Betwixtmas in UK

[monkeyboy2013]

Hi! Hoping you could suggest holiday destination in England, Scotland or Wales for time between Christmas and New year. Not London as we live there. Kid is 12 years old. We need a mix of scenic walks, mooching around a town, castles, markets and stuff to do if weather is really bad because we're wimps. I'm not keen on standing on a freezing beach for more than 20 minutes. If we had a hot tub, I could be persuaded. Thoughts? Thanks!!

York?

Bath and surrounding areas

• day at Roman baths learning history
• day at new spa baths enjoying steam rooms etc
• trip to stone henge
• frome market town
• Bradford on Avon market town
• go to Bristol and science museum

Thanks! We went to York and Northumberland last Christmas break and loved it... particularly NYE at Allendale town. Amazing!

Edinburgh

Good idea thanks! I think I need to delay Bath until kid is 16 because she can't attend the spa there as underaged. The drama....

Ah man! I swear I went for my 14th or 15th birthday with my mum. I think the age must have changed.

How about Edinburgh? Is that too far?

Good idea. Wonder if Edinburgh would be rammed. But love the idea of Scotland. Remember Cold Feet and episode in Scottish castle?

Maybe Cheshire? There’s a forest holidays place in Delamere Forest with hot tubs. You could visit Chester and Liverpool - museums, Albert docks, sales shopping if you wanted. Nice walks in the forest, plenty of castles and national trust places in the area.

Thank you! Great ideas

Yes, Tatton Park is lovely around that time.

Come to Edinburgh. It’s really beautiful in the winter and there’s loads to do.

Deal on the south coast (Kent) is lovely. 3 castles nearby (Dover, deal and walmer) . Lovely country and coastal walks and a pretty town for exploring.

Peak District. Plenty of walks, Bakewell and Buxton, Matlock and Matlock Bath, Chatsworth at Christmas, Haddon Hall, tram museum, and the gardens at Chatsworth, good pubs, easy run to Sheffield on the train from Chesterfield for a city day, plus designer outlet just a junction down the M1.

Cardiff.

Free museums. Panto (but you’ll need tickets in advance). Normally a musical in the Millennium Centre.

Castle in the city centre. Lots of parks/green spaces, restaurants, coffee spots, Victorian market, world’s oldest record shop.

Skating, Christmas lights etc, etc.

Lots of places to stay depending on your requirements and easy to get to by train if using public transport.

Newcastle, with days trips to Durham and Edinburgh, can also go to Sunderland and there's the beach at South Shields depending in the weather, or Cardiff was good with a day trip to Barry, although we preferred Newcastle all things considered.

How about Crieff? Loads of activities at Crieff Hydro, including regular ceilidhs.

Or we did a Forest Holidays in Yorkshire (Cropton) earlier this year and I thought it would be a brilliant place in the winter. Fabulous hot tub and woodturner!

I still think Bath as even though spa is out because of age, your not far from Avebury , Longleat and Salisbury -all good round Christmas also westonbirt arburetum and it may be worth booking into the Longleat centre parcs if you want water fun

Cardiff,
castle in the middle of the city,
Cardiif bay, boat trip to Barry where they filmed Gavin & Stacy.
Millennium centre.
Loads of little arcades with independent shops.
Principality Stadium tour.
Dr Who experience.
Cardiff museum, see Rodin "The Kiss"
St Fagans,

We have been to Edinburgh a couple of times between Christmas and New Year. We flew from London on Boxing Day. It was not too busy at all. We stayed in a lovely hotel with a view of the castle and got a 3 for 2 offer.
A lovely city.

Today's Weekend i Newspaper has an article on the happiest, nicest town in England, Scotland, Wales. Top of the list was Berwick. See if you can look up the feature online, there were many good suggestions.

York.

Lincoln

Warwickshire?

Warwick castle
Kenilworth castle (ruins) has lovely walks around.
Stratford upon Avon for historical buildings, magic alley, butterfly farm and again, nice walks.

Someone above mentioned Cheshire, I would aim for Chester and visit the other areas. You have all the historical stuff, great restaurants, lots of fun things like the zoo, crazy golf … and Cheshire Oaks for shopping

We're doing Chester with day trips to Liverpool and Snowdonia.