Family Adventures

Working out what to do with your family is never easy. What will suit everyone? How old do the children need to be? What if the weather is not good on the day?

These are some of the questions we get asked. So here are our thoughts and hopefully some answers to help you plan your family’s next outdoor adventure.

There is no simple answer as to whether one activity will suit the whole family. But whatever you choose Eden Outdoor Adventures will make every effort to include the whole family at a level that suits them. It is always possible to cater for a range of ages, abilities and aspirations in all the activities we offer and we will encourage everyone to be as involved as they feel comfortable with.

With this flexibility it also means we cater for a range of ages with our youngest customer so far being 2 years old and our oldest being …. ??? Age is just a number!

If your family wants to stay dry then we can offer rock climbing or hill walking. Both are great family activities. We offer climbing in the Ullswater and Borrowdale valleys. There are a number of fantastic climbing crags to choose from allowing us to select the best one for the age of the group and their previous experience. We can offer climbing to challenge all abilities and teach everyone to climb and belay (hold the rope for the climber) during the activity.

There are wonderful low level and high level walks for the whole family in the Lake District, North Pennines, Eden Valley and the Northern Yorkshire Dales. We can take you along lake shores, through woods and meadows or up onto the lower fells that give enchanting views over the valleys below.

If messing about on the water is your thing then try canoeing or sit on top kayaking. We have two of the most beautiful lakes to paddle on (Ullswater & Derwentwater) along with some easy rivers. Canoeing is a great way to travel on the water with less chance of getting too wet. For those who are nervous we can take boats and join them together using wooden spars and straps to turn them into a catamaran  which is very stable and pretty much impossible to capsize. Like this we can cater for families with small children and can provide life jackets for the smallest of family members.

For those who do not mind getting a little wetter, then exploring on a double sit-on-top kayak would be a great option. These are pretty stable and even if you do capsize all that happens is you fall off and then climb back on again. Wetsuit provided!!

Once we have taught you the basic skills we head off on a journey. This will see you exploring bays and islands around the lake. Along the way we stop for a drink and snack. We can combine our canoe trips with a BBQ or can light a fire and cook marshmallows. We can mix and match boats if families want to try both canoeing and sit on top kayaking, just let us know what you would like to do and we will do the rest.

If you are looking for something a little different and love to get wet then why not try ghyll scrambling? This is where you explore one of the Lake District’s mountain streams. In the Ullswater and Borrowdale valleys you can start at the bottom and scramble your way up over rocks and short waterfalls as you climb higher to admire the views. Or in the Newlands valley near Keswick you can walk up on a good path to the top of the ghyll. From there you come down taking advantage of natural water slides, along with jumps and dives to keep even the most adventurous entertained!

So having a family adventure couldn’t be any simpler. rock climbing, ghyll scrambling and canoe or kayaking are all half days (morning or afternoon).  Walking can be low or high level and can be half or whole day.  You can also choose two activities and have one in the morning and one in the afternoon. All you have to do is decide what activity you would like to do, then let us know when! We need some information about your family and where you are staying and Eden Outdoor Adventures will then work out the best location for your adventure and sort the rest. We provide all safety kit needed including wetsuits and waterproofs for activities where you will get wet. So take the stress out of having an adventure and give us a call to organise it for you.