Active Snowdonia: Ten Ways To Keep Kids Moving In Snowdonia

On the beach at Barmouth

Snowdonia – The Active Destination – offers endless ways to keep fit and active. Many of these activities are ideal for children; here are ten of our favourites.

When you visit Snowdonia with children, keeping them entertained is a piece of cake. After all, the region is packed with attractions that children love to visit. And in an active destination like Snowdonia, which is famous for the vast range of healthy activities on offer, keeping your children fit and active on holiday couldn’t be easier!

Here are ten Snowdonia attractions and activities that will help your youngsters burn off a bit of excess energy.

1. Coed y Brenin Forest Park

Just outside Dolgellau is Coed y Brenin Forest Park, one of the UK’s top mountain biking centres. You can bring your own bikes or hire them on-site, but there’s actually more to Coed y Brenin than cycling: it’s also a great place for a nature ramble, and there’s an excellent adventure playground that younger visitors can’t get enough of!

2. Fun in the trees

There are several Snowdonia attractions where children (and adults of course!) can have fun climbing trees then whizzing back down to earth on a zipline. Tree Top Adventure in Betws y Coed, Ropes and Ladders at Padarn Country Park, and Go Ape at Coed y Brenin Forest Park are all great places to try this exciting and very energetic activity.

3. Yr Hwylfan

In Caernarfon is Yr Hwylfan – The Fun Centre – which is set in a former church. Here your children can have fun on climbing frames, on giant slides, and in ball pools – and there’s a dedicated area for tiny tots too, so your littlest children won’t feel left out.

 

GreenWood Forest Park

4. GreenWood Forest Park

At GreenWood Forest Park, Snowdonia’s eco-friendly theme park, there’s plenty to keep kids active. No, it’s not all about sitting down on rides all day – at GreenWood, there are plenty of really energetic activities to keep children moving. One of the most popular activities at GreenWood is den building, which takes place in the park’s beautiful woodland.

5. Have a ball on the beach

There are plenty of ways to keep a child active on the beach – and in Snowdonia, we have 200 miles of coastline so you’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to picking a beach! Rock pooling, sand castle building, playing football or cricket or volleyball – or even a spot of swimming if the weather’s right – are all great ways for children to keep fit on the coast, so pick a beach and off you go!

6. Climbing walls

Even on wet days it’s easy to keep kids active in Snowdonia. Indoor climbing walls are a great way to do this. At the Beacon Climbing Centre children as young as five can learn to climb, and there’s a range of different courses for children of varying ages and abilities. There are also climbing walls at some of the leisure centres in the region; you don’t have to be a local resident to use our leisure centres, and the prices are very reasonable too.

Sygun Copper Mine

7. Sygun Copper Mine

It’s walking, but it’s walking with a difference! At Sygun Copper Mine you and your family will be able to take a self-guided tour of the old chambers, which are still threaded with traces of gold, silver and copper. For a small extra charge, you can even try a spot of panning for gold – and there’s an adventure playground back above ground, too.

8. Paintballing

At Dragon Raiders Paintballing near Pwllheli, children over 11 years of age can have lots of fun chasing each other around with paint guns. It’s a messy job, but somebody has to do it! As well as its four game zones, Dragon Raiders has a shooting gallery where players can grab a bit of practice before the battles commence.

 

9. Padarn Country Park

There’s so much going on at Padarn Country Park in Llanberis, you’ll probably need a couple of whole-day visits to get through all the activities on offer! For starters there are nature rambles and orienteering, and the aforementioned Ropes and Ladders course. Then there’s rock climbing, scuba diving, rowing, sailing and canoeing… you’ll be spoilt for choice!

Criccieth Castle

10. Exploring castles

Exploring Snowdonia’s castles may not sound particularly energetic, but bear in mind that even our ruined castles are enormous, so it takes a lot of walking to fully explore one! You’ll be up and down stairs to enjoy tower-top views, and depending on which castle you visit, you may descend into a dungeon or two. In Snowdonia you’re never very far from a castle, so try to make time to visit one (Harlech, Caernarfon, Conwy and Criccieth Castles are perhaps our best-known) and give your little ones a workout with a difference!