Rainy day activities for kids in Sussex

Sussex weather has a particular cruelty to it. The sky over the Downs goes from "let's pack a picnic" to "we are not leaving the house" in about forty minutes, and you can usually see it coming from the kitchen window — that line of dark grey rolling in from the Channel, the kind of rain that makes you reconsider whether the back garden trampoline was worth £200. So here's every properly indoor day out across Sussex. Not the kind where the website says "covered play area" and means a bit of plastic sheeting. Real indoor venues — soft plays, museums, swimming centres, indoor adventure spaces — where you can spend three hours and not think about the weather once. Each one is rated by parents, with the sub-scores that actually matter: whether the food is worth eating, whether the under-5s area is genuinely separated from the chaos, whether you can sit with a hot drink while the kids run themselves into the ground. We've flagged which venues are pram-friendly, which let you bring your own food, and which charge £4.50 for a small carton of juice and call it a treat. Click through any venue for the full review and what other Sussex parents have said about going.