Peak district with child without a car

[Dilemma8188]

Hi everyone,
I'm back for more travel advice. I have four days in August during which I can take my 6 year old daughter anywhere (within reason). I was tempted to go to the south of Spain but tickets are getting expensive for the exact area I'd like to go.
I'm contemplating the Peak District, as it's beautiful and I have a friend who lives in Sheffield that I could visit. Problem is I have no car. Is visiting the Peak district with a 6 year-old doable without a car? I looked at some YHA hostels that looked nice, but they're all remote... Any tips?

4-8 August ideally!

Is this any good OP https://www.dogfriendlycottages.co.uk/properties/234394?check_in_on=04-08-2024&nights=4&utm_source=GoogleVR&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=&utm_content=localuniversal&utm_term=234394&total_guests=2&adults=2&children=0

Hope is a good base when you don’t have a car.

We've been in our camper van a few times, including last week. We've not moved it from the site, finding decent sights and walks to do on our doorstep.

I just want to thank you for this thread, OP, and all who have contributed

It's given me more ideas for a future trip as a non-driver so I shall look forward to your updates

Haha you're one of my people!
Thank you to the latest people who've commented!
OK. I've booked and feel as usual an immense sense of relief. I booked tickets for Sheffield and my husband had the great idea to check for travelcards, and lo and behold, I discovered the £30 friends and family travelcard, which gives us 30% of most train travel. So the tickets for me and my daughter together were £50 in total.
Feeling flush, I decided to be settle for a decent hotel in the centre of town, and luckily, there's an independent one that seems very nice with great reviews that had a discount.
So today the plan is to map out some day trips on the open deck bus, figure out the various stops, etc.
Will be back for more questions about my next holiday 😂

Actually, for more tried and tested carless ideas:

• Isle of Wight (train and ferry from London, excellent bus service there)
• train to Bournemouth then the open deck bus across the Dorset coast
• York then the £2 bus all the way to Whitby (one of the most scenic routes in the UK!)

If you can get there on public transport the new-ish Gullivers near Sheffield is better than the one in matlock
The tramway museum is also really good for a 6 year old

Love this thread! Agree about the Dorset open top bus but hadn't considered some of the others so thank you OP.

Excellent news OP.

May I suggest getting off at Grindleford station which has a good cafe and doing the valley walk to Hathersage train station. Should be fine for a 6yo.

@Abracadabra12345 we don’t have a car. We’re getting the train to Pembrokeshire for 2 weeks soon.

Haha maybe we should start a blog. These are all great tips. I'm writing them down.

@MinnieMountain if you have a bit of time, I'd love a quick comment on here about getting to Pembrokeshire without a car. It was the other region I wanted to travel to and everyone kept recommending camping, which seemed unfeasible for us!

Happily OP. I’ll PM you when I have a minute.

Carless here too👍 really been wanting to discover more of peak district so watching this thread with interest😊 thanku OP

@Abracadabra12345 is it train to Swansea then change to the transport for Wales line?

Haha, pm me if you happen to be going at the same time! Hope this helped!

I don't think anyone has mentioned it upthread but the Longshaw Estate is easily accessible on the bus from Sheffield (the bus that goes to Hathersage - get off at the Fox House Inn). It's National Trust, has a cafe and toilets, and there are loads of really nice and varied walks from there that would be perfect for a 6 year old. You can head up to some of the moorland edges from there, or if it's hot, down to Padley gorge (where there are places to paddle in the river and often an ice-cream van). They have lots of events on too over the summer that might be suitable too.

Hathersage has a lovely open-air pool - you do need to book though.

Events at Longshaw, Burbage and the Eastern Moors (nationaltrust.org.uk

The Peak Sightseer is an open topped bus run by Stagecoach. You can hop on and off the bus as many times as you like with your ticket. Last year, it was £6 for an adult, £4 for under 19s.
The timetable is downloadable.

This is all great. Thank you so much for the recommendations, everyone!