Schools break up on Friday 23 October. Tynemouth Park's pumpkin trail runs all nine days from £15, and the Phantom Flyer ghost train is 31 October from £7.

North Tyneside schools break up on Friday 23 October 2026 and go back on Monday 2 November, which the council’s 2026 to 2027 term dates set out in those words. Its own calendar puts the holiday itself at Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November, nine days.

Half term ends the day the borough’s fireworks are fired, which is the single most useful thing to know when planning it.

Three things in the area are already booked, dated and priced. Everything else is still to come.

Tynemouth Park pumpkin trail, all nine days

The Halloween Maze Pumpkin Trail at Tynemouth Park, Grand Parade, NE30 4JL, runs Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October, covering the whole holiday bar the Sunday it ends.

  • Times: 9.30am to 4.30pm, with entry slots every 30 minutes
  • Child: £17.50, or £15 early bird on 24 and 25 October only
  • Adult: £2.50, paid on the door
  • Under ones: free with a paying child
  • Booking: children’s tickets must be bought online in advance

The park’s own description of what the child ticket covers: a pumpkin trail through the maze, a meet and greet with “spooky special guests” and photographs, pick your own pumpkin from the patch, a trick or treat goodie bag, and an ice cream with optional “vampire blood”.

Note the pricing shape. Adults pay almost nothing, children pay everything, so a parent with two children is £35 before the door charge. The early bird only exists on the opening weekend.

The Phantom Flyer, Saturday 31 October, from £7

The Stephenson Steam Railway on Middle Engine Lane, North Shields, NE29 8DX, runs the Phantom Flyer on Halloween itself.

  • Trains: 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3pm
  • Price: from £7
  • Included: ghost train rides plus entertainment from the theatre group The Moss Troopers
  • Costumes: the railway asks you to “don your best costume”
  • Booking: pre-booking recommended, through TicketSource

Four trains at £7 is the cheapest organised Halloween event in the borough by a wide margin, and it will go. The railway’s carriages cannot take wheelchairs, because the door openings are 55cm, and parking on site is free.

The rest of the railway’s half term

The same railway runs its Autumn Gala on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, the opening weekend of the holiday, with what it calls all available locomotives from the home fleet on a packed timetable of steam and diesel trains. It is organised by the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association. Tickets are not on sale yet: the page says only “tickets released soon”, with no prices.

Heritage train rides also run on Sunday 25 October, the last of the autumn Sundays. Museum open 11am to 4pm, journey about 35 to 40 minutes on a four-mile return trip in 1950s carriages. Adult £11, or £9 without the optional donation. Concessions for over 60s and under 21s £9, or £7 without. Under fives free. Booking required.

Whitley Bay Playhouse: We Will Rock You, 28 to 31 October

The Playhouse has the Whitley Bay Musical Theatre Company’s amateur production of the Queen musical across the second half of the holiday: 7.15pm on Wednesday 28, Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October, then 2.15pm and 7.15pm on Saturday 31 October. The matinee is the only daytime performance of the run. Prices are not published on the listing; booking goes through AXS and a fee applies. Under 14s must be with an adult.

Tynemouth Park also has a Los Capitanes Halloween party night on 31 October, which is an adult evening event, not a family one.

Then the fireworks, on the last day

The North Tyneside fireworks display is on The Links on Sunday 1 November, free, rides from 6pm and the display at 7pm. It is the final night of half term, four days before bonfire night itself. Anyone working back from 5 November will miss it.

What has not been announced

  • Segedunum Roman Fort and the museums service have published nothing for the October holiday beyond the Following the Eagle exhibition, which closes on 3 October.
  • Autumn Gala prices, still to come from the steam railway.
  • Half-term activity programmes from the council’s leisure centres and libraries, which usually appear about a fortnight out.

Seafront parking charges apply 9am to 6pm, so everything on this page except the fireworks and the evening performances falls inside them. Tariffs are on our parking page, and any closures will show on our roadworks and travel page.