Guide: London's Best Family-Friendly Immersive Experiences This Half Term (2026)
- Immersive Rumours
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
From races across the city against the clock and immersive exhibitions covering Vikings and Cleopatra to expeditions into the darkest depths of Peru, here are our recommendations for the best family-friendly immersive experiences in London this May half term ...
London has never been short on family-friendly activities. From world-class museums and zoos to West End shows and tourist attractions that cater to all ages, there are hundreds of options for a day out with the family across the city. Amongst them are a handful of standout immersive and interactive experiences that allow families to either become part of the story or get involved to a degree not possible elsewhere. Below are our recommendations for the top immersive experiences running in London this half term that will both engage and entertain the whole family...
The Paddington Bear Experience
Photo: Alex Brenner
An immersive walk-through show spread out over 26,000 sq ft in the heart of Central London, The Paddington Bear Experience invites guests to step inside the world of Michael Bond's classic stories for the first time as preparations for the Marmalade Day celebrations are underway at Windsor Gardens. Guests will get hands-on with a series of tasks throughout the experience as they meet a cast of characters from the much-loved book series, including Mrs. Brown.
There's a lovingly recreated version of the Brown's family home, complete with the blossom tree mural at the foot of their staircase, and an excursion to Peru where you help create Marmalade, amongst other interactive moments. Photo opportunities with Paddington are available at the conclusion of the experience, as well as a chance to buy your own Marmalade sandwiches.
The show is directed by Tom Maller, whose previous work includes some of London's biggest immersive shows of recent years (Peaky Blinders: The Rise, Doctor Who: Time Fracture, Secret Cinema's Blade Runner, Romeo + Juliet, and Casino Royale).
Photos: Alex Brenner
Help Paddington and the Brown Family prepare for a very special occasion: the Marmalade Day Festival. Just like Paddington, you’ll begin your adventure in the hustle and bustle of Paddington Station, where you’ll meet the friendly Station Master and hop aboard our full-sized train carriage – make sure you aren’t late! Journey through the sights and sounds of London, all the way to the Brown’s house at No. 32 Windsor Gardens. Step inside the Brown’s famous tree-adorned hallway and explore multiple rooms in their home, then venture beyond as you’re transported to the magical jungle of Peru – all to help Paddington prepare for the biggest party Windsor Gardens has ever seen! Finish by celebeating the Marmalade Day Festival at Windsor Gardens with Paddington and his friends where you’ll dance to vibrant calypso music, play fairground games and eat & drink festival treats – most importantly, you can try Paddington’s favourite Marmalade sandwich!
📍 Waterloo 💰 From £158.00 (Family of 4)
🧒 Suitable for all ages 🎟️ Book via paddingtonbearexperience.com
Race Across The World: The Experience
Image: Race Across The World - The Experience
Race Across The World: The Experience, based on the hit BBC series, is the latest city-wide treasure hunt experiences from CityDays. While the TV series they're based on have competitors racing for 50-plus days across multiple countries with little more than a map, a GPS tracker, and several thousand pounds to pay for travel, lodging, and food, the two London-based races run anywhere from 2 to 4 hours and sees those taking part cover roughly 5km on foot through either the City of London, or the West End.
Staples of the BBC series - including budget management and navigating without a map - have been carried over and make up the core experience, which feels like the closest adaptation of the TV series possible without requiring a passport or more than an afternoon of your time.
The fast-paced format and sense of discovery built into Race Across The World: The Experience keep kids engaged throughout, and the focus placed on looking at the city differently means they're interacting with the streets and sights of London with a (hopefully) more considered view. Small details that you'd otherwise walk past without giving a second thought need to be studied, quiet backstreets and passageways that you never knew existed need to be explored, and with the clock ticking the entire time, there's a real sense of urgency throughout.
Photo: Race Across The World: The Experience
This high-stakes experience will offer players the chance to live out their Race Across the World dreams by navigating the streets of London, working as a team, outwitting their competitors, and unlocking hidden secrets of the city in an unforgettable race to the finish line! Just like in the show, Race Across The World: The Experience requires strategy, teamwork, and quick thinking, as players will be given a budget to manage as they race through the city. This budget can be spent on valuable clues to help navigate the next leg of the journey, giving players the freedom to decide how daring they want to be. It's a high-stakes race against the clock, where every decision counts and influences the race, but beware, each clue comes at a cost.
📍 Liverpool Street/West End 💰 From £130.00 (Family of 4)
🧒 Suitable for all ages 🎟️ Book via feverup.com
Vikings: The Immersive Experience
Photo: Vikings - The Immersive Experience
Running out of Canada Water's Dock X, Vikings: The Immersive Experience gives visitors the chance to learn about the lives of the Viking world’s most formidable family: King Ragnar Lodbrok, the wise Queen Kraka (Aslaug), and their world-conquering sons - Ivar the Boneless, Bjorn Ironside, Hvitserk, and Sigurd Snake-in-the-eye.
