What do you do on a UK holiday?

[Hemsbyboc]

First time on a UK holiday in my life. Kids have never been out of the city they were born in unless in a plane.
They are bored to tears.
What do you do??
Don't want to say exact location but it is coastal wales and we have driven here.
Honestly don't blame the folk going abroad despite restrictions. We are climbing the walls.
Been to 4 villages, takes less than an hour to walk around each one. Shitty cafés, food like school dinners. Tide is in so looked at the sea. Everybody in full winter clobber. I am not investing in body boards cos I never want to come back. Wales match is not even showing anywhere. I am 90% leaning towards cutting my losses and going home tomorrow, I have decorating/gardening I could be doing.

Save us mnetters!

Actually come to think of it, they went to a brownie thing in Lancashire and the oldest has been to alton towers. We have been from Blackpool to wirral and live somewhere in the middle. I can't believe people think that everybody should have been to London. Come to our estate, i imagine you'll have to knock on many doors to find anybody that has been to London.

@Hemsbyboc

I know plenty of people who have never travelled the country, it is not that unusual surely? Some people just don't have the money nor inclination

Most people do not spend their entire lives not leaving the city they live in.

And you have the budget and inclination to travel elsewhere in the world, yet no interest in going anywhere else in the UK, and the one place you have chosen you did no research about before booking a week there, it’s all really quite odd…

"I don’t think I’d notice the difference between 17 and 19 degrees etc. but that’s just me."

You'd notice the difference between needing a big coat or a jacket or being able to sit outside or not.
I do also get OP's point about the instability of the weather. I'm from north Wales myself and I do get that.

Come to our estate, i imagine you'll have to knock on many doors to find anybody that has been to London.

Bet you won't find many that haven't been to Wales though

" I can't believe people think that everybody should have been to London."

I didn't go to London until I was 20 and that was to go to France!

@RubyFowler

Come to our estate, i imagine you'll have to knock on many doors to find anybody that has been to London.

Bet you won't find many that haven't been to Wales though

You'll probably find some that have been to Wales and taken very little interest in learning about Welsh history or culture. Watch the episode of the Royle Family where they go to a static caravan in Prestatyn and do exactly the same as they would have done at home.

Don't believe u op no one is that much of a misery guts surely... you are pissed off cos weather and your kids don't know anything else but how to entertain themselves online. You need to get out of your comfort zone and go do something you and they have never done before. They are bored because they don't have experience of how to enjoy stuff you need to show them even if they hate activities do some if they never tried how do they know they don't like? You have a million suggestions here and no thanks given to anyone for trying to help so if you just want to moan and mope about and go on about how shit everything is without making any effort to try Anything new go home and moan there. If you have car can drive there's no excuse if u don't have a car look into public transport just stop moaning and try something new.

The weather is often shit in Wales. I am from North Wales and that is true.
Any UK holiday runs that risk and activities that have been suggested all cost a lot of money.
I for one don't blame you for finding it hard with teens on a wet holiday in Wales.
Its the fact you never ventured anywhere even for a day trip that's so hard to get.
You've jumped in at the deep end and may have expected to have a similar experience to a holiday abroad and in fairness a UK holiday is very different. Because you've never tried these places even for a day, you're unprepared.

I am not disputing that people haven't been to Wales. My kids are probably the only scousers that haven't been here before now. Although I've not heard a single other scouse voice here. I spoke to a lovely Norwegian lady on the beach earlier however. In Norwegian
Still, not many of my friends/neighbours have been to London in the 15 years I have been here. And believe me, they are scouse, they would tell everybody in earshot.

I didn't go to London before adulthood either.

@justfuckoffthelottayer
I have thanked people for their contributions more than once

@PussGirl

Don't forget to leave plenty of litter - that's what folk who usually go abroad for holidays seem to be doing in the UK

This!

