Beamish, the Living Museum of the North in County Durham

Great day out. Well worth the ticket price

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Beamish Museum. So much to see and do. 1950s town really good now cinema there. Especially when you have such a glorious day weather wise. Only downside was when paying our admission. We were not asked if we wanted to Gift Aid or not. It wasn't till I looked at my receipt in tearooms that I found I had Gift Aided. Thought the admission staff would ask that question not finding out by looking at receipt.

Loved it despite the rainy weather today. Will definitely be back again when it's drier. Lots to see, enjoyed the school, church, the pit tour, the farm and visiting the shops and different houses. Had to try the coal ice cream! Who knew only the male canaries chirped?!

Great day out and actors were interesting and knowledgeable. Fish and Chips at Pit Village area are fantastic. Cinema at The Grand was also fun!

Fantastic day out, steeped in history

This place is really amazing. Spend the whole day there, a surprise around every corner. Slight negative, 10 am opening time is too late and 5 pm closing is too late, especially in summer.

Great day out for the whole family

Wonderful place with living history of England. We enjoyed the 1900s section and the mining area. The people staffing the exhibits were particularly well versed and informative.

An excellent day out in this expanding museum. We loved the new 1950's area.

Loads of new places to see here, with all the recent additions

Amazing place,bit busy as last week of school holidays,but had a great time going back in time

Always a great day out , it's huge too but there are trams and buses doing a circular route

Great day out, lots to see and helpful staff. Although vintage buses and trams run on a continous loop the queues are exceptionally long and with no room aboard therefore not for faint hearted as quite a lot of walking required.

An amazing day out with the children with so many areas of interest for them and the adults alike. There is so much to see, and do I know that we did not see everything in one day.

Very busy because it was a lovely day and schools were on holiday but still a wonderful place to visit

What a great day out walked over 7 miles around it ,plenty to see and do very nostalgic great education for the younger ones

Just a truly fantastic experience. Great day out.

Beamish is an amazing place with plenty of new places to visit. The fish and chips were delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed our day. There was a surprising age range of the visitors and the small children seemed fascinated by it all. Would thoroughly recommend it as a good day out.

Really enjoyed our family day out. 10 years since our last visit and nice to see the addition of the 1950’s town. Plenty to do and see in all the areas. 1820’s village is a bit off the beaten track but worth a few minutes walk.

Enjoyed our visit Beamish is fairly local to us and so good value that we can have unlimited visits for a year. Excellent fish and Chips.

Such a fun day out tickets are valid for 12 months and we will need to return to see the boys that we did not make it round to.

great historical museum, loads of stuff to see and do here for the kids! Staff are all dressed up and in character which is lovely. ride on the bus and tram and visit all the little houses etc. We went in the mine which was really cool! Will visit again as it's so big we didnt visit everything.

Very nice time, just like travelling back in time, lots of old busses and trams from the early 1900s. Could do with being open for longer a day though. There’s a bank you can enter and see the safes and money, early 1900s shops galore, I recommend if you come here you stay at super 8 hotel in Durham as it is 21 minutes away from beamish, and a lot cheaper too with clean rooms. also at beamish there is a pit mine, multiple farms, town, villages and a mine cart bridge you can walk a bit over. I recommend to bring your own food as it is very expensive there. If you insist on buying food there, here are the prices (note: the prices my change soon) Candy. £5 Fish and chips £3-10 (depending on what you get)

Not been for a few years, surprised to see how much has changed since our last visit. Good to see adaptive vehicles for visitors.. just a shame it's not exactly easy to utilise

Great day out lots of walking, recommended buying a friend's of Beamish pass save 10% on things bought in shops, plenty to see animals cinema explore

We love the beamish museum. My kids love the bus and tram. the sausage rolls from the bakery are something we must get when we are there. They were so yummy.

Interesting museum and you certainly get your steps in walking around the place...

As always, a great place for me to keep up my daily exercise routines with an added bonus of plenty to see while doing it.

