October half term runs Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026 in Kent. What is open that week, what a family day out costs, and the free options.

October half term in Sevenoaks falls from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October in 2026, with Kent schools breaking up after Friday 23 October and going back on Monday 2 November (Kent County Council). That gives you nine days including both weekends, and one of the more awkward weeks of the year to plan, because the clocks go back on Sunday 25 October and half the local attractions shut their season a few days later.

This is a practical guide rather than a list: the confirmed dates, what closes when, which places are free, and what to do when it rains. Every price and opening time here comes from the venue’s own website.

Kent school term dates for October 2026

Kent County Council’s determined dates for 2026-27 put Term 1 from Tuesday 1 September to Friday 23 October 2026, the holiday from Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October, and Term 2 starting Monday 2 November (Kent County Council).

Those dates bind local authority maintained schools. Academies and independent schools set their own, and in Sevenoaks the gap is much wider than a day. Knole Academy, Trinity School, Weald of Kent Grammar School and Sevenoaks School all end Term 1 on Friday 16 October and none reopens to pupils before 2 November, so their families get a two-week break rather than one. Sevenoaks Primary School stays closer to the county: Term 1 ends Thursday 22 October and Friday 23 October is a staff development day (Sevenoaks Primary School). Our Kent school term dates page sets out all six, school by school. Check your own school’s calendar before booking anything that costs money.

Date strip for October half term 2026 in Sevenoaks: schools break up 23 October, clocks go back 25 October, half term 26 to 30 October, Halloween 31 October, garden seasons end 1 November and school returns 2 November
The half term week and the two catches either side of it: the clocks change the day before it starts, and the garden seasons end the day after it finishes.

What is on and what it costs

October half term options near Sevenoaks, with cost and opening, drawn from the sections below
PlaceCostOpen in half termBest for
Knole ParkFree on footDaily, dawn to duskDeer, running about, no planning
Sevenoaks Wildlife ReserveFree, parking £2.50 to £3.50Daily, dawn to duskPlay park, hides, cafe
Hever CastleFrom £19.95 adult onlineDaily to 1 NovA whole day, Halloween trail included
Riverhill Gardens£14 adult, £7.50 childWed to Sun onlyPumpkin festival, half a day
Godstone Farm£19.95 from age twoDaily, 10am to 4.45pmWet weather, under 8s, Halloween included
Bedgebury ForestFree entry, paid parkingDaily from 8amBikes, Go Ape, long walks

The single most useful thing to know is that Riverhill is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, which are exactly the days most families are looking for something to do (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens).

The free days out

Knole Park is the obvious one and still the best. Pedestrians walk into the 1,000-acre medieval deer park free of charge, without booking, dawn to dusk, and the fallow and sika herd roams loose across it (National Trust). You only pay to go inside the house or to use the car park, so walking up from the town centre costs nothing at all. If the weather turns, the showrooms open 11am to 4pm, with an outdoor and tower ticket at £6 for an adult and £3 for a child, or £19 and £9.50 for the ticket that includes the showrooms (National Trust). One caveat for half term: twelve giant Gruffalo sculptures are up in the parkland until Sunday 1 November, and the free walk-in does not cover them. The Trust counts the trail as part of normal admission, so the minimum is an Outdoor and Tower ticket per person, pre-booked (National Trust). The deer, the walks and the views stay free. Our Gruffalo trail at Knole Park guide has the prices and the access detail.

Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve on Bradbourne Vale Road is free to enter, open daily dawn to dusk, and has bird hides, five lakes and a new play park following the £2.1 million refurbishment of the Jeffery Harrison Visitor Centre in March 2026. You pay only for parking, at £2.50 on weekdays and £3.50 at weekends, card only, and the visitor centre opens 10am to 4pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm at weekends (Kent Wildlife Trust).

Two Kent country parks are worth the short drive. Lullingstone Country Park at Eynsford, postcode DA4 0JF, has a Discovery Trail with a zip wire, over 300 veteran trees and a visitor centre with a cafe, and it runs activity trails during school holidays (Explore Kent). Trosley Country Park near Vigo, DA13 0SG, has three waymarked routes including a yellow easy-access trail suitable for buggies and wheelchairs, plus the Bluebell Cafe. Both open 9am to dusk (Explore Kent).

