Partnership provides great value family days out across the region

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) and Tyne and Wear Metro are working in partnership again to promote great value days out for families across museums and galleries on Tyneside. 

Tyne and Wear Metro offers free travel to children under 11 with a fare paying adult and now, working with Arriva, Go North East and Stagecoach this also applies for children travelling on busses during the school summer holidays.   

Clare Smith, Learning and Engagement Manager at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, said: 

“As well as being beneficial to the whole family’s physical and mental wellbeing, visiting our museums and galleries is a great value day out – made even more so thanks to our partnership with Tyne and Wear Metro.  

"Ways to Play is in its second year now; we initially developed the programme around concerns of the impact of the pandemic on children’s wellbeing, but now with families facing growing economic restrictions Ways to Play offers more options to entertain the family for little or no cost.” 

Ways to Play combines free high-quality events at well-loved family destinations across South and North Tyneside, Newcastle, and Gateshead, coupled with free travel to under 11s.  

A series of fun activities, Ways to Play is inspired by a range of ways of playing for example: invent, imagine, discover, make, design, pretend, draw, decode, create, look, and build.  

There is free admission for under 16s to all TWAM’s attractions including the Great North Museum: Hancock, Discovery Museum, Segedunum Roman Fort and South Shields Museum. 

Customer Services Director at Nexus, Huw Lewis, said:  

“We’re delighted at the number of families making the most of great value trips on the services we operate. We wanted to be a key part of helping families get out and about, in an extremely affordable way.  

“Our free travel promise applies all day, every day, and as schools break up for summer, we’re reminding people of the opportunities Metro provides as a great value way of enjoying the attractions in our region. 

"We think Take the Kids For Free has also brought brand new customers to Metro, who now enjoy the convenience, great value and sustainability of public transport, as well as great days out with their families.” 

Highlights of the whole Ways to Play event programme can be found here, with even more on venue websites: https://www.twmuseums.org.uk/w.... 

Find out about Tyne and Wear Metro’s take the kids for free summer offer here: https://www.nexus.org.uk/metro...