A day out in Skegness with a 1-3 year old

Hardy's Animal Farm

Start here while attention spans are at their longest. The farm covers over seven acres of countryside at Ingoldmells, and the draw for this age is simple: meeting, feeding and making friends with the animals, plus daily animal activities and free tractor and trailer rides. Admission includes the animals, the play areas and the daily activities, so there is nothing extra to negotiate once you are inside.

For running about, there is a giant indoor soft play area with a separate toddler soft play, and outdoors a large play area with a dedicated toddler zone — useful, because you can move inside if the wind comes off the sea. Older siblings have pony cycles, Pitchfork n Putt farmers golf, a craft and activity room and a farm quiz. The site is flat with pushchair access throughout. The Haystacks Cafe does food and drink, with seating for cafe customers, and there are picnic tables and benches dotted around if you have brought your own. The farm is open seasonally, late March to early November.

Butlin's Skegness

A short hop back along the coast. This is the loudest part of the day, and that is fine once a toddler is warmed up. The Traditional Fairground with its vintage stall games is the easiest fit for one to three year olds, and Splash Waterworld has a pool for tots alongside the flumes and rapids aimed at bigger children. SKYPARK is the outdoor playground. There is food on site and picnic space, so this is a reasonable place to eat if the farm cafe was already behind you. Day visits are offered as well as longer breaks.

Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve

Three miles or so south of Skegness, and free, which makes it a low-stakes final outdoor stop. The reserve runs to 437 hectares of sandy and muddy shore, dunes, salt marsh and freshwater, with waymarked trails and bird hides. Most paths are level and well surfaced, though they can be mud. For a toddler the appeal is sand, space and the chance to look through a hide window; for you, seasonal wildlife — wildfowl and birds of prey in winter, visible migration in spring and autumn. The visitor centre has a cafe, gift shop, accessible toilets and baby changing. Dogs must be on a lead and are kept off the beach and foreshore from 1 April to 1 September.

Skegness Aquarium

Keep this one in your back pocket. It is entirely indoors: a pirate-themed route past sharks and rays in the Aqua Theatre, seahorses and crabs in the Wet Lab, moon jellies in the Sea Caves, and snakes, frogs and spiders in Long John Silver's Storeroom. Tanks at toddler height do a lot of work on a wet afternoon. Tickets also cover Jurassic Falls, a woodland trail of twenty-plus animatronic and static dinosaurs, and there is Skegness Mini Port where children pilot toy ships, adventure golf, riverboat rides and a bistro.

If the day is unravelling, cut Butlin's — it is the biggest and busiest stop and the easiest to lose without regret. If it rains hard, swap Gibraltar Point for the aquarium and stay dry. If everything is going well, Hardy's alone can absorb most of a day, and there is no shame in staying put.