Everyone needs a holiday, family and kids more than most !
UK Family holidays must cater for adults and children of all ages. If the children aren't
happy it's no holiday for the parents and can be harder work than staying home.
Enjoy browsing our directory of UK holidays, carefully
selected for families..
Also, if you are thinking of doing a Eurostar
over to the continent then have a look at our Holidays
in Europe section, which has links to tourist information for every country in Europe. If that is not enough then
try our World Holiday Directory
And if you need holiday cover then compare
travel insurance at Moneysupermarket.com
Part of the fun of working on Mirandasbeach UK Family Holidays is surfing the net looking for the best UK family holiday, and the best UK Holiday listings sites around, and being generous in spirit we can then share them with you ! Here is a round up of our latest findings plus some old favourites:
UKCampsite.co.uk - If you want to find a campsite in a hurry, you'll find thousands of camp site details and over 35,000 independent reviews, links to webpages and more. Search by Name Town and County
The English Riviera - Did you know that England has it's very own Riviera ? Well it does and includes the towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham in Devon. This excellent example of an official tourist board site gives you the low down on this beautiful part of the country with even something to delight Agatha Christie fans !
The Landmark Trust - Have you ever dreamed of staying in a truly historic building - well the Landmark Trust specialize in rescuing historic buildings and giving them a new lease of life as places to stay in.
Lots of families are venturing out into the summer festival world and there has certainly been a massive proliferation of family friendly festivals in recent years. When you can combine the joys of camping with playing at circuses, drumming in never ending hippy drum workshops, sneaking up the front to see a great band, you can see why parents are realising that they and their kids can have a wonderful time. My favourites at the moment are Latitude in beautiful Suffolk near Southwold (July) and End of the Road in Dorset (September) - The picture above is I'm From Barecelona playing at End of the Road in 2007 and below is the beautiful fairly light woods at the same festival. See our Family Friendly Festivals section for details.
If you are looking for ideas on what to do with your children as the summer hits us here in the UK then www.IdeasForTheKids.co.uk is the most comprehensive free online source of places to go and things to do with kids in the UK. It is aimed at parents and families (rather than the children themselves) and has over 10,000 child-friendly venues and attractions listed across the UK.
There are so many diverse holidays in the UK now you don’t have to add to global warming by taking a plane, you can stay right here.
If you want to enjoy your break with your four legged friend then try.
dogfriendlyholidaycottages.co.uk
New ‘Refreshology’ breaks combine the exhilaration of outdoor activities such as bracing coastal walks, horseriding, golf, cliff jumping and high-speed boat trips, with the freedom and relaxation of self-catering cottage accommodation. All with the aim of offering a more revitalising long weekend away than could be had by pounding the streets of a European capital.
www.refreshology.com
Alternatively Pick a city, pick a stylish hotel and enjoy:
malmaison.com
I’m always on the lookout for a good campsite in the UK. Deepdale farm, in Burnham Deepdale, North Norfolk www.deepdalefarm.co.uk is quiet and friendly and sells the best cooked breakfast in the county. If your own tent isn’t luxurious enough you can rent a tipi and once a year there’s even a jazz festival.
For a more challenging yet beautiful and remote experience try a holiday with Wilderness Scotland. Sea kayaking, skiing, mountainbiking or walking in spectacular scenery in well organized groups: wildernessscotland.com
For something less remote what about a romantic weekend in Liverpool ? Go to the new Malmaison. malmaison.co.uk
Liverpool and Everton fans can book their own suites, replete with club memorabilia and tabl-top footie.
We take our boys, 10 and 8, to the Bootleg Beatles every Christmas in Brighton. They must be one of the best cover bands around, which is why they are so popular, plus every song has a great melody and guaranteed crowd pleaser. For tour dates go to: www.bootlegbeatles.com
But hurry as they sell out! (Gran and granddad might like it too!)
Find transcripts of the loads of real Beatles’ interviews, photos and links on www.geocities.com/~beatleboy1/ where you'll find lots of great photos of the fab four from the early sixties through to the psychadelic late sixties and beyond. The Bootleg Beatles really do the songs justice with near perfect renditions often with the added support of orchestral arrangements - like in Eleanor Rigby, Penny Lane (great brass) and All you need is Love. Money can't by you love - but it could get you a ticket to see a great tribute band this christmas.
Tresco, CornwallWhy not treat you and your family to the beauty and tranquility of the Scily Isles, just off the coast of Cornwall ?
Tresco, one of the islands, has the most beautiful tropical garden where the fauna has flourished in abundance helped by the warmth of the gulf stream.
Tresco is the second biggest of the Scily Isles, and has a spectacular variety of scenery. Wild rugged granite outcrops and heathland to the north, with sub-tropical sandy beaches and the Abbey Gardens in the South. The Abbey Gardens are a home to over 20,000 exotic plants from 80 countries across the globe (Brazil, New Zealand, Africa etc).