Anglesey is great when it's sunny, but there's practically nothing at all to do in the rain or bad weather. Anglesey Sea Zoo is ok - other than that, it's Foel Farm Park or Pili Palas, which are more suited to younger children. I'd head back to the mainland for Bounce Below or Greenwood Park (a rip-off, but there's nothing else). Good luck! We've been going to Anglesey for years and have been desperate for them to provide wet-weather activities for families with children. Nothing as yet.... good luck!!

My family don't travel in the UK either. We did holidays abroad as children, we never went camping or went on a British holiday. We did Alton Towers once, and maybe Blackpool or somewhere similar. We went to a local beach a fair few times but I'm in Wales and less than an hour away from several.

As an adult I've travelled to a few places in Wales for the night like spa hotels etc, and spent a night in maybe 3 or 4 English cities, but only for work or a wedding. My parents just seemed to save up for two weeks of sun every year so day trips weren't really a thing for us. I only remember one friend holidaying in West Wales when I was growing up, otherwise foreign holidays were the norm.

I didn't think the OP was that unusual in that respect.

visit local historical sights (Pompeii for example) - yeah you can visit historical sights but you pay ridiculous prices to get in, ridiculous prices for any kind of tour, HUGE mark up on any food or drink you want to buy there and you'll probably be in the pissing rain. It's not a relaxing experience lugging round warm sandwiches and drinks so you dont have to take out a second mortgage to have lunch there and carrying a coat just in case

A lot of the UK's "historical sites" are either free or fairly cheap - ruins, churches, towns, landscapes. Agree that NT and EH are expensive, but even some of them are good value.

It really depends where you go. Orkney, for example, is full of little ancient sites to visit, many of them free, with free talks and tours. Or you could spend £7 to visit Skara Brae, built 1000 years before the pyramids.

Or you could go to world-class museums, free, or any of a network of little local museums, some of them crap (I love these) some of them wonderful.

One of my favourites: Porchester Castle, near Portsmouth. it's a big site, one of the best-preserved northern Roman forts, with Roman stone walls 20 foot high, built to defend the shore from Saxon raids in the 3rd century. It's free to enter (unless there's an event on) and free parking. Once you are in, there's also a Norman fort - you do pay to enter this if you want to look inside. There's also inside the fort a working church, with a teashop attached. At this teashop you might pay around £2.50, tops, for tea AND homemade cake. If you want to go crazy, you could spend £2 on a jar of homemade raspberry jam to take home. I love everything about this place. And the rest of Portsmouth - if you don't want to pay to go into the dockyards, there's tons of more free places to go, and you can't cross the street without stubbing your toe on Napoleonic fortifications. The best place to buy a sausage sandwich is in a tiny Tudor castle with napoleonic fortifications (all free) where Henry VIII stood to watch the Mary Rose sink.

And, my god, Pompeii is wonderful, but you can't claim Rome isn't expensive.

Look at views, have nice food etc, maybe go to a couple of attractions of some kind.

Come to our estate, i imagine you'll have to knock on many doors to find anybody that has been to London.

@Hemsbyboc Come to my estate, and I'm sure I'm not the only one to have not left the UK in over 20 years cos for a start I can't afford it. Probably a fair few people round here have never been abroad. That's those of us who aren't refugees.

Cornwall is lovely, we usually go around Tintagel etc.

Also Blue Anchor near Minehead, 'Anchor's Drop' is a hotel which is so close to the sea you can hear it.

The Peak District is nice, we live near enough to go there for a day trip but it'd be nice for a break maybe if you're a bit further away.

If it were me I'd always head South though, as the weather tends to be milder. You could try that if you have another trip.

You'll probably find some that have been to Wales and taken very little interest in learning about Welsh history or culture. Watch the episode of the Royle Family where they go to a static caravan in Prestatyn and do exactly the same as they would have done at home.

@Gwenhwyfar So? That sounds kind of class-ist. I'm not interested in history and culture much nowadays, but there are some attractions that I don't find boring.

'Cornish Cider Farm' was ok. Cheddar Gorge is lovely, with the caves (though I don't think they're open at the mo) and the small 'Museum of Ancient Man' which is accessible and engaging rather than boring.

