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!

@Hemsbyboc

Great. The only place to eat in the village stops serving food at half 8. Don't tell me this is better than the biggest shithole in Spain

Stop serving at 8.30, or latest table reservation at 8.30? Not the same thing.

It sounds that you have chosen the wrong holiday for you - I love North Wales and activity holidays. Lying on a beach in Spain or lounging by a pool would have me dying of sheer boredom by the end of the first morning but I'd never book that in the first place.

If you have the slightest sense of adventure North Wales is the adventure capital of the UK an dperfect for teens. My teens loved the mine explorations, the cable car, the trampolines, the indoor rock climbing etc etc etc.

Expecting to baste in the sun and North Wales just don't go in the same sentence.

Look on the bright side OP.
You will probably never go to Wales again for a holiday and the result of 0-4 was well deserved.

Cut your losses and go home .Holidays are meant to be fun and your’s clearly isn’t . Do better research next time .

Op you gave my sympathies. I think a lot of people on this thread either have tiny kids or really strange teens .

Whilst my 14 is happy enough to go for a walk or two it’s not going to fill a whole holiday fir either of us.

We often visit wales as have family there, inc Anglesey but it is tough, especially if the weather is crap. We went to Conwy last year, a walk round and a bit of lunch, we were back in the car in 2 hours.

If you can afford, and there is availability zip works is brilliant, they have 3 different sites. Barmouth and Criccieth are nice too… also day trip to Belfast from
Holyhead?

Holidays with kids are hard work. They are made less so with sunshine , other kids and a pool.

Just remembered white water rafting in Bala worth a look, also water adventure place at Delamere on way home? Go karting in Chester?

I have teens, and yes they are as Netflix/XBox/Tumblr obsessed as the rest of their generation, but they also genuinely enjoy castles, steam trains, Portmeirion, rock pools, mountains, waterfalls, boat trips to see seals and dolphins. I’d also have enjoyed all of those at their age. What’s not to enjoy?

I grant you that Wales in the pissing rain is challenging to enjoy, but the weather is due to turn. Go to Portmeirion, have a gelato and pretend you’re on the Amalfi coast. Go to Beaumaris Castle. Climb Snowdon and have a chip butty at Pete’s Eats.

You’ll def need to book for zip works. It’s mega popular

There are some lovely gardens on Anglesea. Also Llandudno is not far away from you. 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.) You're also an easy drive from Snowdonia - I hear you when you say your children don't want to go for walks, but there is a huge sense of achievement in climbing a mountain - and it's a walk in a different place to all the other walks they've been on this year! I've also been out on boat trips on Anglesea, looking for puffins etc.

@Hemsbyboc If you think you all want to leave, how about driving up to Bath? Go to the Spa? lots of nice places to eat and shop.

My teenagers have just asked this week when we're going back to N Wales, I realize this might be lockdown talking but I'm quite proud of them. We do mountain biking, beach if warm, zip world/bounce below type things, hiking, Ice cream parlours, visited Dinorwic, castles. Steam trains. Mostly eat in so they can slouch around on phones or watch DVDs in the evenings or watch stars.

We have a family joke though "it's raining and I'm on a steam train/in a ruined castle: where am I?" On holiday in Wales.
Sorry the weather wasn't good to you. Each to their own. We can't do hot holidays at all. Get sunburnt, bored and cross.

‘There are some lovely gardens in Anglesey”

Said no 13 year old ever 😂

We are visiting Wales for a week in August with a 16 year old. DS loves trampolining, theme parks and cycling.
We have a few days in Llandudno and Cardiff.

Thank you to all the posters who have made suggestions. We have done some research and earmarked some activities, but some things we hadn't known about, so thank you all. I have added these to the list.
Keep the suggestions coming!

The weather, even if it rains won't be a problem. Living in N.I. we're well used to rain

I have some sympathy and I actually live in Wales.
It can be difficult to amuse sulky teens and not everyone has teens that like organized activities. I remember booking canoeing for mine and they just refused to go and I looked a right idiot in front of the instructor. There is an age where such teens just sulk anytime they're not online and it can really suck the joy out of your holiday, no matter how hard you try to be cheerful.

If you're just not outdoorsy and your kids are too old to be keen on zoos, rock pools etc, then countryside in the rain can be very boring.

As an adult it's nice to walk in the rain and then maybe end up in a cosy pub. With teens in tow this can become miserable and you might well find you can't even bring them to the pub, even for a meal.

Especially in Covid times, when you have to book everything ahead and lots of things are randomly shut I think it could be underwhelming.