An immersive experience with friendly, knowledgeable staff and volunteers. Tickets last for a whole year, with a fast track queue if you buy/have them in advance and no restrictions on how long you stay for. A lovely place to wander around with fun and memories across the generations. A simple fireplace sparked a lovely conversation with my dad about his grandma 😊

Spent a wonderful day here yesterday after not visiting for many years, it's fabulous to see such a well thought out and cared for place. The pay once and you can come back anytime during the year is a brilliant idea and we will definitely be back.

Good day out if you like walking and queuing for trams and busses. Don't recommend buying tickets in advance if its your first time as you have to que at the main entrance to get them printed. So not really a advance ticket. Food smelt lovely but wouldn't que for over hour.

This is literally one of the best days out for anyone interested in general local history and exploring. Everything is so perfect and well thought out. You could easily spend 2 whole days and still feel like you could do more. Every part of it is explorable and full of period correct artifacts. There's perfectly preserved Vehicles, homeward, hardware, clothing, you name it they have it. There's tams running around the whole perimeter and buses to get you where you want to go if you don't fancy walking the lot, cafes, bars, stalls, restaurants, vintage fair, play equipment, farm animals, open space everywhere. The facilities are also amazing for the scale of it, you can get to a toilet on any part of the site within a couple of minutes and there are food and drink options across the whole site. And it's all integrated to the museum building which makes the whole experience one of a kind. Will return at any given opportunity we get as there's always something different going on so just doesn't get old.

Brilliant day out. The bakery and chippy are well nice

Absolutely fantastic. Once you buy your tickets, then you can get in for the year, lots to see, great fish n chips.

Great day visiting the newest 50s part. Fantastic addition and now makes it a 2 day trip to get around everything. Perfect when your ticket lasts 12 months! Spectacular value! Ques too big in the sweet shop and bakery so will definitely be back to explore further!

Had a lovely trip to Beamish after some years, was excited to see the 1950's village which really resonated. Disappointed with Romer Parrish, it was nothing like myself or my elder sister remember and the front of the store font wasn't as it should have been. Lots of crowds and endless queues for food but we were savvy and brought packed lunches so were able to actually see more of the museum than most people. We still didn't see it all and will be revisiting because it is a fantastic living museum and well worth a visit.

We came here on 2018 & loved the experience so wanted to see the new part which is 1950/1960. It was so nostalgic seeing things from our childhood.

4 th time of visiting we love it

Great day once we got in. Queued for an hour!

Had a lovely day with my daughter and grandkids loads to see and do all in all just grand

Nice trip, 2nd time this year, good value as you can keep coming back within the year,no extra cost

Amazing place, lots of great nostalgia! Loved it!

We visited today with our two young children. I was so looking forward to coming here, but I left utterly disappointed. The place was absolutely crammed with people, which ruined the experience. They really need to limit the number of people at the museum, but of course they won't do that as they are making far too much money. We took our children to the fairground area. On top of the £55.90 entry fee, we then ended up paying £20 for tokens. It is £2.50 a token, so it cost us £5 for 1 ride, just so both of them could go on. We queued for around 40 minutes to get fish and chips and we never got to look in the sweet shop, bakery etc because we'd of been queueing yet again! Beamish is a huge musuem with so much to see, but despite arriving at 12 and leaving at 5, we hardly got to see anything! I wish we hadn't wasted 2 hour's driving there to be honest. I'm unsure if we'll return.

Great place to go love it..the grandchildren love it too

Good place to visit and see all the old attractions, the old trams, old buses, shops etc.

Huge queues for everything including down the road to the entrance, after parking we then had to queue for tickets they said we could buy online but no mobile data and their guest WiFi doesn't work properly so couldn't. Only annual tickets available rather than daily tickets (at time of review this was £61 for a family of 2 adults and 1 child). Even once you are in there are so many people you're crammed into everywhere, felt trapped when doing the house tours as people kept piling in and not letting people out. Food from the tearooms was very good but basic fare. Again, huge queues for everything and very inefficient use of staff. They should limit admission numbers as the huge queues ruin the experience. I suggest the managers go to places who know how to manage large visitor numbers like Legoland or Disneyland.