@Hemsbyboc As PP's said, you need to make an itinerary/little idea for each day.

Or you might prefer something like some holiday park next time with activities on etc.

IDK how much Pompeii was, but it was well worth the money. Things like that were my last trip abroad, uni gave us a bit of pin money to go to Greece and Rome for a few weeks to supposedly do a project.

Some things are worth paying for if possible.

puffykins

Then, just the other side of the Menai Straits is a National Trust House - Plas Brondanw I think it's called - which has got murals painted by Rex Whistler, and were the inspiration for the murals that Charles Ryder painted in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (maybe suggest the children read the book first.)

This made me laugh - do you have teenagers?

OP I am baffled that you have not been away in the UK before. From Liverpool I would have thought you may have been to Lake District/Manchester/Birmingham.

Angelsey in the rain isn't going to be like your usual trips away - but I think you need to be more positive and then the kids might start to enjoy it more.

I would suggest the same as others:-

• zipworld
• hire a paddleboard
• coasteering lesson
• take a BBQ and eat at the beach
• book a nice restaurant @ lunch time

I don't know they would be interested in National Trust if you're not really into that sort of thing.

If we've been to Wales and it's rained we will do things like go to cinema, use leisure centre pool.

Could you book spa day - there's a few hotels with pools and spas. I imagine they would do a nice lunch too.

www.treysgawen-hall.co.uk/spa/offers

Fish & chips at the beach is always nice, ice creams, crazy golf, cream tea, spending coins at an arcade. All typical British holiday activities.

Is there a theme park in Wales that the teens could enjoy, sorry I dont know the area very well, but when we have been on UK holidays (normally, Somerset, Isle of Wight, Devon, Cornwall) we tend to spend the time visiting local attractions, there must be something around to amuse the teens when they are bored of walking, mine used to love playing crazy golf and walking along the pier. They would swim most days as well, but it depends where you are staying, we would always choose a hotel or camp with evening entertainment and a heated pool, so that once we had visited all the scenery and in the event of bad weather there would be something else to keep the children entertained.

My DC are older now, 26, 28 and 31 but I had a holiday in the UK pre pandemic with them at Centre parcs and that had an amazing amount of things to do but I appreciate that is expensive.

Challenge the kids - let them take the lead, tell them to get on the internet and choose somewhere they'd like to visit tomorrow.

This is a good site to plan what to do in Wales

www.inspirock.com/united-kingdom/theme-parks-in-wales

By the time you’ve paid taxes on top of your £19.99 flight plus airport parking, and transport at the other end surely it’s cheaper to get the train to london or another city in the uk? Get a family railcard. The clouds which form over the sea are blown onto the Welsh coast by the prevailing winds- its wet! For obvious reasons the eastern side of the country is drier.personally I wouldn’t have chosen Anglesey with teens (or by myself tbh). I’d go to a city, or a mixture of city and nearby countryside- somewhere like york, Edinburgh, bath, London.

They even have a water park, the teens would love that. I guess not all attractions will be open though.

We have just got back from a UK coastal holiday and did the following:
Swimming
Bug hunt with a local ranger
Story and paint (pottery)
Made a grass head creation
Beach
Played cricket/tennis
Bike ride
Land train and local steam train rides along the sea front
Crazy golf
Family entertainment show
Visited a local castle
Took out a boat on a boating lake
Pond dipping
BBQ
Visited a fun fair

I guess it depends how old your children are, what would you usually do on holiday?

We go to Devon most years.

Until we had DD we would mostly just chill at our lodge, have good food and wine on the balcony with a sea view. Go to the beach, have a walk around the town and little shops ect. Literally do as little as possible but still enjoy it and not be bored.

Now we have DD (18 months) it will be ice creams on the beach, splash in the sea, aquarium trip, soft play at the holiday park, swimming, go visit the castle and go to the dinosaur park, might go further afield and go to the zoo too if we get time. After spending so much time in lockdown with her im just keen for her to see as much as possible.