Find more info on Tresco at:
www.tresco.co.uk/about_tresco/
Check out this Guardian reader offer to Tresco:
Find more UK offers here:
travel.guardian.co.uk/readeroffers/unitedkingdom
Our UK Family Holidays Swiki is a great way to build up a wide ranging buzzcloud of keywords that are contributed by you fellow searchers - those people like you who are intrepidly scanning the internet looking for that perfect holiday - give it a go - its already very popular - and the more popular it gets the more focused and better the results. So give Swiki a go !
UK Family Holidays SWIKI Search
The YHA now provide very different accommodation to that offered thirty or more years ago. They are more comfortable and have optional private rooms or same sex sharing with laundered bed linen. Quality meals are often provided, or alternatively, self catering kitchens and lots of other facilities.
The 227 YHA hostels come in so many different shapes and sizes, from mansions to thatched cottages or modern purpose built hostels with lots of mod cons. They even have Tipis for rent at YHA Burley, YHA Golant, YHA Coverack, YHA Ridgeway and YHA Welsh Bicknor.
For the more hardy, a cheap option (around £5 a night per person) is the 50 or more camping barns in the YHA network and you could look into taking over one of these with your family and friends – but they are basic so only take granny if she knows what's in store !
Then there are a few, out in the wilds, bunkhouses which again are cheap (£10 per person).
Youth Hostelling can be a great way to see the country and it is relatively cheap, although the private room options do get into regular B&B territory. The picture above is of the beautiful Wastwater Youth Hostel in the Lake district and currently prices start at £11.95 for adults and £8.95 for under 18s. You can get a family room (sleeps 4) at a very reasonable rate under £50.
Youth Hostelling is also a great way of meeting all sorts of people from all over the world – over 500,000 overnight stays a year are by overseas visitors, from a total of 750,000.
Go to http://www.yha.org.uk/ the home site of the YHA in the UK and get more details.
The Isle of Wight is a diamond shaped gem covering an area of 147 square miles (381 square km) off the south coast of England. Nearly half of the island is designated as the Isle of Wight Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Island has a very diverse landscape, and is often likened to "England in Miniature". West Isle of Wight is very rural, with a very dramatic coastline dominated by the chalk downland ridge that sweeps across the Island from the East to The Needles stacks in the West.
Families can have great fun on the Isle of Wight and there are many places to visit – like Blackgang Chine and Needles Park, for a good list try the Family Fun Page on the http://www.islandbreaks.co.uk/ site which is the excellent official site of Isle of Wight tourism with sections on accommodation, travel information, places to visit, festivals and events and lots more.
To get there you’ll probably take a ferry – try http://www.redfunnel.co.uk/ or http://www.wightlink.co.uk/
Don’t take our word for it, you can read travellers tales of trips at the virtualtourist Isle Of Wight page.
Good sites for accommodation and holidays on the Isle of Wight :
information-britain.co.ukOpenroads.comWightonlineIslandbreaks
And there is loads of Isle of Wight family holiday information and ideas here at TakeTheFamily.com
Theme parks, pleasure beaches, seaside piers and water parks, with their roller coasters, log rides and candyfloss: sometimes you want to avoid them like the plague, other times they are just what your family need. Here at Family Holidays UK we have compiled an extensive LIST OF UK THEME PARKS, just in case you get in the mood and feel like you can afford it ! (we know full well how much it can cost !). They are all linked to the home sites where you can check out any special offers, opening times and what's on.
A great site, well worth a mention here, is easypreschoolsouthwest.co.uk. It is packed with ideas, information and news on family holidays in the South West of England. It specialises in the pre school age group but parents with older children will find a lot here to help make that holiday choice. There are sections on special places to stay, beaches, travel tips and kids attractions. Its is an official SouthWest Tourism site so you can be assured that it is up to date and relevant.
Also worth a look is South West Tourism's Beach and Beyond site for family holidays, with loads of ideas covering the areas: Bristol and Bath, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Dorset, Devon
If your kids love rollercoasters, or for that matter you love the adrenaline rush as well, then the UK has some mighty rides for you to try. Among the best, or most terrifying depending on how you look at it, are:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Alton towers, Staffordshire, A fantastic multisensory experience
www.altontowers.comShockwave and Apocolypse at Drayton Manor, Staffordshire, two unique stand up rides
www.draytonmanor.co.ukStealth at Thorpe Park, Surrey, An amazing 0 to 80mph in 2.3 secs !
www.thorpepark.co.ukSpeed at Oakwood, Pembroke, the first "beyond vertical drop"
www.oakwood-leisure.com
The image is of the ride Nemesis, another great ride at Alton Towers !
If you and the family are on holiday in Cornwall this summer then a great treat is the Minack outdoor theatre. Carved into the rock at Porthcurno, you get fantastic views and all sorts of plays ! To check the line up and online booking go to minack.com. The 2008 season highlights include Jazz Weekend in May, Under Milk Wood in July and Henry V in August – but there is an amazing number of plays performed – check the line up at their whats on page.
