The Easter school holidays in Canberra is usually pretty quiet as many Canberrans head for the coast for some of the holidays. But if you find yourself in Canberra these Easter school holidays and are looking for fun, free and family-friendly activities there’s plenty on offer. Here’s a handy bunch of ideas for Easter school holidays free activities, events and ideas for entertaining your children.
Libraries ACT run a range of free programs and activities. This Easter school holidays the theme is super heroes and activities include super hero storytelling, Minions clay modelling, learn to code with Robogals and MiRo-E Dogs. Sessions need to be booked in advance.
The capital’s art galleries and museums offer a range of free activities too. Canberra Musem and Art Gallery has a fun free exhibition “Platypus: a Curious Creature” which displays an eye-popping array of Platyparaphenalia. Children are invited to create a Platypus puppet afterwards for free, at the Makers Space in CMAG.
Many of the shopping centres in Canberra also put on free activities for kids, however you’ll need to have the relevant app and book in early to some of the more popular activities, as they do get booked up well in advance. Westfield Belconnen has paint sessions and t-shirt printing on offer this Easter holidays, these must be booked in advance. At Gunghalin Marketplace there are Wonderland craft workshops which need to be booked in advance. Whilst the Canberra Centre has a drop-in pop up free Retro games arcade where you can battle it out on air hockey or pong or try the pinball machines.
Canberra is even more vibrant than usual at this time of year with the city’s trees displaying some of their finest Autumn colours. One of the most beautiful free things to see this time of year in Canberra is the pretty Autumn colours in the trees. Some of the most popular spots for seeing the colours change in the trees include: on Queen Elizabeth Terrace alongside Lake Burley Griffin, Weston Park, the National Arboretum and suburbs like Ainslie, Lynham, Acton and Yarralumla are worth a look. The timing for peak colours vary week to week each year, depending on the weather, however usually around the Easter school holidays the colours have started to change.
Getting out and about in Canberra is free and many people enjoy the 5 km Lake Burley Griffin inner circuit. So be sure to walk, cycle or scoot your way around Lake Burley Griffin. Starting at Regatta Point will give you the chance to visit Canberra’s Tourist Information centre for more ideas about places to visit and free activities, then call in at Boundless playground for your younger kids to let off steam before taking in some of the many local attractions like the National Carillon, National Gallery of Australia or National Portrait Gallery. Walking the inner loop this way around you can stop off just over half way at one of waterside cafes like The Jetty or Margot, or one of the art galleries’ cafes or Bookplate at the National Library.