The bigger paid days out

Hever Castle is the strongest single option this half term because its Halloween Half Term Fun runs 17 October to 1 November 2026 and is included with normal admission (Hever Castle). The programme was still unnamed in August and is now published: the theme is Spooktacular Science, with a Mad Scientists trail round the grounds collecting hidden letters, a goggle-making craft in the Garden Exhibition from 11am to 4pm, and Dr Frankenstein’s Science Adventure Show at the Think Tank at 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3pm. Activities run 10.30am to 4.30pm and the trails shut at 4pm. Face painting is the only extra, at £6 a child, first come first served through the Courtyard Shop, and it runs on 17 and 18, 22 to 25 and 29 to 31 October only (Hever Castle). Booked online for the 2 September to 19 November period, a Gardens Only ticket is £19.95 for an adult and £12.50 for a child aged 5 to 17, or £54.65 for a family of two adults and up to three children. Castle and Gardens costs £25.50, £14.05 and £66.60, and both cost more bought at the gate (Hever Castle). With 125 acres, a yew maze, water maze, playgrounds and the lake walk, it is one of the few places near Sevenoaks that genuinely fills a whole day with young children.

Leeds Castle runs its Halloween event from 17 October to 1 November 2026 (moved forward a week from the 24 October start it first listed), also included with admission, though in early September the castle was still saying that plans were being finalised and would be announced later in the year (Leeds Castle). It is about forty minutes away on the M26 and M20.

Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, two miles from the town centre, holds its Pumpkin Festival as the season finale, and the 2026 dates now run right through half term: 17 October to 1 November, 10am to 4pm, with a pumpkin hunt and a carving grotto and no booking needed (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens). Admission is £14 for an adult, £7.50 for a child aged four and over and £39 for a family, and the gardens open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, cashless (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens). Those closed days take Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 October out of the half-term week, so plan for the Wednesday onwards.

Lullingstone Castle at Eynsford closes its twenty-first season with Halloween Magic on Saturday 31 October, 11am to 6pm, with pumpkin carving, a pumpkin trail, torchlit garden tours and a live-animal session. Adults pay £13.50, under 16s go free, and there is no pre-booking (Lullingstone Castle). Our Lullingstone Castle and World Garden guide covers the estate, the free Roman villa next door and the country park, and our Halloween events guide has the full picture on all of these.

When it rains

It will, at some point in the week. Three answers.

Godstone Farm, about twenty-five minutes west on the A25, has over 500 animals, what it calls Surrey’s largest indoor soft play, an outdoor adventure playground and a dinosaur discovery trail. It opens 10am to 4.45pm with free parking, at Tilburstow Hill Road, Godstone, RH9 8LX. Its Halloween programme covers the whole break, 17 October to 1 November, and needs no separate ticket: a mystery trail with prizes, a daily craft session, reptiles and creepy crawlies, and the farm’s dinosaur character. Admission is £19.95 for an adult and for any child aged two or over, £9.95 at age one, free under one and free for carers, with pumpkins to carve at £5 and marshmallows to toast at £3.50 bought on the day (Godstone Farm). For nearer options, see our guide to soft play near Sevenoaks.

The Stag on London Road is the town’s own answer: a not-for-profit community arts centre with two cinema screens, a 451-seat theatre and a studio, running current-release films alongside live shows (Ents24). Check the week’s listings for what is on, because the holiday programme goes up close to the date. It is a five-minute walk from the High Street.

Knole’s showrooms are the cheap indoor option if you are already walking in the park, at £19 for an adult including the outdoor and tower ticket (National Trust).

The fireworks night that opens the break

The same farm runs a Mini Fireworks Festival on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October 2026, the first weekend of the holiday, gates from 4.30pm and the display at about 7pm. It is sold as a sensory-friendly, low-bangs show with lasers rather than bangs, with stilt walkers, fire performers and a children’s disco around it, and the ticket buys after-hours use of the indoor soft play and the outdoor play areas. It costs £17.95 for an adult and for a child aged two or over, £13.95 under two, free under one and free for carers, and numbers are capped, so it is pre-book only (Godstone Farm).

What it means for you: it is a week before the first of the local bonfire nights, Tonbridge on 1 November, and the low-noise format is the one to pick for a child who found last year’s display too loud. Our fireworks displays near Sevenoaks page has the November dates.

Two dates that catch people out

The clocks go back on Sunday 25 October 2026, the day before half term starts, so from the Monday onwards it is dark by about half past four and afternoon plans need to start earlier than you think.

