Edinburgh, Inverness and Fort William with a nearly 4 yo

[ETsmum]

We are visiting Edinburgh, Inverness and Fort William (3 nights each) at the end of May/beginning of June. Would be interested to know the best things to do there with a nearly 4yo ds. Either recommendations for any leisure centres/soft play type places, or proper outings (already have Edinburgh zoo in mind )

We are driving between the 3 in the order listed, so also if there are any worthwhile places stopping off en route/any foolproof tips for 3 hrs in the car, please send them my way

Oh can I add restaurants/cafes as well? Bit demanding I am today!

Fort William has a soft play place, An Aird leisure centre, behind Morrisons.

Fort william has a Jacobite steam train which runs from FW to Mallaig - starts June, I think.

Also the gondola which runs up the mountain near Ben Nevis.

I love that area. We stay near Glencoe every year.

DVD player is my tip for travelling long distance!

Ta Kbear, you remindd me we had talked about the Gondola as well - went last time about 9 yrs ago, pre ds Thanks so much for the fast reply.....re the DVD player, we'll be hiring a car, do any of the car hire places hire these as well do you know? (or anywhere else...)

don't know, we take our own car. Where are you driving from?

Edinburgh is great, we keep meaning to stop there with the kids but by the time we get to Scotland we just want to boot it to Glencoe without stopping! We start in Kent so it's a helluva trip.

Sorry Kbear went to IL's for tea

We actually live in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, so it would mean a drive from Poole or something (plus we woun't all fit in our car comfortably as my mum and dad are coming too, and we only have a little Yaris.)

Kent must take you HOURS though!!

Off to research the steam train now - know that my dad for one would love this

Another good this is the Ice Factor in Kinlochleven, which has an ice wall and other climbing walls.

Where are you staying? hotels?

Oh and we drive through the night, timing it perfectly to arrive in time for breakfast at a hotel we know around 8, so about 12 hours usually. We take a steady drive.

Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh is really good.

i'll be watching coz I think inverness is poor for this age group and we're going there for holiday again this year...landmark's about 40 mins drive from inverness and is EXCELLENT and there's a good swimming pool (possibly called aquadome) but IMO not a huge lot else...

...except Nessie spotting if you're not Scottish and you can cope with such cheesey tourism (seems a bit false in your own country IYKWIM)

Kbear; Jury's Inn in Edinburgh, Loch Ness House in Inverness - right nr Loch Ness and the Alexandra in Fort WIliam. Nothing posh, they all look ok. Think it will be a bit of a come down for us as we did a very similar hol to this for our honeymoon and stayed quite fancy Passion I think will be limited sharing with ds. And OMG 12 hrs - living in Guernsey, nowhere is more than about 20 mins drive away Now you know why I'm fretting about 3 hrs

Janeite, thanks for that off to google. On the Edinburgh theme, does anyone know if any of the park areas have anything for children? Or are they all "just" grass?

Tassis thanks too for the ideas We are coming to the same conclusion as you haveing surfed for ideas a bit. Hoping ds loves Nessie and assoc boat ride etc.....must admit i am a bit of a big kid and don't mind a bit of "cheesey tourism."

Ooh yes, Landmark is absolutely brilliant - probably the best day out we've ever had, anywhere. The water slides are great!

And if I remember rightly, you can get a boat trip from just outside Edinburgh, from which you can see seals. maybe somebody more local will know what I'm talking about?

Muminfife, you're psychic re the playgrounds in Edinburgh - many thanks Thanks so much for taking the time to post all that - I trust personal recommendations far more than the guidebook! Thanks esp. for the childhood museum and the royal museum/museum of scotland. The 2 latter I wouldn't have considered as particularly ds friendly, so it's great to hear that there would be things he might enjoy (and dh possibly I think!)

Janeite so that's 2 votes for Landmark then The water slides sound fab - if ds is allowed on them I know he'd love that as he loves our 1 (!) flume here. Would be weel worth the drive I think. Thanks for the seal watching suggestion as well. As my mum and dad are coming too, even if we don't do all these things with ds, there may very well be things they'd like to do. (I'm hoping, as with the best will in the world we need to split up a bit during the 10 day hol or we may kill each other )

if you're up for travelling a bit for a day trip, the safari park at Stirling is FANTASTIC

under an hour drive from Edinburgh and a superb day out

We did Landmark with an just 3 year old and he had a great time. He WAS allowed on the water slides.

On the Edinburgh to Inverness route you could stop at Noah's Ark just off the A9 in Perth (nice soft play) or House of Bruar which is right by the A9 near Blair Atholl (it's run by Harrods, so expensive, but there is lots of shopping, a good restaurant, outdoor play area and river walk. And ice cream).

There's a wildlife park on the Black Isle a bit north of Inverness. I haven't been there but friends with 2 small daughters like it.

I totally agree with Kbear about the car DVD player. You can get a portable that hangs off the back of the front seat and runs off the lighter socket.

I'd second the Royal Museum, great on a rainy day. Loads for a toddler to see.

Centro-tre and Browns on George St are family-friendly places to eat.

There's a new family park being built on the meadows (the east end) which looks like it's going to be great as well as two other pre-existing play parks. There's a nice play area in Princes St gardens too. The commonwealth pool has a big childrens pool and a very good soft play called Clambers, which was re-done last year.