Great day out at Beamish. Best day out I've have had in a long time. Unfortunately it's hard to get round it all in one day but all the more reason to plan a return visit.

Great day out and with the new additions kept us busy all day

Excellent visit here. We took two days to visit it all. Transport one day and living area another day. It's around £30 pet adult ti visit and tickets are free for a year. There was a small vintage fair on the grounds, and I was surprised to see it was charging to go on the rides. Also, some staff had sour faces, I know there's lots of people to talk too but it is their job, and we just moved on quickly instead of taking our time.

To busy lots of very long queues and a bit over grown, no info on what things were, tram was good.

Always love a visit to the museum. The pass lasts a whole year which is great as the museum is tough to do in one day. Plenty places to eat or take a picnic and lots to keep everyone entertained and educated. The new 1950s section is fab. Highly recommend.

Absolutely brilliant, need good footwear tho as long walks

Absolutely brilliant time. And seeing the new 1950s village

A wonderful trip down memory lane. A must for young and old.

Brilliant day out for everyone. We visited today and had a blast. We had our hair styled at the 1950's village by Emma, she was amazing. She put my hair up into a bow design ad a chug on in my daughters hair - hair needs to be past shoulder length at a minimum for a style - you MUST book in early in the day to get a slot it cost us £5 per slot. Crazy golf is available at £2.50 per person, honestly great value for money, it only has 9 holes but my goodness they're difficult holes! We loved the new park and watched our daughter play from a traditional deckchair and had a mooch through the new houses. The cinema is amazing and there is a record shop attatched to the upstairs. All the shops here are fabulous, John's cafe, the fish and chips are great value, the toy shop is worth a visit for the displays around the walls(you can buy traditional troys from here) and the milkbad sells teas, coffees, hot chocolates etc. We took part in a fantastic Beamish Cluedo game in the 1900's village looking through the areas for weapons and characters (get the answer correct and you get a lovely certificate!). Tram queues weren't too bad at all, I think the longest we waited in a line was about 15 mins when the tram at the station was full and we had to wait for the next one. The school has the hoops back and the rooms are amazing to look through and we finally ended at the pit where we had a great guide who took us down onto the pit and told us the information and was able to answer questions if anyone had any, also the deep pit was an I teresri g visit and the engager there was also incredibly knowledgeable. All in all a fantastic day out, every single member of staff we spoke to was helpful, knowledgeable, ans had time to speak to you. I could not reccoment this place highly enough. We spent all day here from 10am until 4.30 and we still haven't seen everything so I'm rally happy that the entry fee is a whole year's access. Thank you to everyone today for a wonderful day

As usual, it is a perfect place to spend the day! Perfect t atmosphere, perfect food, and amazing day out learning about past in real time. The new 1950s village was really well done. we must go back and visit the parts we didn't get to see.

So much to see! The whole family enjoyed it. Our two daughters 11 and 13 yo absolutely loved it. We went twice during our week away and are planning another weekend away just so that we can see some more.

Queued to get into the car park, queued to buy a ticket (over an hour), the pre-booked ticket queue was not moving significantly faster. Had to sell a kidney to afford the entry fee (£49.20 for one adult and one age concession adult) they kept telling us that the tickets were valid for 'a whole year' which was just to make us less ripped off as most of the people in the queue were on holiday and I won't be driving for 3 hours each way for a return visit and I don't think the lady from Spain who was in the queue in front of us will be returning either. Once inside they have a captive audience and charge for food and drink accordingly. Be aware that it is not dog friendly, it is dog tolerant and had I known that I would have found a local doggy daycare and not taken the dog, just so you know, they aren't allowed in the buildings. There's a fairground and you need a token to go on the rides (helter-skelter, hook a duck etc) and a token costs £2.50, so if you had 3 children it would cost you £7.50 on top of your extortionate entry fee for them to go on one ride. In short, if you want to go, take a picnic, leave your dog with someone else and remortgage your house. I have never felt so ripped off in my (very long) life!

