Visiting Dundee and Perthshire

[Invisimamma]

We've got a mini break booked in Perthshire next week, but the weather is looking to be very wet! We've got ds nearly 10 and 14.

Any suggestions for places to visit? Or places to eat out? Anything quirky, a bit different or fun.

The teenager thinks he's too cool for everything and the pre-teen gets easily bored. We're not particularly outdoorsy, we were planning to take the paddle board but the weather will probably put a stop to that.

V&A Museum
Discovery ( next door to the V&A)
Verdant Works
Open top bus tour (may be weather dependent)
Ryze trampolining
Axe throwing (check the ages for this!)
Museum of Transport

All of these. Olympia in Dundee is worth a trip too if it's open. You could get the train from Dundee to Edinburgh if you wanted to go a bit further afield and the Museum of Scotland is good.

Thanks! We live 20mins from Edinburgh so we won't be going any further south than Perth while we're away.

I'm sure V&A, discovery, verdant works are great but my boys would not be happy with any kind of museums or galleries unfortunately. I should have said that in my op. We did lots of that kind of thing when they were younger and it's really meant to be a break for them too.

They love food and anything a bit 'cool' and different, probably activity based. Axe throwing is a good shout.

Tentsmuir forest and beach are gorgeous.
Botanic gardens in Dundee.
Discovery Dundee.
Broughty Ferry is lovely for a mooch about.

There's an airthrill in perth and a good swimming pool with flumes etc. Also an innoflate in Dundee.

There's a couple of wall climbing places in Dundee that I'd imagine boys would love (I'm sure one is called block10) and of course Dundee science centre.

Enjoy your trip!

Look up Watergate centre in Perth, they do paddle boarding, zorbing, canoing etc on manmade loch which is part of the River Tay! They might have something that would capture the kids attention! My youngest (age 10) loves it!!

Thank you for all these suggestions! I'm going to look them up now.

Scotland's Secret Bunker is fascinating.
St Andrews and any of the fishing villages around the East Neuk
Queue for the most epic toastie at the Cheesy Toast Shack (St Andrews) and eat them on the beach

Pick your own? The Strawberry Farm shop is north of Perth up up the A93. Probably plenty of others, Perthshire is soft fruit central.
Kinnoull hill and tower is a nice walk with a good view of the Tay (and the A90) from the top.

www.averticalworld.co.uk/
is the other climbing place in Dundee which is good.

The V&A is pretty impressive just to see from the outside and the Whale sculpture just beside it. The cafe at the V&A is good so you could maybe sneak in that way!

There's a real good Turkish restaurant on the Perth Road called Agacan.

I picked up a leaflet for some guided walks looking at different bits of the city one time we were there. My teens moaned all the way round to be fair but there were some interesting bits that we wouldn't have seen otherwise and we stopped for coffees/sweets/ice cream as we did it.

There's a really good skate park in Dudhope Park. Good for a bit of people watching even if they're not particularly into skating.

We reckon the TKMaxx in Dundee is one of the best anywhere so if they like a bit of shopping that's good for a mooch.

I don't know Perth very well but it used to have a really good Italian.

I think there's one of those inflatable water assault course things in the quayside too.

Where in Perthshire are you staying?

Fox Lake is the water assault course and is hugely popular. You book online.

There is a bubble tea shop the teens all like in town too.

I think they’d be too old for the science centre to be honest.

DCA in town has a cinema plus cafe/bar / restaurant. That’s a good visit.

Mine like the Highland safari near Aberfeldy, we’ve done feeding deer, landrover safari and the loch Tay trip at different visits. They like a mooch about a bookshop so the watermill at Aberfeldy and their cakes were good. They love the highland choclatire at Grandtully especially the shot of pure hot chocolate. They want to do the slide thing and sauna at loch Tay marina but one is not old enough. Even if it rains they like a walk up the birks, hermitage at dunkeld or Acharn falls but need it to be followed by a cafe.
Crieff Hydro does quad biking for kids and teens which sounds fun. Lots of good places to eat in Aberfeldy, Grandtully and Dunkeld to keep them happy too! The fish and chip van in Killin is a favourite of ours if that way.

I just remembered there’s indoor go karting

https://www.team-sport.co.uk/go-kart-tracks/dundee?jwng_s=Google&jwng_cid=17611696507&jwng_aid=141259160627&jwng_kwd=go%20karting%20dundee&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpaOTmMKMhwMV7ZdQBh0DMAcSEAAYASAAEgLRaPD_BwE

also in Broughty Ferry there’s

www.saltdogmarine.com , boat trips (quite high speed!) with a very good chance of spotting our local dolphins

Good mountain biking in Comrie and obviously in Aviemore if they like that sort of thing and tolerate the rain. In Comrie Croft you could shelter in the cafe if not into biking as the bike trails start from the hub, where the bike hire shop is also.

I think Highland safari used to do gold panning in the hills too. - not sure if they still do it

Not sure where in Perthshire the OP is, but Willowgate, just outside Perth does lots of water based activities and has a fab cafe with really nice food

White Water rafting at Aberfeldy is good. Wet weather makes it faster. Also Hermitage at Dunkeld.

DH and DN (10) went to the computer games exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland today and both loved it https://www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-scotland/

As PPs have said - Crieff Hydro has lots for all ages. We went quad biking, rifle shooting, archery, zip wiring and forest combat. There's also tank driving at Auchterhouse although at their ages they would have to be passengers rather than drivers.

(Fox Lake is near Dunbar - very far from Perthshire! Loch Earn watersports is closer)

The inflatable water assault course in Dundee is called Wild Shores Dundee

the Vand A looks great from the outside but is dire inside. Very sparse

Agree that Broughty Ferry is lovely. There's a speed boat trip which is great fun, but there might be a minimum age for it.

I think it's improving. Was much better on my second visit. I loved the tapestries exhibition. The fashion photography one was good too, I thought.

Yes, the paid exhibitions have been excellent, there was a fabulous tartan one which has not long finished and the current one is Japanese kimono art

Thank you for all suggestions. I have a few ideas now. If the weather is dry we'll be sorted as there's lots we want to do.

I am regretting booking a Scottish staycation this year as the weather has been so terrible so far.