With the summer holidays now in full swing, here’s our pick of splendid British adventures that are best enjoyed with kids in tow.
All illustrations: Tom Morgan-Jones
Most kids are naturals when it comes to adventure. They love scrambling up rocky things, shooting down steep things, exploring exciting things and generally rushing in where adults fear to tread. Plus they have a pretty relaxed attitude to getting wet and muddy (sometimes a little too much so). Okay, you might not want to drag a 7-year-old up Everest, but Britain is heaving with bite-sized adventures that are genuinely brilliant for all the family. Free yourself from the soul-wrecking round of soft play and play parks this summer to take on one (or more) of these Great British adventures.
Boating
It’s only really a good boating trip if somebody falls in. For that reason alone, boating is clearly best enjoyed with kids. Other grounds for making this a family adventure: help (probably briefly) with the rowing, interaction* with fellow river-goers, general hilarity when someone steers the boat into the riverbank, massive smiles all round. Also an excuse to wear an eye patch and shout ‘aaargh’ a lot.
* splashing, ramming, exchange of piratical insults.
Where: The Broads (Norfolk), Barcombe Mills (East Sussex), Loch Lomond (Stirlingshire), Lake District (Cumbria).
Caving
Britain is a lot bigger than you think – and that’s because a lot of it is underground. Exploring the cool (in both senses), echoey passageways of the British underworld is an adventure that everyone in the family will dig. As well as smirking over some truly excellent cave names (Smoo, Gaping Gill, Giant’s Hole, Ogof Ffynnon Ddu… try saying that with a mouthful of Welsh rarebit), you’ll also get to abseil into great big caverns, splash through underground waterfalls and argue over the whole confusing stalactite / stalagmite conundrum. And also, importantly, wear a hat with its own little light.
Where: Search for a petrified witch in Wookey Hole (Somerset), navigate the maze of tunnels at Porth yr Ogof (South Wales), abseil down into Alum Pot (Yorkshire Dales) or take a boat trip to Fingal’s Cave (Staffa, Inner Hebrides). All, of course, with a qualified guide.
Welly walks
Not the quick-marching, peak-bagging, ploughing-on-regardless-of-the-bloody-awful-weather kind of walk. Best leave the kids at home for those ones. No, welly walks are all about puddle jumping, pond dipping, paddling, stepping stones and extra snack stops. Call them quests, expeditions, treasure hunts or adventures (mention the actual word ‘walk’ at your peril) – kids love ‘em, and so do their grown-ups.
Where: Multiple marvellous locations dotted around our Map of Wonders, but for a small, geographically diverse selection: Burn O’Vat (Aberdeenshire), Brecon Beacons Four Falls Trail (South Wales), Lud’s Church (Peak District) and Box Hill Stepping Stones Trail (Surrey).
Monster hunting
It’s not just Nessie. Britain has more monsters than a Doctor Who box set (see here for a beginners’ guide). If you secretly fancy the thought of a monster-hunting holiday but worry it doesn’t quite fit with the whole… well… ‘being a grown-up’ thing, there’s an obvious solution. Blame the kids. They’ll be more than happy to spend hours strafing a Scottish lochside for kelpies or tracking werewolves along lonely forest paths.
Where: Every corner of Britain has its own fantastical beasts. Try Loch Ness or Loch Morar for lake monsters, the Northern Isles of Scotland for selkies, any Welsh or Cornish mining landscape for knockers, and Lancashire and Yorkshire for boggarts. More monster-spotting sites on our Great British Folklore & Superstition Map.
Wildlife watching
Killer whales, otters, puffins, reindeer – you won’t believe the critters you can find roaming wild around Britain. Kids make surprisingly good wildlife-spotting companions. Okay, so they might drop the binoculars in the mud and eat the cornflakes you were saving to attract that rare white-throated sparrow. On the other hand, they’re as happy hunting snails as they are killer whales, and they can be relied upon to be decently enthusiastic about even the most fleeting sighting.
Where: Farne Islands (Northumberland) for puffins, Moray Firth (Highland) for dolphins, Shetland for wales, Land’s End (Cornwall) for basking sharks, Minsmere (Suffolk) for birds, Bosherston Lakes (Pembrokeshire) for otters.
Beaches worth walking to
Britain has hundreds of world-class beaches, from the one that starred in a Thai tourism brochure to the one with its own sunken forest. The more accessible tend to fill up quickly in hot weather with beach towels and lobster-tinged sunbathers. Which is why it’s way more fun to go in search of a stupendous strip of sand that you can (pretty much) call your own. Truly secluded beaches are often a decent walk or cycle away from the nearest car park – but that doesn’t mean they’re off-limits to families. Stock up on snacks, check out our welly walk tips (above), and you’ll coast your way to a splendid family adventure.
Where: Beaches worth walking to include Sandwood Bay (Sutherland), Soar Mill Cove (Devon), Man O’War Beach (Dorset) and Traeth Beach (Ceredigion).
