Summer holiday in the UK this year... good idea?? bad idea??

[herladyship]

having done lots of long haul travel in recent years and only really having weekend breaks in the uk, i am trying to persuade dh that it would be great fun to go camping in cornwall for a couple of weeks this august..

have found a surf school that does family surf lessons, have seen a nice campsite in newquay area and quite fancy visiting some local places, like the minack theatre. ds (13) and dd (7) like to be 'on the go' all the time nowadays.

guess i am wondering what the chances are of:

a) it's nightmare journey (from lincoln), it rains the whole time, it costs us a fortune, the dc's are bored and we never holiday in the uk again..

or

b) avoiding some of the worst traffic, getting at least a bit of decent weather, finding plenty for the dc's to do and not needing a second mortgage to finance the trip..

sorry its so long but any advice appreciated!!

Went to Cornwall last year for a week. Near Newquay. Had an awesome time. There's loads to do for kids. We were there 7 days - had something different to do everyday. It took a bit of planning before hand - but was worth it. Instead of being stuck in traffic forever, one option could be to get the train to Plymouth - then hire a car. You can get really cheap train tickets this far in advance. But you definitely need a car whilst you're there - public transport is terrible. Sod the weather - when we were there is rained for 4 out of 7 days - and didn't make a blind bit of difference ! Apart from needing more clothes !!

Cornwall's great and theres loads to do. It might rain but that doesn't mean you can't have fun - you get wet when you're surfing anyway

I think quite a few people avoid the traffic jams by either leaving really early; driving overnight and getting there really early; or avoiding travelling on a saturday.

This place is good for keeping the kids entertained and its close to Newquay. The beach at Holywell bay is really nice too.

[waves to fellow yellowbelly]

We went to Cornwall a few years ago, the drive was better than I thought it would be - we stayed at Mousehole, so close to the Minack theatre. But its a long drive from there to Newquay. We never went to The Eden Project while we were there like we planned to, we realised that it takes ages to get from one place to another as the roads are quite slow. But we had great weather and loved it.

I also live in Lincolnshire nr Sleaford, but orginally come from Plymouth, my mum and brother still live there and i i often go down to visit and it is a long drive i have three under 7. But it takes me 5 hrs to plymouth so add on at least a couple more.
We only stop for loo breaks and eat in the car.

We either leave v early in morning or late afternoon so as to miss as much traffic as poss.

But we love cornwall and devon so would go for it whatever the weather. The minack theatre is lovely, i also like Tintagel and Looe in fact all of cornwall.

thank you to everyone for replies!

i keep looking at that area on the net, and i am really tempted, we haven't camped for more than 5 nights before so am a bit apprehensive about that side of it.. but definately keen on cornwall