Anyone been to hadrians wall or kielder forest ?

[loubylou66]

Thinking of visiting northumbria next summer.Will probably do a 2 centre hol as we would like to visit the coast and inland bits but are aware of the long driving distances between the two. We will spend a few days in alnwick first and then some more nr the wall. Can anyone recommend the best place to stay for access to hadrians wall and kielder ? Also which are the best museums on the wall and most likely to appeal to DS 4 and 8 yrs old ? Is kielder worth vsiting ? Both boys are quite 'outsidey' and don't mind walking etc. Thanks in advance, Louise

hi we just came back from a weekend at leaplish on the shores on kielder water.
our DCs are 4 and 2. there is a mountain bike trail all around which DH did. we stayed in wooden lodge type thingys, there was also a swimming pool, playground etc. we did walking on the path around the lake for a bit and DS rode his bike there fine. also went on the ferry and there are boats to hire if you go 'in season'. it was lovely. i don't really know how near hadrian's wall it was though.
we have been to hadrian's wall and i would suggest that it is probably a half day / day activity to visit one of the sites (maybe housesteads is best?)
we have also stayed on the coast near bambrugh. there are lots of lovely places.
i would probably avoid alnwick garden unless you want to spend a lot of time in a queue, we had a terrible time but a lot of people seem to rave about it.

We enjoyed Alnwick and didn't have to queue at all!! Ah well.

On Hadrians Wall we enjoyed Vindolanda. This has some good reconstructions and films about what it was like to be a Roman soldier. Oh and a walk along the wall is always good.

northumberland is great though, very underrrated imo

Vindolanda, Housesteads and Chesters are the places to go on the Wall. Hexham is a good base, lovely little market town on the A69 so good links between Newcastle and Carlisle (essentially the length of the wall) and close to the A68 for Kielder and further north.

I'd probably go coastal for your other base, somewhere around Holy Island (but check the tide times for your stay), though avoid Seahouses as it's very Blackpooly and probably not what you're wanting.

Northumberland is fab (I live in the NE so biased ) and remote enough to be peaceful.