Where do you take the kids on a UK holiday?

[Ginevere]

I’m in my third trimester with my first, and have just started musing about holidays. Where do you take kids? Especially small ones? Since becoming an adult I’ve mainly gone abroad, and UK trips have been city breaks or places unsuitable for children. People say ‘Devon and Cornwall’, but where exactly? (I’m south east)

When I cast my mind back, the only childhood holiday I remember is a holiday camp we used to love, but I’ve just looked and it’s shut. That’s the only idea I had aside from centre parks, which seems very expensive. Is that unavoidable with children?

Forgive me if this is all very naive, but I am utterly clueless! Feels like the latest in a long list of things I can’t even imagine happening once the baby arrives.

When they were little my children enjoyed holiday parks - personally not my cup of tea, but they liked the entertainment, swimming pool etc. A little older we started going to Center Parcs , which was better..!

Now both teens, they love activity holidays, probably our best holiday has been to North Wales - so much to do there, and If you don't want to do much you don't have to. The scenery is beautiful!

My child has done a lot of Scottish island holidays and absolutely loves them. Also Northumberland, and we’ve done Devon a couple of times, and Wales once. All coastal.

We have done center parcs, especially before the eldest hit school age so we could go when less expensive during term time. We also really enjoyed north Wales (Anglesey). Holidays with kids are hard to envisage anyway before you have them - your expectations will adjust.

Camping in some UK places. But otherwise, we live in a good area that has plenty of national parks, play area, an a beautiful stretch of coastline, so we dont holiday abroad.

We've always taken our daughter abroad since being 10m old, we've done Tintagel and Swanage with her as cheap last minute UK breaks.

My kids love the haven parks, we have been to perren sands, lake district one and one in weymouth. They also went to butlins with their dad and loved that too.

We have two who are now 6 and 9. Apart from a b&b near my mum (her house is too small) we've stayed in NT properties in Devon and Dorset, an old railway carriage near York, with my aunt in the Scottish borders (took a tent and pitched it in the garden for one night), and London a few times (in a flat or with friends). Loads to do in London for kids and trains were popular too.
They are now old enough not to launch themselves into water so we're going for a canal weekend soon too.

I used to take mine to Norfolk or Devon on self catering by the beach. Or holiday parks like haven. They loved the kids clubs and entertainment. My idea of hell but they loved it.
When they were older all inclusive in Spain or canaries. Lots for them to do while l say by the pool.

Our kids are 9 and 6. Weve always just looked for cottages and booked them. We typically start with "which attraction/castle/beach do we want to visit?" Then look for suitable self catering near it. Load the car with baby stuff, food, wine, a deck of cards and off we go.

Weve done the odd one nighter at caravan sites and its just not for us - dont like the clubhouse, the food is usually overpriced and not tasty, and you still have to drive out and visit places.

At some point we will book something a bit closer to all inclusive etc and no doubt will enjoy not having to cook etc, but we really enjoy cottages and putting the DC to bed and having the evenings somewhere different.

Where

Cornwall has coastal resorts with houses, and campsites are generally on the outskirts. Then there are towns inland (but Cornwalls not that wide so coast is accessible from most of these easily in under an hour too). Devon is similar but the inland towns are further away from the coast as its a squarer county.

How

Self catering holiday lets, B and B, a few hotels, camping, caravan pitches, camp site holiday parks with entertainment (or without).

Extra curricular

A smattering of activities to visit, quite a few NT properties, village walks, boat trips, coastal walks and beaches.

Disadvantages

Less to do if you get a really rainy week. Likely to be heaving this year. Parking can be expensive and difficult in places. Make sure your accommodation has parking for your size vehicle/s.

Farm stay (animals to feed/hold, indoor pool, small soft play and playground on site, local beach). Various caravan parks near a beach, with a pool/splash park. Center Parcs. City break to Glasgow- science centre etc. The best year we just stayed home, took a week off and did some day trips near home! They’re now at school and we can do more interesting and fun holidays without faffing about naps and buggies and purées.

Devon and Cornwall are a long haul from SE, so unless they (and you) like hours travelling, I'd look a bit closer to home. Dorset? Norfolk?