Great glimpse of the past, cost is annual pass so good if planning to return, holds events, good day out, plenty of picnic places if the weather is nice

Was a brilliant day pay once and you can go as many times as you like for a year! Absolutely amazing lots of things to do no matter the age, my little boy loved all the trams busses, trains we even went back the next day as we didn't get to see everything in one day! Would definitely recommend

Fabulous working museum. So much to see and do here. Well worth a visit. Every day is busy so says it all !

Great place to visit. You really would need to go over 2 days to see it all though.

Absolutely love this place. Will be definitely going AGAIN.

What a great place. Got 25% off admission price as traveled by bus (see bus website for details) Really good value for money due to the size of it, and it took us 2 days to do it properly. The ticket you buy lasts you all year which is a great idea. Gift shop good, and enjoyed the pint in the pub and the items from the bakery. Loved the place

Enjoyed looking around the new 1950's village, the cinema is now open.

Excellent open air museum brings history of North East England to life of 1820’s village 1900’s Town, 1900’sPit Village, 1940s Farm, 1950s Town and 1950s Spain’s Field Farm exhibit areas.

Overall good experience walking about as well as riding old vehicle. The place was clean and theres so much to see and do. PS. Get the fish and chips it was one of the best I had.

The staff are fantastic at engaging with visitors and including them in a live museum exhibition. Lot's to see of history

A must do if you are near Newcastle!! A living museum that more than lives up to its name 😀!! Everything is reproduced with care, the scenes of life from the eras covered are impressively realistic!! I highly recommend this place!!

Excellent museum. A good day out for the whole family. Well worth a visit. Food on site is excellent too. Could do to put more busses on on busy days tho. Would recommend buying tickets online too.

What a wonderful place!! Absolutely everything is so well thought out. The staff are fantastic, the whole experience is wonderful. You can't do it all in a day. Prices aren't too crazy either.

Was a good day out very informative easy to get to can use the ticket to visit for one year so value for money

Great experience but you need your walking legs on even though transport is provided there is still alot of walking.

Amazing place loved every second

Was good for the kids. Would highly recommend preparing for a long day of walking. You cannot see everything in one day so a re visit is needed but with the unlimited pass that’s no issue.

Magnificent in every way! Each visit is an experience in itself that feels like unlocking a different era. Worth the journey and every penny.

Great museum too much too see all in one day, would 100% go back again really really well done. I would recommend to go weekdays as weekends it’s mega packed. Also buy your tickets online the queue for buying tickets on the day was 1:30 hours…

Have been visiting Beamish since I was a child. It brings back so many happy memories. I love the new 1950s exhibits, went this time with my mam and she enjoyed herself very much. I'd recommend it to everyone.

Was last there 20 years ago, went as a family including Grandkids today, it's changed quite a bit (for the better) Highly educational for our grandson an experience he won't forget. Brings back many memories of old, a nostalgic trip back in time. Overall it's very good the sweet shop in town was chocker block as was the coal mine but that was simply the demand at the time. We will need to go back as 5 hours was not long enough to take it all in. Keep up the good work - A Cracking Day Out

Need several visits to see it all;

Plenty to see and do full day out

Wonderful museum. Lots to do, experiences to have and the guides were very knowledgeable.

There's nowhere like it! Only one quibble - the staff on entry were absolutely swamped - they needed at least five more people working to get people in. Entry took more than forty five minutes. Buy your tickets in advance! Once you're in though - easy to get round, loads to see, lots of stuff for the kids to do. Best value in the place is the ice creams - not cheap, but you get MASSIVE scoops, even for a single cone.

Absolutely beautiful place . A must see . . So good to see how we used to live .. we had fish and chips, ice creams and visited the fair , shops etc , not enough time to see everything in one day so it's worth booking another visit which is good as you get an unlimited pass for a year 😀

Fantastic day out with grandkids a step into the past live the new 50s street and houses

Fantastic visit, rather than exhibits being in cases and behind glass, you can get up close and see items in situ. Loved the almost seeing life as it was aspect of the museum. Vintage buses and trams that are still on service, people in period clothes and being able to wander around shops and homes as they were in their day.

