursday to Saturday 10am-3pm
Price: Adults: £2.50/Friends: Free/Friends Membership: £10 per annum, £15 per couple./Taster Tours: £6/Full-day Tours: £12. Lunch can be arranged
The Blue Town Heritage Centre has plenty to discover including memorabilia and artefacts about the Isle of Sheppey. At its centre is The Criterion, a room that fell into disrepair after a German bombing raid in World War II, which is home to a variety of entertainment shows and cinema screenings. They also regularly host tours of the Island which are available all year round, based around the maritime history of Sheppey, aviation, World War I, or other topics.

Playopolis
Rochester
Time: Tuesday 5pm-10pm, Wednesday to Saturday 12pm-10pm, Sunday 12pm-6pm
Price: £4.50
Gaming café and bar that has over 600 board games to choose from for ages from two years, with a custom arcade cabinet and a retro games console in the basement.

Lower Grange Farm
Kent Scouts Activity Centre, Maidstone
Time: Open climbing – Every Tuesday 7pm-10pm. Other activities on selected dates
Price: Open Climbing: £10
Age Guidance: Climbing: 5 years +. Fencing: 6 years +. Shooting: 8 years +. All under 18’s must be supervised by a competent adult climber.
Activity centre featuring a climbing wall with open sessions, as well as other activities including family and group archery, auto belays and bouldering, laser clay, tomahawk, fencing and shooting sessions. It also hosts regular community events.

See Kent, Know Kent

For more great ideas, check our Things To Do listings for attractions and places to visit, with filters such as location and accessibility to refine your choices. See our What’s On section to find events from theatre to festivals.

Picture Credit: Top to bottom © Fenn Bell Conservation Project, Diggerland, and Capstone Farm Alpacas.
We do our best to endeavour to be as accurate and comprehensive as possible from the information we have at the time of publication.  We are not liable for any changes that a company or event makes at the last minute, whether time changes or price amendments.
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