“Playful Parenting: Embrace Soft Play Adventures with Your Child”
Dear parents,
Have you ever considered taking your little one to a soft play activity to burn off that extra energy and keep them engaged for hours?
Firstly,
What is soft play?
Soft play is a play area or activity designed for young children, usually up to the age of 12. The play area is equipped with soft-padded structures and platforms to create a safe play area for children to explore and play. These soft play areas have facilities such as slides, ball pits and other interactive structures to encourage physical activity, coordination and socialisation in a safe and secure environment and these spaces are commonly found in indoor play centres, children’s facilities and recreational spaces catered to young children.
So why should you take your child to one?
Well, because they are fun, especially for the child and these spaces help in your child’s overall growth and development… that’s it, do you need another reason to go?
This month, I have been on a fun adventure with my 2-year-old to find fun soft play venues in the area. Here are some of the few I’ve been to around the Bexleyheath, Dartford, Rochester and Maidstone areas in Kent and how they compare according to price, variety of play, parking and fun factor.
PS: My reviews are subjective and based on my personal experience which of course will be different from yours 🙂
Monkey Bizz (Medway)
Location: Medway
Price: 2yrs: £7 / Adult: £3 (other prices can be found on their website)
Parking: Free Parking
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Price: ⭐⭐⭐
- Variety of play: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Parking/Commute: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Fun factor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Experience: This was the best of all the play areas I visited this month of January. I was impressed with the variety of play options and how spacious the area is. It had the usual activity-filled facilities such as ball pits, giant slides, a sports area and all sorts of climbing and obstacle courses for kids and also had a role-play area for those who wanted to experience a different type of play.
Parking is also convenient as it has ample parking on-site free of charge.
Overall, my daughter had a blast exploring the various activities available here and this is one place we’d be visiting again for some more fun.
Globetrotters Softplay (Bexleyheath)
Location: Bexleyheath
Price: 2yrs: £7.50 / Adult: £1 (other prices can be found on their website)
Parking: No Parking on site
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Price: ⭐⭐⭐
- Variety of play: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Parking/Commute: ⭐⭐
- Fun factor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Experience: The only downside to Globetrotters is that they have no parking on-site and one will have to find nearby paid parking to visit the facility. I liked the variety of play options available to my little one from the sensory area to the various slides of different sizes. It also had a mini quad-bike area, mini trampolines within the giant play obstacle course structure and an arcade area with stationary mini-rides and whack-a-mole. Fair warning to parents, don’t take your kid to the arcade area where you have to pay for each game turn if you don’t want to spend all your money there 😄 (I’m looking at you whack-a-mole 😒).
Overall this was quite enjoyable and is high on my list to visit again with my toddler.
Adventure Kidz (Aylesford)
Location: Wood Close, Quarry Wood, Aylesford
Price: 2yrs: £7.45 / Adult: £4.45 (other prices can be found on their website)
Parking: Free but limited
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Price: ⭐⭐⭐
- Variety of play: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Parking/Commute: ⭐⭐
- Fun factor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Experience: Adventure Kidz shines as one of the top soft play facilities in the area but it is one of the more expensive places I visited, especially with the £4.45 Adult entry fee. The facilities are divided into a play area for the under 4 year-olds which houses a sensory area, mini slides, soft blocks and lots of climbing activities and a play area for the 5+ kids which has a sports area, a wrecking ball, tight rope obstacles courses, a mini quad-bike area and a giant slide.
My little one enjoyed exploring the different play areas, especially the giant slide. She had endless fun going up and coming down the slide continuously burning off energy I didn’t know she had 😄. The challenge with this venue is that parking is limited and one might need to park a little away from the venue but once that challenge is overcome, you can expect a good 2 hours of endless fun and trying to keep up with your little one. This is one that I will be visiting again for some more fun.
Madplay Softplay (Dartford/Greenhithe)
Location: Dartford, Greenhithe
Price: 2yrs: £4 / Adult: £1 (other prices can be found on their website)
Parking: Free Parking
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
- Price: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Variety of play: ⭐⭐⭐
- Parking/Commute: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Fun factor: ⭐⭐⭐
My Experience: Although Madplay is the closest soft play area to me in terms of distance, it is quite average in terms of its fun factor. On the plus side, it is one of the more affordable options for soft play, allows walk-ins and has free parking on-site but doesn’t have as many varied play options to engage an energetic 2-year-old toddler.
KidZone (Rochester)
Location: Rochester
Price: 2yrs: £6.50 / Adult: £2 (other prices can be found on their website)
Parking: Free Parking (need to register at the venue)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
- Price: ⭐⭐⭐
- Variety of play: ⭐⭐⭐
- Parking/Commute: ⭐⭐⭐
- Fun factor: ⭐⭐⭐
My Experience: Kidzone was a bit average during my visit. The soft play activities are quite standard and similar to what you’d find in other soft play venues but nothing stood out to me in terms of its fun factor. One plus for Kidzone is that it allows walk-ins so you don’t need to book ahead making it one of the more flexible venues I visited this month.
The Barnyard Soft Play (Swanley)
Location: Swanley Park, Swanley
Price: £4.50 per child / Adult free
Parking: £1 for 1 hour / £3.50 for 2 hours+
Rating: ⭐⭐
- Price: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Variety of play: ⭐⭐
- Parking/Commute: ⭐⭐
- Fun factor: ⭐⭐
My Experience: The Barnyard Soft Play is lovely but it was quite limited in the variety of play options available. It has the standard ball pit and an indoor play gym with various climbing areas and a tunnel slide but not so much in terms of space and activities to engage an energetic toddler so it was easy to get bored after a couple of minutes in the ball pit.
Getting there was also challenging. To start, the Swanley Park car park is about a 5–7 minute walk to the play area which was made more challenging as I had to carry a 2-year-old who had suddenly forgotten how to walk (ps: depending on the speed and mood of your child, this could be longer). Secondly, the path to the car park is through a narrow dirt road and not as straightforward to locate which contributed to my getting lost within the first 15–30 minutes of my scheduled playtime. Lastly, there wasn’t much in terms of fun factor as we were the only patrons the weekday we went to play at this centre which seems to indicate that this facility may not be among the popular ones in the Swanley area.
Overall this centre was among the most affordable I explored this month, but I’m unsure if I’d be visiting back anytime soon.
Do you have any recommendations for other fun places I could explore with my toddler around Kent, UK? Please drop them below in the comments
