Concorde Alpha Foxtrot
The last Concorde built and the last to fly; boarding the cabin and seeing the flight deck is included in the ticket.
The last Concorde ever built, and the last one ever to fly, sits in a hangar raised for her alone at the edge of Filton's runway - the same runway she touched down on for the final time on 26 November 2003. Alpha Foxtrot (G-BOAF) is the real reason to come. You walk in beneath the delta wing, climb into a cabin startlingly narrow for the most expensive seat in civil aviation, and peer into a flight deck crammed with dials. Knowing exactly what you are about to see does nothing to dull it. The museum around her opened in 2017 inside a Grade II listed hangar from 1917 and tells a full century of Bristol aircraft-making: a replica of the biplane Bristol Fighter, the front section of a Britannia airliner you can also board, helicopters, missiles and rockets, and, in the conservation workshop, a Canadian-built Blenheim (a Bolingbroke) and a Bristol Freighter being restored in full view of visitors. If aviation is not your thing this part can drag; children, though, get simulators, hands-on exhibits and an outdoor play area to break up the looking. Practicalities: a ticket buys unlimited free returns for 12 months, and buying online saves about 10% - £20 for an adult instead of £22 at the door, a family-of-four ticket for £60 instead of £67. No advance booking is needed, even in summer; queues here are nothing like London's museums. The whole site is step-free and pushchair-friendly, with lifts in both hangars and a dedicated wheelchair lift up to Concorde, though her aisle is a mere 40 cm wide. There is a cafe with a children's menu; no prayer room is advertised. The museum is in Patchway, roughly 11 km north of the centre and not far from the Cribbs Causeway shopping mall, and driving is easiest: junction 16 or 17 of the M5, free parking. By rail, Bristol Parkway is about 3.5 km away, then the Y6 bus or a taxi. Allow two to three hours (the museum itself suggests three). It normally opens daily 10:00-16:30 but shuts on scattered dates through the year (listed on its website) and on 24-26 December, so check before setting out - and do not arrive mid-afternoon in winter or you will be rushed.
The last Concorde built and the last to fly; boarding the cabin and seeing the flight deck is included in the ticket.
From a replica biplane fighter to the nose of a Britannia airliner you can board, plus a conservation workshop open to view.
Simulators, an outdoor play area, a step-free site for pushchairs, and under-4s go free.
Hayes Way, Patchway, Bristol BS34 5BZ
Yes, if Concorde matters to you: boarding is included in the ticket, the hangar was built around her, and the drive is about 25 minutes. If nobody in the family cares about aircraft, though, the rest is a specialist museum and two hours will feel long - pair it with the nearby Cribbs Causeway mall or skip it.
From about five upwards they clearly enjoy the simulators, boarding the aircraft and the play area. Toddlers tire faster, but the site is step-free for pushchairs, the cafe has a children's menu and under-4s enter free, so little is lost.