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Travelling in Snowdonia with kids

If your little ones love a bit of muck and aren’t adverse to wild and woolly coastal walks then travelling in Snowdonia with kids is going to be a real pleasure. Activities for families start and end with how to travel safely in Snowdonia with kids; with Zipworld, mountain biking at Coed y Brenin and local slate mines and caverns all highly recommended.

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Travelling in Snowdonia with kids

What does Responsible Travel recommend?

Visiting Snowdonia with children is like going into a restaurant that doesn’t do ‘kids menus’ but just offers half portions of the real thing. Children can engage in activities that will challenge and delight them, sometimes scare them a little but, more often than not, push them to a point of pride.

Snowdonia doesn’t patronise children. It invites them in with open arms to join in the adult fun, allowing them to gorge on all of nature’s goodies for days on end.

And just when you think the kids should be collapsing into bed, don't miss out on showing them the night sky in Snowdonia. Because it was recently awarded International Dark Sky Reserve status, with the most spectacular clear, night skies. So, make sure you bring your constellation map as well as your OS one.

Activities for families

What to do in Snowdonia with kids

There is no looking back to tacky theme parks after a trip to Snowdonia’s Zipworld. Donning flying suits and goggles at this extraordinary revival of an obsolete quarry, you will take on what feels like a big version of the Superman trick you did with them when they were babies. There is a small and big version, and both require minimum age of seven and ten respectively, with minimum height 120cms.

If you thought taking the stabilizers off was a big step, wait until you see them hit the mountain bike trails of at Coed y Brenin. As well as the Yr Afon family cycle trail, the Y Ffowndri (The Foundry) has excellent training facilities for beginners, young and not so young. You can hire bikes here too. There are also many off road cycle trails for younger children in Snowdonia.

With carefully constructed family-friendly experiences, go down into the caverns of the slate mines at Corris Mine Explorers or Llechwedd Slate Caverns. Both get you kitted up in special safety equipment before exploring the huge abandoned slate chambers, where you will find all sorts of relics from this important era of Snowdonia’s history.

Tips for families

responsibletravel.com asks the experts

Ifer Gwyn is the Principal Policy Officer at Snowdonia National Park, so if anyone knows the Park he does:

"Some families are wary of cycling here because they think Snowdonia is all about mountain biking and elite sports. But we have lots of off road cycling trails in Snowdonia, which are perfect for families. Then, if they want to progress onto the mountain trails, they can if they want to.”

Rosalie Holyoak, owner of Cwm Deiliog self catering accommodation and one of our suppliers:

"Families visiting Llanberis love the Peak Restaurant, run by chef Angela Dwyer, and also the very different Pete’s Eats."

Photo credits: [Muddy child: © Crown copyright (2014) Visit Wales] [Zip World: Zip World] [Mountain biking: © Crown copyright (2014) Visit Wales] [Llechwedd caverns: © Crown copyright (2014) Visit Wales] [Cycling: © Crown copyright (2014) Visit Wales]

Written by Catherine Mack

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