The Sand Place Indoor Sandbox

About

One room, one enormous sandbox, and something like a hundred trucks, diggers and cranes buried in it. That is the entire proposition, and it is why reviewers keep describing it as a change from every other indoor play place they use: nothing here climbs, bounces or flashes, and children simply dig. The sand is cleaned and topped up and staff stay in the room, which is more supervision than the concept sounds like it needs and exactly the amount a parent of a two-year-old wants.

It suits the preschool end hardest. Reviewers with children between about two and five describe an hour passing without a single request to leave, and one family whose child has additional needs describes the sand doing the settling for them. Adults are not charged and the ticket carries no clock, so this is a place you can bring a book to. Parties are the other thing it is known for, and the reviews about them are unusually specific about how little the host family had to do; the packages come with construction hats, and parents recommend adding the little high-visibility vests for the photographs alone.

The catch is the timetable rather than the place. Weekday sessions finish at lunchtime and Mondays it does not open at all, so unless your week has a free morning in it this is a weekend venue, and the weekend is when the parties are.