Places to visit during UK road trip

[noenergy]

We will be travelling on the ferry from Ireland to Holyhead to visit friends in a little town in Cambridgeshire.

We will stay with them for 2 days. We are planning on to travel around for another 5-7 days. We haven't booked our return ferry journey, we may return from Cairnryan once we decide where we will go. I have nothing planned so need suggestions of possible places to visit.

I'm not sure if we should venture into London or head towards Manchester after visiting friends.

The kids main priority is theme and water parks but I'm not sure if it is worth going to them as I expect queues to be very long. I would prefer a small funfair and maybe a splash pool like gullivers.

I had seen the snowdon mountain railway but tickets are sold out for next week. So looking for similar places to sightsee.

I know my plans are very vague but I'm looking for all ideas then will decide where to stop off n visit.

How old are the dc ?

Have you / they been to London before ?
I do think it is worth visiting Capital Cities and seeing famous sights 'in the flesh' as it were at least once in your formative years.
Obviously no capital city is cheap (although museums are free in London, and if you travel by train some of the Landmarks are 1/2 price).

When I travel to another country I tend to avoid things like theme parks / safari parks / zoos as they can all be done in a day trip at home. I'd prefer to go to things I can only see in that part of the World.

Difficult to say without knowing the age of your dc, but what about Stratford ?

Alton towers is ok for a day - if you were travelling up from london way, it's a couple of hours & you could stay locally & do Alton towers from early & go to Manchester that evening. Can recommend some places in NI if you're planning on spending any time there 😁

The kids are 4,5 and 10. They We have been to London before but only visited tower bridge, emirates cable car and Lego land.

Was thinking of maybe visiting Covent Gardens as I heard the street performers are good. Maybe Buckingham Palace. Which museums are best for kids and the cheapest?

They would love to go to a theme park as there aren't any here in NI. But I'm the one avoiding as I'm sure queues will be very long this time of year. Was thinking of maybe heading up to Drayton Manor as I thought it may be a bit quieter than a London theme park.

You could stay overnight somewhere near Milton Keynes and do one day at Gulliver’s Land and another day at Woburn Safari Park.
After that you could spend a night in the Peak District. Chatsworth House is a good day out. They adventure playground is incredible! If two theme parks isn’t too much, you could spend a day at Gulliver’s Kingdom.

If you are doing a theme park just do it. You'll spend similar and find that the queues aren't much different but that you're at a crapper theme park!

Download the app, plan well, arrive early and go straight to rides that are your priority. Stay til the end and take a picnic and snacks.

O wouldn’t bother with thorpe park. My daughter went there last month and the queues were an hour long. Saying that when my son went on a rainy day he hopped from one ride to the next

Or most theme parks you can pay for a fast pass

Gullivers world near Warrington is open all August then weekend only in September. You could head up to there then on to manchester
If anyone is interested in football there's the football museum a stadium tour of either united or City depending on which you follow. There's the museum of science and industry now called mosi which is free.
There's the lowry centre with free admission which has has lowry paintings and imperial War museum which isn't as grim as it sounds, you can either stay in media city and use the tram into Manchester or in Manchester itself.In Media city the bbc runs tours of the television studios as well
Theres the Trafford Centre all the shops you could ever wish for and nearby the dinosaur mini golf the chilfactory where you can sledge or do stuff in the cold.
If you really want to go on a train the east lancs railway runs from Bury and may have steam trains on but you'll have to check dates.

If you're in Cambridgeshire, cross over to Norfolk and Hunstanton. It has good sea swimming and a huge funfair/swimming pool/water park.

London is great and you can enjoy it without spending lots on activities; sightseeing and the museums are free.

If heading north, I think Liverpool is a nicer city to visit than Manchester. Great museums and the docks to explore. And if you are looking for a theme park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach is fab and much less queuing than most. Blackpool is a bit grim, but St Anne’s, just along the coast, is a lovely seaside town.

Blackpool pleasurebeach had a 2 hour queue just to collect prepaid wristbands to get in yesterday!

If theme parks are high on the kids list then let them choose one and work from there

That pretty bad crusty. We’ve never experienced anything like that.

No I haven't either but I've also never been in August. My friend was in the queue but had paid for 4 wristbands on line so just had to wait.

Looked horrendous. It was 2 hours and 5 minutes just to get in there!

Tesco voucher online wristbands are a holiday tradition for us. Thanks for the warning.

I would look around North Wales.
Some useful trips in the area here
www.donthibernate.co.uk
If the weathers bad the waterfalls are spectacular
www.donthibernate.co.uk/waterfalls-of-north-wales/

If you go to Llandudno
Conwy will be open its 10 mins away walk the walls of the medieval walled town, plenty of pubs and cafes and its free.
Rhos on sea is 10 mins in the other direction, nice sea front couple of cafes / pubs
Angel bay is just by the little orm, nice flat or steep walk if you are lucky you should see seals in the sea.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc1nSNmzT_c
Need more just ask