One of my son’s friends had a birthday party at Kick Air in Manchester, and they all had such a good time there that I thought I should make you lot aware of it too.
I’ve been to a lot of these sorts of places, from your bog standard local soft play to posh destination soft plays like Head Over Heels in Chorlton, and even huge activity centres like Inflatanation. Kick Air definitely belongs in the latter category. The place is huge. And if it felt big to me, an adult (sort of 🤪), imagine how massive it must feel to a kid.
I think it is better than most other play centres in this category too, because it has such a wide variety of things to do. There is a bit of a football theme, but only in certain areas, so kids with absolutely zero interest in football would enjoy it just as much as kids like my son, who refuses to wear anything other than football kits. Much to my distress, as I used to love dressing him up all smart 🥲
Here’s everything you need to know about Kick Air.
Opening Times and Prices
Let’s get the basics out of the way first.
Kick Air Manchester is open from 10.30am until 8pm every day, with the final session beginning at 7pm. They recommend getting there half an hour before to get your grip socks on and watch the safety video. In my view, about 15 minutes would be fine, but there’s plenty to do if you arrive earlier.
Prices are as follows:
- 1 Hour – £16.00
- 2 Hours – £22.00
- 1 Hour Under 5s – £12.00
- 2 Hour Under 5s – £18.00
I would recommend the 2 hour session to give your kids enough time on everything. Although I wouldn’t recommend coming with kids under 5. The soft play area is fine but it’s not huge, and for £12 or £18 you aren’t getting value for money at all.
Under 5s can go on the trampoline section too if supervised, but realistically they might struggle with some of it. This place is amazing, but it’s best for older kids who can use all of the activities.
Grip socks are compulsory and you need to buy their branded ones which cost £3. This is a right con, but rules are rules. Ours came free with the party, luckily.
At least the parking is free.
Things To Do
When you walk in, you won’t know where to go first, so I will tell you: go straight to the iPad to register your car number plate! This stops you getting a parking ticket and one of the party mums forgot. She was not happy 😬
Sign in, watch the video, put your bits in a locker, then you can start having fun. They run it in sessions, so everyone from the last session is cleared off before letting the new people on.
The kids will all leg it in a million different directions to play, but the parents are allowed on to supervise, so you can keep an eye from there, or from the raised seating area next to the café. I know which one I prefer!
In terms of activities, there are:
- Trampolines (so many trampolines)
- Leap of faith
- A climbing wall
- Dodgeball area
- Basketball area
- Football area
- Inflatable area
- Skills and challenges
- Soft play
- Arcade games
The trampolines are big, small, horizontal, angled, and everything in between. There are also obstacles in the middle of them to clamber up and over and to jump off.
Speaking of jumping, the leap of faith (I called it that, no idea what it’s actually called) is a 10 foot jump into a massive air filled pillow type thing. There are also some lower platforms next to it, with angled trampolines underneath. The kids jump of the platform, onto the trampoline, then do a trick in the air before landing on the big pillow.
Somersaults were a favourite for us.
The inflatable area is like an assault course, you will lose the kids for ages in there, and the skills and challenges bit had things like a reaction wall where you have to bounce on trampolines and hit buttons as they light up, a tight rope walk over a big pit of sponge squares, some climbing and balancing bits, and a few Gladiators style games.
Honestly, there’s loads. You will run out of energy before you run out of things to do.
Football Area
There were three sections to this, although we weren’t able to use it for some reason. Perhaps due to the party package they chose. Anyway, it’s included in the regular ticket cost.
They had two big interactive X-wall screens which kids can kick balls at to hit targets as part of various games. There was also a robot goalkeeper which was brilliant. I watched it being used. Someone takes a shot and the machine dives to stop the ball. It’s alarmingly accurate. The robots really could defeat us if they wanted to 😂🤖
Then there was an inflatable 5 a side pitch which looks hilarious, an ICON football ring for quick passing and a speed goal challenge. Staff were on hand to help with these.
The Kick Cafe
There is nothing remarkable about the café, really. Certainly not the coffee – they didn’t even have decaf 🍵 But they’ve got all the usual stuff, and they sell hot food too if you or your little ones get hungry.
You’ll have to make do with stuff like hot dogs, pizza and chicken nuggets though. There are no healthy options here.
That’s alright though, we come to these places for a treat, right?
The Staff
As is so often the case, the staff at Kick Air feel like a bunch of teenagers, but I have to say they were all very helpful, and very professional.
They are pretty tight on the rules too, which was good to see. If two people were jumping off a one person only jumping bit, for example, they were all over it. And they were pretty hot on wrist band checking too.
I like this, it helps me to trust that the place takes safety seriously.
Some areas have staff positioned on them to help the kids (like with the leap of faith) and other staff are free roaming. It’s a good mix, and makes it really easy to find someone if you need them.
Overall, I was thoroughly impressed. Which makes me sound about 55 doesn’t it, but what can I say? I’m a Mum who takes fun seriously.
So if you want somewhere fun for the kids that feels like a bit of a treat, Kick Air should definitely be on your list.