Outside Edinburgh the East Links family park is a fantastic day out - it's near Dunbar and you can easily spend a good day there finding things to do. East Links . There are good adventure playgrounds at Dalkieth & Vogrie country parks.

HTH

I would definitely second the Royal Museum/Museum of Scotland and the safari park at Stirling, which is particularly fab. I have to say neither of my children have ever shown the slightest interest in the Museum of Childhood, much as I like it myself (although they like the shop attached to it, of course). Dynamic Earth is good but if your ds is at all nervous I would warn him about the lift at the start of it- I know several young children who have been freaked out by it (you're meant to be going back in time, and it can be quite loud). If you want a soft play place there's the Jelly Club, which is outside the centre and hell on earth for parents but children love it. Jury's Inn is quite close to the Meadows and there's a nice little swing park on that West side (didn't know about the new one at the East side!).
Have fun

Just a quick post this eve as MUST have an early night....ok maybe not QUITE this early, but house to tidy etc.

Muminfife - thanks again! It's invaluable haing your insider info as TBH something like the Royal Museum sounds a bit "stuffy" for a 4 yo and I might have avoided it without your tips - if we go I'll let you know re the tigers! Will mull over your suggetion re the castle......had thought ds might enjoy it, given he loves the couple of castles we have over here, but from my last visit seem to remember lots of it being quite steep and hilly? Maybe as you said not worth the money and effort....

Susie40 - thanks for letting me know re the water slides, fairly sure he will LOVE that (and us!) Had a look at the Landmark website last night, and it seems to have lots of fun and interesting things to see - well worth the drive. Thanks also for the en route info - might plan 1 of these in just to break up the journey a bit for all of us. And will look into portable DVD. Sounds really convenient, just not sure it would be worth us spending out for just this hol iykwim? Imagine ds might fall in love with it tho and want to take it to bed with him or something on our return Black Isle was somethng we had in mind already...although I'm a little fearful as ended up getting chased by a chicken whilst I was there last time which was quite scary

Liath thank you also. Esp for the eateries and the East Links info - looks brilliant.....just wish we were staying in Edinburgh for longer now We will never fit it all in, but brilliant to have all this choice when we were struggling a bit for ideas. Ta for the parks info as well....looks like we will be buying in more swimming gear before we go!

Tamum thanks for the tip re Dynamic Earth....ds can be a bit sensitive to stuff, but often surprises us as well! Is it long in the lift do you know? (Guessing not....) The museum of childhood I think might appeal to my mum and dad as much as/more than us and ds - as mentioned prev, looking to pass on ideas to them too. Just love the name of the "Jelly club!" Soft play here I guess is smaller but can feel pretty manic. We are working on trying to make it enjoyable for ds too though, so we may visit it yet. Our hope is that we do lots of fun things for him and he will accomodate us doing a bit of shopping. (as an aside, anyone know which the biggest Wqaterstones is in Edinburgh - according to our map there are 3) Don't laugh, we don't even have 1 over here and I love books.

Phew, so much for a short post!

Hi ETsmum, yes, the trip in the lift is quite short, so don't worry about that. The biggest Waterstones is at the West End of Princes St, the smallest at the East End. The one on George St is in the middle, I would say. There's a Borders out near the Jelly Club, but as I said, that's away from the Centre at Fort Kinnaird. I will keep thinking- there's a Camera Obscura near the castle that has (I think) optical illusions and so on. I haven't been but ds went several times with my parents and with school and liked it. He was a bit older though.

Another vote for Landmark - in fact there's lots to do with kids round the Aviemore area - softplay at Coylumbridge; loads of good walks - loch an Eilean is especially nice; Steam train goes from Aviemore to Carrbridge and back in an hour or so so good round trip; Funicular railway to the top of Cairngorm; nice swimming pool (though pricey) at Aviemore Highland Resort - often have a bouncy castle set up too; lovely organic cafe in Aviemore itself; good chippy too; Highland Folk museum in Newtonmore - kind of a 'living museum' - good for kids; a lovely ceramic painting place on the high street in Grantown-on-spey called Smarty Arty

Inverness itself doesn't have as much but has a good swimming pool (Aquadome)with whin park nearby; soft play (small) at Brewsters - next to the travel lodge; Bogbain farm - on A9 - a large play area in a 'shed', ceramic painting, race-track etc; Nairn beach is great most weathers

Can I also suggest the Science Centre - in Glasgow so you'd have to do a detour but fantastic for all ages - totally hands on. Our 3yo loved it as did her 65 year old grandad!

Apologies for long abscence

Just popping in to say thanks firstly to Tamum for sorting me out with the biggest Waterstones in Edinburgh, much appreciated by me, not sure if dh is quite as pleased

And CMac, thanks as well. We already had it in mind to break up the driving in Aviemore - and I wonder if it is the same chippy that we went to a while back - remember it being scrummy. Landmark is pretty uch a dead cert for us now, thanks to all your input - and I hadn't heard of it before posting on here

Does anyone know off hand if the Highland Folk museum in Newtonmore is near/linked to Waltzing Waters? Waltzing Waters is something else we remembered from going pre ds and thought he might like it.....