Bath/Frome area - things to do with kids and teenagers

[Icannever]

We are going to Frome for a week in early July with another family. We will have fours kids ranging in ages between 9 and 16. Normally we would do a beach holiday as they all love the sea but there was nothing available this year.
Looking for ideas of things to do in this area which are fairly chilled out or fun. Are there any outdoor pools? Lakes? Nice walks? Cycle paths? Any good days out that are preferably a little bit cheaper than longleat (also is longleat worth it? £126 for a family ticket seems pretty steep for a safari park). Happy to travel an hour or so.

Thanks so much for your help

Wookey Hole, Cheddar Gorge and Cheddar village.
Brokerswood Country Park
Hire a boat for a day www.bath-narrowboats.co.uk
Bath boating station (rowing boats)

Thanks I’ll have a look

Hi OP,

I’ve been researching for our stay in same area. Here are a few things you may be interested in:

Shepton Mallet Lido

Bristol Zoo

Bristol Aquarium

While in that area visiting family we enjoyed a long (rainy) afternoon spent in the Bookbarn. Obviously only if kids enjoy reading...

Also: Bath City Farm

There are loads of National Trust properties in the area.

Lots of canals - either boat hire or walks along the tow path

Not far from Longleat

Bath is beautiful

Glastonbury

Stonehenge

Have a look at some of the wild swimming spots in the area - there are quite a few good ones. Also I think you can go to Centerparcs for the day, though it's pricey. Bristol has a lot that might appeal to teens - Banksy trail, cool shops etc. The Wave near Bristol is an artificial surfing centre that hasn't been open long (again think it's quite expensive). Bath (obvs). Hauser and Wirth art gallery and gardens / cafe etc in Bruton. Glastonbury. Nice beaches in Dorset prob 1.5hrs away.

Also, Street has Clark's Village, a huge outlet village, with a large Clark's outlet. Perfect for stocking up on school shoes!

Can second Brokerswood, canal walks or hire a canal boat.

Bath has several walking trails. Frome is home to Lilley's cider (all sorts of flavours) for the adults!

Salisbury is within an hour of Frome, lovely to have a walk round, ditto Wells.

I love the Bookbarn.

A gentle one, is Hope Farm nature reserve, charity run, on the south of Trowbridge. Lots of animals to feed.

Wells and Bath leisure centres have great swimming/leisure pools.

The Two Tunnels walk/cycle path is amazing, a converted railway line, one of the tunnels is the longest tunnel open for the public in the UK. You can hire bikes, and it is part of the National Cycleway (can't remember the route number)

Wellow trekking centre for horse/pony trekking.

It's a lovely part of the world!

I am 30 minutes up the road in Bath. We sometimes nip down to the coast for the day (Lyme Regis/Purbeck & Studland Bay/Lulworth). it would probably be best to try to get there by 10am.

Nunney Castle isn't too far from Frome (cute little ruined castle in the centre of the village with a moat round it). The village used to have a decent pub (not been there for years).

If you have a gang of boys, they would probably enjoy the Haynes Motor Museum at Sparkford.

If you wanted to river swim your best bet is probably going to be at Farleigh Hungerford (it is okay for youngish children). It certainly used to be fairly well signposted: farleighswimming.co.uk/
The English heritage Castle is just up the road if some don't want to swim.

I THINK Brokerswood has been bought out (so it is residents/campers only).

You don't say where you are coming from, but look to see whether Lacock is sort of on the way if the kids were Harry Potter fans.

Bristol
The Concorde museum
The M Shed
Clifton suspension bridge
Durdham Downs, Blaise Castle or Ashton Court for a walk .
Avon Valley railway
SS Great Britain
Take a boat trip around the harbour (you can get a hop on hop off ticket.

Bath
The Roman Baths
The assembly rooms and costume museum
The American museum

Bradford on Avon is a really pretty little town just up the road from Frome and has canoes for hire along the canals which are very safe plus great canal boat trips over the aquaducts and lovely cycle paths in either direction along the canal sides (I prefer the one heading to Bath). On some days they also have paddle boards for hire and organised sessions. You can hire bikes if you don't have them. Up in Limpley Stoke you can also hire motor boats to meander the canals back down towards Bradford on Avon and over the aqueducts again. Great if it's a nice day. As some one mentioned English Heritage have a good few castles locally which our boys love.

I second those that suggested The Roman Baths - they're great and Bath of course is lovely.

Walk up the White Horse in nearby Westbury or there is a car park at the top and then you can walk the ridge. Similarly you can hike up Glastonbury Tor.

Get high? That's how the Frome teens spend their days!

Aside from that, The American Museum is very interesting (I think) and there's a pretty big garden to kick the kids out into if they've had enough of looking around inside but the adults want longer.

Stourhead, Dyrham Park, Prior Park and Tyntesfield are all good national trust proprieties in the area if you like that sort of thing.

Bath has a city farm that’s free.

There’s a sports centre in Writhlington (20 min from Frome) that has a climbing wall and inflatable sessions and stuff like that.

Fab walks in Mells and a walled garden where you can get pizza!

Cheddar Gorge definitely worth a look - one of my favourite places! There are also lovely walks around some nature reserves there (Velvet Bottom).

Oh and Cley Hill is a nice walk near Warminster. I’ll stop now 😁

Jumping on this thread for ideas as we will be in the area in early July as well. Although DD is older.

Thanks very much everyone, I’ll go and google everything. We are thinking of taking our bikes as well and finding a nice cycle path, will check out the one to bath thanks . The castle with the moat looks really cool. Canoeing and paddle boarding sounds fun too
@FurrySlipperBoots that seems to be teens everywhere right now.

There's a cycle path that runs from Bristol to Bath and alongside part of it is Avon Valley Railway where they hold steam train events (and occasionally beer festivals!).