Family Fun for Half-Term

This half-term, we’ve put together entertaining expeditions for your children and the whole family to enjoy, based in and around University Arms, Cambridge’s leading luxury hotel. We can provide picnic lunches and teas to take with you, or come afterwards to our brasserie restaurant, Parker’s Tavern, where Chef Tristan Welch has devised irresistible treats that defy moderation.

Team Spirit! Sharky & George Shake Things Up

With their endless enthusiasm, energy and creativity, it’s no wonder that brilliant entertainers Sharky & George ( ) are Britain’s go-to for experiences everyone will enjoy. This half-term they are taking children on an adventure just outside our hotel on Parker’s Piece (weather permitting), featuring games, survival skills, and challenges to test their knowledge of Cambridge.

Details: Live at University Arms on the 1st and 3rd of June from 10.30 – 12.00; complimentary for hotel guests please contact reception@universityarms.com for more details.

Extreme Ice-Cream: Chef Goes Mad

Children will definitely eat their greens when they hear what treat lies in store for them for dessert: Chef Tristan Welch has been on a journey of nostalgia and combined all his childhood favourites into one magnificent, sweet beast: the Ripture Rapture. Featuring mounds of wobbly jelly, soft pillows of marshmallow, soft but tart strawberries, scoop upon scoop of ice-cream, and toppings and sprinklings galore, this fantasy dessert will make you misty-eyed for decades to come.

Details: Parker’s Tavern,

Jurassic Cambridge: Back to BC at the Sedgwick

The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences rocks! Literally! Renowned for its collections of petrology, minerology and palaeontology, you’ll find stones, fossils and dramatic dinosaurs to show you what life was like 4.5 billion years ago. Stand-out exhibits are the skull of Stan the Tyrannosaur and the spooky complete skeleton of an Iguanodon.

Just a 5 minute walk from University Arms.

Details: Museum re-opens 20th May, open year-round. Entrance is free but please book ahead;

Take a Punt: Row on the River Cam

Like strawberries and cream or rain and the Wimbledon Final, nothing goes together like Cambridge and floating along the River Cam in the University Arms punt. You can take in beautiful historic sites such as King’s College Chapel, The Bridge of Sighs and New Court St Johns, and enjoy the lush greenery of the Cambridge Backs. Pack a picnic to while away the afternoon as your “chauffeur” tells you legends of the city or work up an appetite and flex some muscle by perfecting your punting technique yourself.

Details: Book online at www.rutherfordspunting.com or email our Concierge to organise a picnic and punt for you – concierge@universityarms.com

Release Your Inner Attenborough: At the Museum of Zoology

This much-loved Cambridge attraction is not only home to a 21-metre-long blue whale that would have weighed the same as 8 double-decker buses, but also Charles Darwin’s box of beetles, a giant clam and an elusive goblin shark. With thousands of specimens spanning the entire animal kingdom, from elephants to insects, it’s the perfect opportunity to engage with the wild in the heart of the city.

The museum is a short walk from University Arms.

Details: Museum re-opens 20 May, open year-round. Entrance is free but please book ahead;

Mind your step! Dinky Doors for Urban Explorers

The madcap team behind Dinky Doors has created a fantasy world to delight you on your walks. Dotted around the city are immaculately made, tiny models of doorways with wonderful stories attached that form part of a search to find “the Supreme Leader” and save the world. Imagine Wallace and Gromit crossed with the Hobbit and you’ll get a feel for the aesthetic – and the heart-warming humour of the project.

Start your journey on Parker’s Piece, adjacent to University Arms, with the Dinky Door on ‘reality checkpoint.’

Details: Year-round, free, or buy map with locations, fun facts and games to support the project, £7;

City of Spooks: The Cambridge Ghost Tour

There’s little wonder that “presences” can be detected in Cambridge – there have been settlements here since the Bronze Age, and the ancient Romans and Vikings made their mark before the University of Cambridge was founded in 1209. Packed with mediaeval buildings with dimly lit nooks and crannies, sightings of ghosts abound! This popular tour reveals the spectral secrets of Cambridge for budding ghostbusters.

Meet your ghoulish guide in the hotel lobby of University Arms.

Details: £15 per adult or £95 per group, maximum 5 per group; Our Concierge would be delighted to book this for you – concierge@universityarms.com.