Many of you will be heading for the beaches of Britain this summer and if you want to know how they rate on thing such as water quality, child safety, dog walking and surf then the goodbeachguide.co.uk site is the place to go.
It is published by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) - a UK charity set up for the protection of our shores, seas, and wildlife. It is the biggest UK and Ireland beach guide available with a description, photo and map for each of their 1,200 beaches.
For a more detailed look at safety on the beach you'll find a lot at the Royal National Lifeboat Institue's beachsafety.org.uk site, which is packed with sound beach advice from Weever Fish to How to Spot a Rip ! all on downloadable factsheets.
And do not forget the Blue Flag beach award site for the UK at blueflag.org.uk. This lists all the winners of the Blue Flag award with a detailed explanation of why they were chosen. There is also a list of UK Seaside award winning beaches and you will find a comparison of the award criteria between BlueFlag and Seaside awards at http://www.blueflag.org.uk/sea3.asp
So often a UK holiday with kids can go wrong because of the weather, and even
in these times of Global Warming
the unpredictablility of the British summer is something worth taking into account.
I have two boys who like to romp and go wild with the best of them and several
holidays have been rescued over the years because we hedged our bets and got
somewhere with an indoor swimming pool. On a couple of occasions there was also
a Sauna and Sunbed thrown into the bargain as well, so I got my fair share of
rest and relaxation while the two hour sessions of improvised Water Polo or
Shark Attack went on in the pool ! Our Indoor
Pool section here at Family holidays has lots of ideas for finding good
accommodation all over the UK with a covered heated swimming pool. If you have
trouble finding somewhere try our Swiki
Search which is has been tailored over the years to provide good search
finds for all sorts of UK Holidays.
St Ives in Cornwall ranks among the UK's lovliest towns. It is Western
edge of the English mainland and is famous for the quality of the light,
something that has attracted many painters and artists. It is one of the
UK's popular all round holiday destinations, but keeps it's charm, not
a lager swilling hotspot but more of a family destination. It is of course
set in in the ruggedly beautiful landscape of West Cornwall and offers
great walking (stunning clifftop views !) and great sandy beaches for
surfing, relaxing and strolling.
There is the extra bonus of all the art in the town. Lots of local St.
Ives artists make the local art scene an interesting diversion and then
of course there are the heavyweights at the Tate St Ives and Barbara Hepworth
Museum & Sculpture Garden .
A really lovely, friendly little site in Southern England (South Downs) which has become very popular amongst the camper set who like to build fires and avoid the trappings of the more commercially oriented sites. There are Only 20 pitches (£5
per night plus £7 per adult in high season, down to £5 per
adult in low season) in private woodland clearings with camp fires allowed
(and necessary, especially out of season !). It does get booked up quickly
in high season because its a bit good, but if you feel like getting away then off season, it is a great time to visit. I personally
would pay the extra and go for the caravans (£15 per night plus
£7 per adult in high season, down to £5 per adult in low season)
that they have there, which have their own fire pits, and will provide
you with a bit more home comfort and wind proofing after the bracing walks
and expeditions of the day.
Messing around in Boats ?
Feb 27, 2008 Never
considered barging away a week or two ? The UKs great canal network is
like a maze of back passages that can take you into some of the most beautiful
countryside and then into the heart of big cities and towns. Also, do
not forget the canalside public houses where a pint or two of real ale
can relax you even more ! It really is a different kind of holiday on
a slow barge. You can learn new skills and see Britain in a different
way - so get into the great outdoors ! You will find a comprehensive
directory of UK boat and barge holiday sites in our boats
and barges section
Self-catering holiday villas & apartments Find the perfect holiday villa or self catering apartment on
the UK's no.1 holiday rentals site. Choose from one of 45,000 rental properties.
Book direct from the owner for great value.
Out
Of School Care Regardless of your budget, circumstance or location we have
the kids club, summer camp or out of school care solution for you. Out
of School Care has been developed as a simple search and booking service
for parents looking for children's holiday club providers and summer camps
in their area. We also work with companies to help provide their employees
with the best backup childcare.
London
Apartments For a wide range of London Apartments our Serviced apartments
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London
airport to town transfer London Shuttle Service offers rapid London Airport Transport
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Travel Guide Adventure Travel for Disabled - Nothing Can Stop You Anymore
Royal Caribbean Cruises A Royal Caribbean cruise holiday is fantastic value and is a
very smart, affordable way to travel.
London
Hotels www.discountcityhotels.net offers great deals on Last Minute
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Climate Change News All the latest news on Climate Change and Global Warming
WeWin4U Automatic Competition
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those entry forms then WeWin4U is the answer. They will find the competitions
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Catering Ireland
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Celebrity
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Heart
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guide about Malta and Gozo and a wide choice of Malta hotels and self
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Kerala Hotels
Karma Kerala is a Kerala travel service for visitors who want to experience
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