Venues adjust accordingly. Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest at Goudhurst, TN17 2SJ, is open daily from 8am, but its closing time drops from 8pm to 5pm on 27 October 2026, right in the middle of the week. Go Ape runs 10am to 2pm and the cafe until 4pm on weekdays and 5pm at weekends (Forestry England).

Most garden seasons end around 1 November. Riverhill treats its Pumpkin Festival as the season finale, Hever’s Autumn Colour ends on 1 November and Lullingstone’s World Garden closes on 31 October (Hever Castle; Lullingstone Castle). Half term really is the last chance at these until spring.

Free holiday clubs do not run in October

Worth knowing before you go looking. Kent’s Holiday Activities and Food programme pays for free holiday clubs, with a healthy meal, for children aged 4 to 16 on benefits-related free school meals, but the council’s own wording is that it offers those places “in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays”, so there is no HAF provision at October half term (Kent County Council). The next window is Christmas.

Two things to know for when it does run. Places are for children from Reception to Year 11 who get benefit-related free school meals, and children on universal infant free school meals are not eligible, which catches out a lot of families with a child in Reception to Year 2. And you cannot simply turn up: you request a place through the link in the HAF e-voucher your child’s school sends you, or email kenthaf@kent.gov.uk if the school cannot help (Kent County Council).

For this half term, the free options are the ones at the top of this page: Knole Park, Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, and the two country parks.

If you want to build the week out further, the pumpkin picking guide covers the Kent farms and their booking rules, family walks near Sevenoaks has the routes that work with small legs, our year-round guide to things to do with kids in Sevenoaks has the indoor and wet-weather options for the other school holidays, and things to do in Sevenoaks covers the rest of the year.

Frequently asked questions

When is October half term 2026 in Kent? Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October 2026 under Kent County Council’s determined dates, with Term 1 finishing on Friday 23 October and Term 2 starting on Monday 2 November (Kent County Council). Knole Academy, Trinity School, Weald of Kent Grammar School and Sevenoaks School all break a week earlier, on Friday 16 October, so their pupils get a fortnight. See the Kent school term dates page.

What can you do in Sevenoaks in half term for free? Walk into Knole Park, which is free on foot and open dawn to dusk with a wild deer herd (National Trust), or go to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, which is free to enter with a new play park and only charges for parking (Kent Wildlife Trust). Lullingstone and Trosley country parks are also free to walk in.

What is open near Sevenoaks on the Monday and Tuesday of half term? Knole Park, Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, both country parks, Bedgebury and Godstone Farm all open daily, and Hever’s Halloween run covers 17 October to 1 November without a break. Riverhill Himalayan Gardens is the exception, closed Mondays and Tuesdays throughout its season (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens).

What is there to do with toddlers in October half term? Godstone Farm covers indoor soft play and animals in one ticket (Godstone Farm), and Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve has the play park, cafe and flat paths with no admission charge (Kent Wildlife Trust). Lullingstone Castle’s Halloween day on 31 October is free for under 16s (Lullingstone Castle).

Is there a free holiday club in Sevenoaks at half term? Not through the county scheme. Kent’s Holiday Activities and Food programme funds free places, with a meal, for children on benefits-related free school meals, but only in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays, so October half term is not covered and the next window is Christmas (Kent County Council). Children on universal infant free school meals are not eligible even when it does run.

Do I need to book half term activities in advance? Book online for Hever, Leeds Castle and Godstone Farm, all of which price online tickets below the gate price (Hever Castle; Leeds Castle). Godstone Farm’s fireworks nights on 24 and 25 October are pre-book only and capped (Godstone Farm). Riverhill and Lullingstone Castle take no bookings at all (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens; Lullingstone Castle), and the parks and reserves need nothing.

How much does a half term day out near Sevenoaks cost? Anywhere from nothing to about £55 for a family. Knole Park and the reserves cost only parking. Riverhill is £39 for a family ticket. Hever is £54.65 for a family Gardens Only ticket booked online, which buys the largest single site and includes the Halloween programme (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens; Hever Castle).

Sources

Dates, prices and opening times were re-checked against each venue’s own website on 8 September 2026. Hever’s programme is now published in full; Leeds Castle’s is not, and the Stag had loaded no half-term film listings yet, so check those two again in October.