Best UK holidays with teenagers (other than Cornwall)?

[habloingles]

We're planning a 10 day summer holiday with our 2 boys, age 15 and 12. We're defaulting to UK, as we've already had a trip abroad over half term and want to keep costs down. We're also avoiding Cornwall, as my eldest is going there with friends shortly afterwards. As we have 10 days, a 2-destination holiday is a possibility (we live in London).

We've tentatively booked a cottage in Criccieth, Wales, thinking we can do Snowdonia hill-walking and beach activities nearby. That will tick a lot of boxes, provided the weather doesn't let us down, but we're not yet fully committed, mainly because the cottage itself is a bit grim, and we can't find another one available at a reasonable price in the same location.

I'm just after some ideas. Tell me about your most successful UK holidays with teens in tow (other than Cornwall!).

New forest?

Not been there but hear good things.

We usually do very touristy holidays in the UK - so York, London, Stratford Upon Avon and Bath. They’ve all been self-catering, apart from London. Loads to do and see to appeal to teens. The Lake District and Devon have been popular too.

New Forest is awesome.

Biking, purbeck coast, the water park at Poole, coast steering, corfe castle, there is a lake aqua park inflatable thing, brownsea island. So much! Easy to go to Isle of Wight for the day as well.

Pembrokeshire in Wales has fabulous beaches

We were near Criccieth at Easter, its a favourite of ours, My soon is nearly 15.
The weather wasnt great but we werent short of things to do. We had a good day on the Tallyn railway from Tywyn, you can hop on and off for walks. Same with the steam railway from Porthmadog. If you go to Ffestiniogg there are the slate mines and Zipworld.
Loads of castles within easy reach.
We've had great holidays in York and Edinburgh - masses to do and both have beaches not too far away