Move and Play ~ Exhibition at Coventry Transport Museum

Coventry Transport Museum has been a place we’ve visited as a family several times over the last 9 years.  It is local, great for vehicle obsessed kids, and will please both adults and kids alike!

As you can imagine, our two year old Baby K is pretty much obsessed with anything with wheels.   Cars, bikes, trucks, diggers and tractors – you name it, he loves it!  So when we got invited to visit Coventry Transport Museum and check out their new exhibition, Move and Play, I jumped at the chance!

Coventry Transport Museum

Coventry Transport Museum is located in the centre of Coventry City Centre, not far from attractions such as the Sky Dome, Belgrave Shopping centre and Fargo Village.  It is the home to the world’s largest collection of British made road transport – and that’s impressive!  There are over 240 cars and commercial vehicles, 100 motorcycles and 200 bicycles, much to Baby K’s delight.  You can expect several different captive displays as you wander from room to room, as well as some interactive activities and even a 4D simulator.

Move and Play Exhibition

Move and Play opened on June 30th 2019 and is running all the way until November 10th 2019.   The exhibition is all about testing your fitness, senses and balance, and is perfect for families to get involved in. It’s interactive, fun and a great way for the kids to learn about fitness and strength.  There were many different games and challenges that can keep you amused during your visit, despite it being located in a smallish hall, there is lot’s to do.

First things first, both boys made a bee line to the football challenges.  The first was how hard can you kick.  The boys had a lot of fun challenging themselves to see how hard they could kick the ball, and interestingly shows the speed as to how fast it travels.  I managed to reach 45 mph!

Missy took herself off to Football on a bench.  This was quite a funny game where you had to sit on a stool and bounce to move the ball across the pitch.  Every time you bounced, it created a jet of air that blew the balls across the pitch!

Next up, a tight rope wall.  We all enjoyed trying out this challenge, and actually got serious in completing this, even taking our shoes off!  All the kids found this a lot of fun and surprisingly is quite difficult for adults to do too!

Another football game was Goalie or Not?  This was quite a tricky challenge as the interactive screen was a little slow in locating your body when you saved a goal.  But, it was strenuous and fun and definitely challenged Mr B!

Team Stomp was another great family activity that 3 of us could take part in at the same time.  You basically race each other on an interactive screen by running really quickly on the spot.   Obviously, the faster you stomp your feet, the faster your character on the screen will run.   It was a lot of fun!

Missy spent a lot of time on the Disco Donut challenge within the Move and Play exhibition at Coventry Transport Museum.  This was a great challenge for movement and skill, and involved rolling a wheelchair around the dance floor, following the pattern of lights.  She was really good at manoeuvring herself around in the wheelchair and enjoyed following the lit up areas.

Next up, jump the rope.  Mr B particularly enjoyed this and challenged himself several times to overcome the speed of the rope.  It’s great as you can do this as a single player.  You just need to secure the rope in the discs at either end, hit the GO button, and JUMP!

There is more challenges and games on offer at the exhibition so I’ll keep some as a surprise for if and when you visit.  But it was a fun and lively exhibition that all three of the kids enjoyed very much.  We probably spent just over an hour inside the Move and Play exhibition, before spending another hour wandering around the rest of the motor museum.

Useful information when visiting Coventry Transport Museum

– As it’s located in the city centre, there are several carparks located all within walking distance to the motor museum.  Bishop Steet and Belgrave Plaza are nearby.  The train station is located just opposite the entrance the museum

– There is now an admission charge for the museum (it used to be free). Adults are charged at £14 and children aged 5 and up are £7 (as of 2019.)  There is also an additional charge for the simulator at £5 per adult and £3.50 per child.

– There is NO additional charge for the Move and Play exhibition – it’s included in your ticket price

– All tickets are valid 365 days a year.  So once purchased your ticket, it technically is an annual pass for the whole year.  You can return as many times as you like!

– There is space to have a picnic within the museum if you wish to bring your own food.  However, there is a coffee shop just located in the entrance to the museum, opposite the shop

Final Say

Overall, we had a lovely afternoon out exploring the Move and Play exhibition and taking in the rest of Coventry Transport Museum. It certainly isn’t a full day out experience – I’d say maximum 3 hours if there is additional activities and exhibitions available.  Of course, you could extend your day out by visiting the coffee shop or a local restaurant.  We visited Sprinkles, an ice cream parlour over the road which I 100% recommend!

We all thought the Move and Play exhibition was great fun and a great addition to the museum.  It was great to do some challenges as a family and work together to solve tasks and complete games.  The rest of the museum was great for the kids, however some of the interactive stations were not working which was disappointing.  I also feel that the additional price for the simulator was a little steep at an additional £5 per adult and £3.50 per child.

Have you been to see the new Move and Play exhibition yet?!

*We were gifted tickets to Coventry Transport Museum so we could review the Move and Play exhibition for the purpose of this post*