Have you got any grandparents you could take along, to give you a bit of a break, and make it more special for them (children and grandparents)? Otherwise somewhere there might be other children of a similar age, for example where there are several self-catering cottages?

Never been abroad. No kids myself but we always went camping. Literally all over the UK (we live in Midlands tho). Yorkshire, Lake District, Norfolk, Wales (North South and west), Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire (new forest), Kent, London.

My DC love the Bournemouth/ Poole area. Beautiful sandy beaches, castles, farm parks, Monkey World, Tank Museum (better than it sounds), Paultons Park, New Forest, Moors Valley (Forestry commission), a few NT properties, there's a really fun inflatable saltwater pool at Lymington. I'm sad they're growing out of some of those places now.

Not many hotels but plenty of self catering if you book early,

One of the favourite trips we’ve done was four days in Edinburgh. DS declared it best holiday ever!

Check out Hoseseasons website for holiday parks and lodges. Decide if you want somewhere big with entertainment, fun pools and arcades, or somewhere a bit more low key. My kids are 13 and 10 abs we either do tent camping (they make loads of friends so we get a break from entertaining them, or find a holiday cottage complex with shared pool. We live Devon/Cornwall border with in-laws in West Wales so tend to stick to these areas. Had a fab break near Glastonbury last year taking in Bath, Wells and Cheddar. My two always loved the beach best as little ones.

Just to add UK breaks with little ones can be exhausting but brilliant fun. Make the most of the cheap accommodation prices before school starts.

We have one DS8. We’ve only been abroad once so had lots of uk holidays.
We’ve done holiday cottages in north Devon - woolacomb, south Devon - Dartmouth, Scotland - Ben Nevis, Wales - Carmarthenshire, Lake District.

We’ve also had camping holidays in Oxfordshire, cotswolds and Norfolk.

Activity wise (these will change as your child gets older and develops interests) we’ve done lots of farms, zoos, beach, walks, train rides, boat rides, kayaking, river paddling, nation trust properties, museums, we’ve also done some of the more touristy stuff in these places like in Norfolk we went to Bewilderwood which was fun and we went dolphin spotting.

We love a uk holiday.

I've had .lovely holidays with small children in Swanage. Book a beach hut though, to save carrying buckets and spades and everything else around.

We went to Whitby over Easter. FIL lives there but he’s abroad on business so we stayed in his house, it was lovely.

In the past we’ve travelled to the Lakes and London for a few days. Would love to visit Scotland at some point.

My kids love holidays, we have done all sorts of holidays in uk and abroad with them. It doesn't matter how expensive or cheap the holiday is kids like being with us and doing different things.

We have done camping since they were babies which they love, even in the rain.

City breaks like london. They used to live museums and underground

Beach breaks like cornwall/ devon. Bude is nice and so is croyde.

Forest breaks like Forest of Dean or new Forest
Lake District

We have tried Butlin's and bluestone. They love both and probably preferred butlins.

We stay in a mix of travel lodges/ cottages / caravans.

We have also taken them abroad to 'beach' holidays

They really don't care where they go. I asked them recently where we should go on our next big holiday in 2022, one wanted butlins, one wanted camping and the other a beach holiday.

They key thing is go somewhere you will like too

We mostly do caravan parks, they're a bit shit but cater well for little kids. Mostly they like the swimming, playgrounds, and trips to the beach. Mine are fussy eaters, and can't be relied on to sit nicely if eating out, so self catering really helps keep the stress down. It's also nice been able to put them to bed, and have adult time without disturbing them, which doesn't really work when you're all in a hotel room.

Anywhere with little ones - they are delighted by the smallest things!
Beaches are good obviously, anywhere with a zoo nearby. I don't think it really matters - go somewhere you like and then find a nice playground and they'll be happy!

Brockenhurst in the New Forrest has lovely wide, shallow streams that children can play in if you are looking for a specific location -also lovely walks where you'll see wild ponies.
When mine were a little bit older we did the Peak District a few times as they loved going down the caves.

Just thought of another good place we've been a few times - Isle of Wight!

Easy to get to, plenty of entertainment and you never have to travel far to get somewhere

Bluestone near Tenby is just lovely and can be really cheap out of school holidays time. Better than Center Parks!