The Ark

Soft play with slides and tunnels for the under-10s, plus a café with genuinely decent views over the boating lake — that’s the basic pitch here, and honestly it delivers on both. The pottery painting is a nice touch if you want something a bit more structured than just letting them loose. Fair warning though, you will spend more than you planned; it’s one of those places where the bill creeps up on you. Still, for a rainy Poole afternoon with little ones in tow, you could do a lot worse.