Superb museum, very educational

Amazing day out. Great to see new additions often places like this can be dated and see little investment. 12 month return ticket makes for good value for money. Definitely missing a trick not having period correct cars in the 1950 town.

We love Beamish, it's constantly growing and adding new additions. It was fantastic to see the new cinema this week and the whole are opened up. Dab and chips in need dripping from Davy's is always a must for us and a trip to the old sweet shop.

Kids didn't like it be me and my father in law did hahahaa

Great day, lots to see and do now with a good walk through from the Victorian town to the 1950s section with a cinema. Huge place so much to see and do, highly recommend.

Second visit after buying season ticket which makes it excellent value . Very little queuing when ticket is pre bought , long queue if you don’t ! Loads to do , staff excellent and give lots of information at appropriate level . Lovely to be able to travel on vintage motor vehicles , would love to see some horse drawn vehicles as well in the 1913 town although I know that would mean extra clearing up! The only comment I would make is at the end of the day maybe the buses and trams could come more frequently to get back to the car parks which are also very good. The way we are doing it is ideal as it’s easy to spend plenty of time at each section . We will be back 👋😊

Excellent day out. Enjoyed everything about it. Would have liked one or two more signs of explanation about what things are or how they got to be at Beamish.

Interesting history, plenty of transport to get you around the site, new 1950s arew has plenty of seating areas. Hood interactive activities

Far too many people allowed in one day. Had to queue for 40 minutes to buy a ticket then no chance of getting on a vehicle with a 2 year old. Most people spent more time queuing than doing. It was easier to walk than wait for a bus or tram. The food on the restaurant was good but then being charged £10.50 for two cups of tea and two flapjack bars is excessive The 40’s farm was the nicest part of the day but overall a very disappointing experience

Brilliant day, really enjoyed the whole experience

Brilliant experience. Better to buy tickets in advance to save queueing.

First visit, this was during school holidays, probably much quieter outside of busy times. We travelled here in our campervan. Parking is free, there's lots of it, no height restriction, and you're directed to the correct area. Advise booking tickets online, there's a separate, considerably shorter queue for entry for those that have. Wear sensible shoes, the area is large, and although there are buses and trams a plenty to take you from part to another, at busy times (school hols) the queues are long, in addition to much of the ground veing uneven and some hills. There are plenty of toilets at each site. We relied on food at the venues, which was very limited by way of choice. Hot sausage rolls, cheese and onion pasty, cake. There is one site which does fish and chips, but we had moved on by then. If we come back we would bring out own. Plenty of places outside to sit, but limited when weather turns. The whole place is very interesting, the people working there are very knowledgeable and are what make the place come alive. A great place e to visit, lots of land for the kids to run around and lots of water bowls down for dogs unfortunate enough to be dragged around.

What an absolutely brilliant day out. We enjoyed the experience so much we will never forget it. Everyone visiting the area this experience is a must to see what life was like through the ages. You won't be disappointed - go see it for yourselves. Loved going down the coal mine - thank you to the guide who explained everything so well about life there. Loved the tram transport taking you around. Loved the shops taking you back in time. Loved the cottages showing you how life was back then. Was too late for the dress up photograph would have loved so much to have done that, also the "hairdresser" missed that too where you can have your hair put up like olden days. But there's the added bonus where your ticket lets you in for a whole year free of charge

I haven't been here for over 20 years and it still holds the magic of Ye Old Britain for me. From the 1900's town with Masonic Lodge, Bank, Co-op to the 1950's (which wasn't there last time I visited) with Police House, Cinema and Appliance shop, houses you can walk though entering the time warp of history gone by. Take a walk down the drift mine, but watch your head, ride the tram or bus to town and hit the fun fair, there is not enough time in one day to see all the sights but luckily if you buy a ticket it's a year's return anytime pass. Enjoyed my return, kids loved it and will return again.