Granted it is harder when the weather's crap.
Also if you are holidaying in the countryside then you do generally have to travel a bit further to attractions. So North Wales rather than just Anglesey.
My teenage son will probably need quite a bit of cajoling on our uk holiday this year.
But I do find it odd you never go anywhere else in the UK even for a day out or weekend away!

I've not got a massive amount of sympathy given the lack of research. I echo bounce below, and all of the other outdoor sporting activities mentioned. I don't suppose many teens do want to wander around in the rain but bounce below is inside... what did you envisage doing when you booked? Genuine question. Your references to driving back to the mainland are a little strange to me, it makes it sound like some kind of massive undertaking which it really isn't. If your kids don't like UK beaches and don't like sports of any sort then I guess it was always going to be hard. Cinema?

They’ve shut down Dinorwig visitors centre NotMeNoNo. My DC were gutted.

I feel that the poster who was suggesting that the teens should read Brideshead in order to get excited about the Rex Whistler murals was a bit over-optimistic though .

We chose Uk holidays on what there is to do in he area. For us it’s active stuff…cycle paths, water sports, climbing, walking. Also historic sites, nature reserves…

Lol.
I came on here to be patronising and outraged.
However I took 2 teenagers and a toddler to Anglesey for 2 weeks.
Jesus fucking Christ. I actually promised them ten pounds cash if they didn't mean whilst going up Snowdon on the train in the pissing rain.
The only saving grace was there was an x box that they didn't have at home.

Thankfully it’s people like you OP who make holidaying in the UK under normal circumstances the breeze it actually is, it’s the reason we do it - mainly to avoid Brits abroad. This year everywhere is understandably packed with Brits- and it’s grim.

Please keep going abroad, all of you moaning about staycations- please, book a flight and don’t staycate next year PLEASE!!! 🙏🏻😆

To be fair the OP hasn’t said whereabouts in Anglesey she’s staying. If it’s Holyhead then I’m slightly more sympathetic, but it’s still only half an hour’s drive to the mainland. The normal alternative of a day trip to Dublin is presumably out of the question.

@Hemsbyboc

It looked like there was plenty to do and plenty of places to eat. They all have amended their opening hours and are closed ..weather also been shit. I honestly cannot believe so many teenagers like walking around in the rain

This thread is giving me a good laugh with all of you Northern Europeans complaining that life is so miserable in the rain. Sun isn’t everything! Being in a rainy ‘shithole’ is no worse than being in a ‘shithole’ with endless sunshine but where it’s high 30s / 40 degrees for most of the day. The reason restaurants open late in Spain is because it’s so effing hot during the day that nobody is out.

I don’t get the obsession with sunshine. I live in a sunny climate with a pool in my backyard and let me tell you teens get bored here too. The difference is that they’re bored because it’s too hot to do anything not because it’s raining.

My kids are still young enough to be entertained by the pool but we had friends over last weekend when the weather was hot and their 13 year old got bored after a couple of hours too and went inside to sit on her phone in the AC for a while. Teens are just hard to impress no matter where you are. The weather has nothing to do with it though. Those zip line places & outdoor centres linked to upthread look great. Why not give them a try at least?

As I teen I loved going around gardens and would have been thrilled to have been taken to see the Rex Whistler murals. Genuinely truly. But equally there was no Wifi then, so.....

2 weeks in Anglesey in the rain with teens would definitely be a bit much even for the most hardcore UK holidaymaker Spider.

Oh and I totally lost my shit at Portmerion. What a rip off. Couldn't even get a decent cup of tea.
Honestly. Dont know where you have come from. Book a couple of nights in Liverpool salvage something out of it.

@Hemsbyboc

We are in anglesey. I cannot put my shirt on I am Danish we are outdoor people but wow, this is something else, we have walked, and walked and walked. They are bored. They have left the city they were born in many, many times just not to go to other parts of the UK. We thought we would do our best to stay in the country for holidays, invest in economy, see the country etc but I now see why we have never had the urge before. It is beautiful and yes, I love the place but the teens are bored 😴

Anglesey...

Melin Llynon
Sea Zoo
Trearddur Bay - hire stand up paddle boards from Blu Chameleon in the centre of the village
Beaumaris - visit the castle, go crabbing off the pier - have excellent ice cream off the high street. Also Beaumaris Gaol is a spooky way to pass a couple of ours.
Ynys Llanddwyn - stunning beach and forest walk. Watch out for the tide times otherwise you'll be stranded on the island
Parys Mountain - stunning colours.
Rib Ride www.ribride.co.uk/

@KateTheEighth

Blimey

Your kids have never been out of the city they live in other than to get on a plane

And they are early teens

Fucking hell

This scenario is extremly common for Londoners.