needing a car and UK holidays

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Been researching a few places to go to for a short break and my impression is that most place nowadays need a car. We live in London, dont own a car and DC both get too car sick to travel by car. Yes, we've gone to a few places in Kent but otherwise so much of advice on internet is 'a quick drive to....just park there...' Never quite realised just how limiting not driving would be when planning a holiday with kids in the UK.

Yeah its crazy! Could you rent one? Or do a holiday park instead?

Yes without a car in the UK you are trapped by public transport which is almost nonexistent and exhortate outside of the major cities

I think it has always been like this though, and is why I have seen so much of Europe but not the UK as much as I would like to

Having said that we found that Snowdonia and surrounding areas had a great bus service

Can you get a train and do a city break?

Train from Paddington to Cardiff, you can do things like St Fagans (living museum) by bus, T4 bus will take you into the Brecon Beacons / Pen Y Fan, Techniquest, Cardiff Castle...

Unfortunately, we cant hire a car because DC get that car sick so it's only ever the public transport for us. You just dont realise how hard it would be to holiday without one. I would love them to see more of the country and not to assume that that it's London or abroad. What do people do if they cant/dont drive?

Surely you can reach quite a few places by train from London? Dorset, Essex coast, Manchester is a quick train from Euston - from which you could also visit Liverpool.

It depends where you go. I live in Yorkshire and local trains are good meaning you can get around the region easily and not too expensively, and yes - rurally too. If you base yourself somewhere with good rail links in Yorkshire you could have some good days out in the Yorkshire Moors, Peak District, or Dales and up to the outskirts of the Lakes all by train.

Fly to Belfast, ave a few days in the city then hop on the train along the coast or pick up a tour bus. You can also get the train to Dublin, or buses to Galway or Sligo or Derry or Donegal...

Visit Edinburgh or Glasgow? Cardiff? You'll find buses or Nat Exp go to many places.

Train to Brighton. Then trains or buses along the coast or up into the Downs. There's local buses in Brighton and Hove that will take you up to Devil's Dyke or onto the South Downs for the price of a normal ticket. Combine a seaside town and beach with some country walking.

Train to Alnwick Northumberland?
Local buses to the coastal towns and plenty to do in Alnwick itself?
Could even do a day trip from there to Newcastle or Edinburgh?

Thanks for these ideas. I had forgotten that you can actually do quite a lot of bits of Yorkshire by train. DC also hate the bus and regularly vomit if it's longer than 10mins so we usually use the trains/tube/bikes. Not sure we can take our bikes as the youngest is still only five.

You can get to dawlish warren, a gorgeous spot in Devon via train! My gran drove us down there then got the train back home (this was back when my mum was in the middle of cancer treatment and my dad couldn't drive, it was easier than my parents getting 2 kids on trains all the way from Suffolk)

Theres a station in dawlish warren and it's not a huge area so it's all walkable, it would be perfectly doable I'd reckon!

It's even a thing in the clubhouse bingo at the parks - 5 & 9 the dawlish line! I shouldn't still remember this 🤦😂

How about get the train to Rye, quick taxi journey to Camber sands if you want to stay near the beach and Rye is a gorgeous historical town.

I'm too scared to drive motorway and places I don't know it really hinders my life so uk holidays no good for me I therefore go on uk coach holidays with shearings or go abroad.

I have considered getting train to some places then hiring a car once there if I'm comfortable with the area its the drive down that's one of my main problems.

Centre parcs at Thetford is only a short taxi ride from Thetford station and once you’re there you can’t use cars anyway.
Edinburgh and York are both great city breaks by train with the option to explore outside the cities by bus or train.

can you give DC motion sickness tablets? or stop regularly? ginger biscuits?

I think you do (sort of) get better as you get older, although only to a point - my mum is the worst of all of us

We didn't have a car when I was a child. We used to go to the South Coast by train and then walk, train, bus to other places.
The Isle of Wight is great by bus too.
Your main restriction seems to be the DCs travel sickness rather than the lack of car.

Come to Bath , plenty without a car and you can then get train to Bristol, Cardiff, even local places like Bradford on Avon , salisbury or Frome or a day trip to Weymouth (direct train)

Travel sickness tablets & travel bands for the DC?
Agree the Isle of Wight is very good - train from London to Portsmouth Harbour, ferry or hovercraft to Ryde IOW, train, bus or taxi to get around.

We found the train in Norfolk surprisingly easy to get around on. Yes you can’t do everything but there was a lot we could do.

There is a lovely line between Norwich and Lowestoft which takes about 45 minutes stopping at little villages along the way.

From Norwich you can also get to Great Yarmouth in about half an hour, again a lovely line through the Norfolk broads with a few stops.

Going north from Norwich there is a line that runs to Sheringham which stops at Cromer. There is also a heritage line that then runs along the North Norfolk coast and then down to Holt if you think they’d cope with steam trains.

Jersey has an excellent bus service.

Dorset - the purbecks area. There’s a steam train / old diesel train that runs between wareham and swanage, stopping at corfe castle and other little stops. Sometimes it doesn’t go all the way to wareham. There are also loads of buses. You can have a great week if you’re in a holiday cottage or camping within reach of one of the train stations. Lots of walking, little villages, a few buses etc. You can also get bus round to Bournemouth and Poole.
There are definitely things that would be hard to get to without a car but you can do a day in corfe, a couple of days in swanage (beach, mackerel fishing, various fun parks, tons of nice shops and cafes, coasteering), day in wareham (kayaks or paddleboards down the river), bus to studland (beach etc) and lots of other walks etc.