A Day Out at 360 Play Basildon

Soft Play is a particular favourite, especially when the weather takes a cold, rainy turn during the British winter times. We have tried out a few different soft play areas, with our own favourite landing at 360 Play Basildon. This area has a bunch of different activities to do, which really does keep the kids busy, while the adults can chill on sofas or at tables, working on their computers. As both of us work from home, half terms and days off of school fit perfectly into the realm of soft play, where everyone can have a good time while getting out of the house.

360 Play Basildon has this entire motto about playing with your children and engaging with them – with all of the buildings and objects being parent friendly as well. You can choose to let your kids run about while waiting at a spot – but the wifi is a bit spotty so it’s hard to completely connect and work. There is also a massive outdoors area, by the looks of things, which include paddle boats, small shops and a sand area, but the weather hasn’t been good enough for those to be open on days when we go.

Soft Play Course

As mentioned, the soft play course is three floors tall, with loads of slides, obstacle courses, ball pits, tall areas, and more, probably. Many of the areas are big enough for adults to stand in, which means you can explore them with your children. The steps are quite far apart and big, so there is a dedicated mini-soft play area for under 3s, which you can bring your little toddler into, if they aren’t confident on their own. Everything inside the soft play structure is well cleaned and presented nicely – there isn’t any holes or anything to get caught in. This giant soft play is one of the main attractions and is really enjoyable.

Bumper Karts

On the bottom floor of this place, there are a bunch of seating areas around a main entrance to the Soft Play and some bumper karts. These cards come in two seated ones and single seated ones. The double seated cars normally are used for smaller kids, so that an adult can go with them and drive, with bigger kids can drive themselves around. These rounds are short (as is the track) but it’s a good and exhilarating time around the track. There are quite a few cars, so waiting in line doesn’t take very long at all.

The Village

360 Play Basildon has a small village on the top floor with a post office, vets office, pizza cafe, stage and more. Each of these buildings have their own props from costumes at the stage to pizzas inside the cafe. Children can pretend, take on jobs and interact with them. Robin has found a liking to a cat costume that always seems to be about the stage, often getting dressed up before playing in the soft play area. These costumes have seen better days, being the most broken items at Basildon – many of the Velcro to get the items on have long broken, as well as many of the items have some decent holes in them. The kid’s don’t seem to mind though – all of the other props from the various village areas seem to be in good nick.

Sky Scraper Climb and Carousal

One of the coolest parts of 360 Play Basildon is the giant sky scraper climbing wall they have on the top floor. Children get harnessed up before they scale up the sides of these buildings, making it to a button on the top before coming down. Climbing walls are always a pretty interesting and fun exercise, but these looking like buildings instead of rock walls, fits in with the theme well. There is also a large carousal on the top floor, which is quite jaunty. Unlike fair grounds, this doesn’t cost, so kids can go on it again and again.

Messy Play and Sports Wall

360 Play Basildon has a messy play area, which is open at select times, where children can paint and do messy crafts. There is also a sort of sports wall, with table tennis tables, that are sometimes in use. We have not actively gone to messy play and the kids don’t seem that interested in the sports wall, but it’s nice to have these options. We actually missed the messy play by about 10 minutes the last time we showed up – loads of children had made different types of masks which they were playing with inside of the building.

Food and Coffee

The coffee here is quite good, cappuccinos come with a little smiling face. It’s very good that they do serve these drinks. There is also a decent sized menu of basics for children; jacket potatoes, chips, chicken nuggets, etc as well as panini and pastas for adults. It’s an extensive menu, but most things just taste okay – which is about as good as it gets when it comes to having a bit to eat while out all day. There are plenty of other restaurants outside, so planning a dinner is easy and simple!

360 Play Basildon is easily the best soft play area we have ever been too, both because of the cleanliness but also the variety of different activities there are for kids to enjoy. It’s truly a packed day out, with a mix of playing with your children and letting them explore on their own. Some days, especially during peak times, are a bit busy – which is when they do a one in one out policy, which means you could be waiting a bit before you get in, but once the family is in the fun begins.

You can find out more about 360 Play Basildon on their website.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!