The adventure opens with a film sequence set in 793 AD, before plunging visitors into the Forest of Time, a sprawling in-world set where towering trees whisper the secrets of Viking life and beliefs. At the heart of the forest stands a full-scale recreation of Yggdrasil, the mythological World Tree, beneath which a virtual reality experience reveals Kraka's origins and her fateful first encounter with Ragnar. The experience's finale comes via a 30-minute 360-degree cinematic projection featuring cutting-edge video mapping, a sweeping musical score and a magnificent full-size Viking longship at the centre.
From 25th to 29th May, families can enjoy even more hands-on Viking fun with Viking-themed temporary tattoos and traditional craft workshops using natural pigments and handmade brushes led by a Viking reenactor, alongside being able to explore interactive maps, handle replica artefacts and test their knot-tying skills.
Until 17th May, you can save 20% on tickets to Vikings: The Immersive Experience through Fever.
Photo: Vikings - The Immersive Experience
Travel back in time to 9th-century Scandinavia at London’s Dock X, where the legend of Queen Kraka and King Ragnar Lodbrok comes alive! Wander through the Forest of Time, full of runes and hidden signs; listen to the call of the horn; marvel at the luminous World Tree and journey through misty portals into a 360° cinematic saga of love, war and destiny. Experience Viking life like never before - an epic tale of courage, prophecy, and legacy awaits. From stormy sea voyages to blazing skies, from ancient rituals to archaeological discoveries - this exhibition blends myth, fact and magic into an unforgettable experience.
📍 Canada Water 💰 From £88.00 (Family of 4)
🧒 Suitable for all ages 🎟️ Book via feverup.com
Mundo Pixar Experience
Photo: Luke Dyson
Following appearances in Brazil, Mexico, Belgium and Spain, where it's welcomed over 3.2 million visitors, Mundo Pixar Experience has arrived in the UK. In this multi-sensory exhibition, fans of all ages have the chance to enter the universes of Pixar’s most iconic films.
Visitors can shrink down to toy size in Andy’s Room from Toy Story, explore the Scare Floor from Monsters, Inc. with Mike and Sulley, race into Flo’s Café from Cars to meet Lightning McQueen, or soar through the skies with Carl Fredricksen from Up. They can also visit the Headquarters of Riley’s emotions from Inside Out 2, and journey from Coco's Land of the Living to the Land of the Dead.
Beyond the immersive sets, guests can take part in a special Pixar Ball Treasure Hunt, searching for the famous yellow ball with a red star hidden throughout the exhibition - a playful nod to the beloved Easter egg that appears in many Pixar films.
Photos: Luke Dyson
Step into the vibrant world of Pixar like never before. Mundo Pixar Experience is a multi-sensory exhibition which offers fans of all ages a chance to enter the universes of Pixar’s most iconic films. Set in a purpose-built venue in Wembley Park, the exhibition will span more than 3,500 square metres, and will feature 14 Pixar universes, including over 25 sculptures, inviting guests to explore meticulously recreated environments from Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Cars, Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Coco, Up, and many more fan favourites. Each space combines detailed set design, ambient music, and specially crafted scents to immerse visitors in Pixar’s most beloved stories.
📍 Wembley Park 💰 From £117.00 (Family of 4)
🧒 Suitable for all ages 🎟️ Book via mundopixar.com
Cleopatra: The Experience
Photo: Cleopatra - The Experience
Featuring nine interactive galleries, Cleopatra: The Experience takes visitors on a captivating journey through Ancient Egypt as they uncover the secrets of Egypt’s last queen and explore her legacy, legend, love, lifestyle and beauty.
Created by Madrid Artes Digitales (MAD) - the team behind hit experiences including Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition, The Legend of the Titanic, and The Last Days of Pompeii - this is the latest of their productions to arrive in London.
With 22 real Egyptian artefacts, MAD's signature cinematic projections, a state-of-the-art hologram, Virtual Reality, a free-roaming Metaverse, interactive installations and more, the experience brings one of history’s most fascinating figures vividly to life in one of London's most ambitious large-scale exhibitions.
Both educational and exhilarating in equal measure, Cleopatra: The Experience has been designed with children, families, culture lovers, technology enthusiasts and history fans in mind, to take visitors on an unforgettable journey into the world of one of history’s most iconic rulers.
Photo: Cleopatra - The Experience
Cleopatra: The Experience invites you on an incredible journey through the life and reign of Egypt’s last great queen. Showcasing real artefacts and using state-of-the-art immersive technologies, Cleopatra’s world unfolds step by step, revealing the intelligence, ambition, legacy and love that shaped her rise as one of history’s most iconic female leaders. From political mastery to cultural influence, this exhibition explores why Cleopatra remains a symbol of power and fascination centuries later. With outstanding visitor reviews from its world premiere in Madrid, this immersive experience offers a fresh and unforgettable way to connect with ancient history.
📍 Immerse LDN 💰 From £94.00 (Family of 4)
🧒 Suitable for all ages 🎟️ Book via feverup.com
Paradox Museum
Photo: Paradox Museum
Located just over the road from Harrods in Knightsbridge, Paradox Museum London invites families into a surreal playground of optical illusions and interactive rooms built to test their perceptions and spark creativity. With over 50 installations on offer, which have all been designed to blend science with imagination, it’s a tactile and highly-Instagrammable experience that's suitable for all ages and sure to delight kids.
Some of the museum's most popular exhibits include Zero Gravity, which gives the illusion of floating in space, the Paradox Sofa, where guests legs and torso appear to be split in two, the Camouflage Room, and an upside-down version of a London Underground platform, in which it looks like guests are hanging from platform signs.
Additionally, there's also a new Passport Safari Game, offering kids the chance to take part in a hands-on, scavenger-style adventure. Young explorers can follow the clues, complete the stamps, and solve playful puzzles as they navigate the museum’s most mind-bending rooms. The game will be available as an optional add-on for all visits throughout the summer.
Photos: Paradox Museum
The Paradox Museum is an innovative venue that combines the world of science, art and human perception. With over 50 amazing, paradox-inspired exhibits, Paradox Museum offers more mind-twisting, eye-tricking experiences than any other edutainment destination in the world! On this self-guided experience, you will learn everything about the exciting science behind paradoxes, have a ton of fun and take photos so spectacular that your friends will not believe they’re real.
📍 Knightsbridge 💰 From £86.00 (Family of 4)
🧒 Suitable for all ages 🎟️ Book via feverup.com
Bubble Planet
Photo: Bubble Planet
Enjoyed by over four million visitors worldwide, Bubble Planet was designed to awaken curiosity and reconnect audiences with a sense of childlike wonder, and unfolds across a series of visually striking, multi-sensory environments.
The experience features ten themed rooms, which guide guests through surreal landscapes that blur the boundaries between dream and reality, including the Bubble Ocean - a vast expanse of bubbles designed to evoke calm and serenity - and the Infinity Room, where mirrors and shifting lights create the illusion of endless space.
Lasting anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes, it's a fun-filled experience that's also incredibly Instagrammable.
Photos: Bubble Planet
In this multi-sensory experience, visitors will travel through fantastical landscapes and into imaginary metaverses filled with unique optical illusions and photo opportunities. Upon entering this otherworldly planet, guests will be able to leave real-life at the door and embark on a journey that inspires them to reconnect with their emotions and bodily sensations, making astonishing discoveries along the way. The combination of colours, lasers, lights and bubbles, together with 360-degree projection technology and a unique virtual reality experience invites guests of all ages into a dream-like, escapist experience in the midst of the busy city.
📍 Wembley Park 💰 From £112.00 (Family of 4)
🧒 Suitable for all ages 🎟️ Book via feverup.com
Banksy Limitless
Photo: Banksy Limitless
Banksy Limitless offering long-term enthusiasts, collectors, art fans, and the curious alike the chance to experience the provocative and thought-provoking world of the British artist in a unique and immersive environment. More than an exhibition, Banksy Limitless is a cultural encounter where the raw power of street art meets the prestige of a gallery setting.
The exhibiton includes installations from Banksy's iconic 2015 Weston-Super-Mare 'Dismaland' pop-up bemusement park like Cinderella's Carriage, large scale sculptures, certified prints of significant work including Flower Thrower and Kissing Coppers, original pieces from the Walled Off Hotel project in Bethlehem, as well as specially created works such as Prankadilly Circus, and an immersive holographic installation exclusive to the London edition.
As well as being one of the largest single collections of original Banksy work ever assembled in one place, the exhibition highlights some of the technical aspects of his creative process, including meticulously reproduced pieces using his signature stencil technique. A mural installation, crafted by a renowned creative team, authentically brings the essence of street art into an indoor setting. Banksy’s work often relies on the impact of a specific site, and great efforts have been made to reproduce this feeling in a gallery environment.
Both a trailblazer and innovator in the art world, admired by fans across the globe and celebrated for his unique vision, Banksy has become a cultural icon whose works reflect the moral and social dilemmas of today’s world. Banksy Limitless brings this vision to life, offering visitors an unprecedented opportunity to step inside the world of the elusive artist, experiencing the scale, context, and impact of his creations in a way that echoes his street roots.
📍 Knightsbridge 💰 From £75.32 (Family of 4)
🧒 Suitable for all ages 🎟️ Book via feverup.com
For more on London's best immersive shows (both family-friendly and not), check out our Current/Upcoming Listings page.