Holiday in Ayr

millerose

Hi everyone

I'm after some recommendations please.
I have booked a holiday to Ayr at Easter through the Sun holidays. We have never been to the area before. As our time will be short can you recommend some places of interest to visit? Such as museums? Castles? Country parks? Anything to keep an 11 and 8 year old happy outdoors. How far would Glasgow or Edinburgh be for us to visit?

Also,

We will be travelling from Derbyshire and as it is going to take us 5 hours travelling time we are thinking of staying in a hotel on the Sunday night - half way to break up the journey. Could anyone recommend a good halfway stop point? With something to visit on the way?

Thanks in Advance.

chicagrande

Here are a few ideas: -
Culzean Castle - http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/Culzean-Castle-and-Country-Park/ - which involves driving up/down Electric Brae http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dunure/electricbrae/

Burns Cottage - http://www.burnsmuseum.org.uk/

Scottish Dark Sky Observatory? http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g2552826-d3849817-Reviews-Scottish_Dark_Sky_Observatory-Dalmellington_East_Ayrshire_Ayrshire_Scotland.html

There are loads of beaches and parks nearby and the Ayrshire Coastal Path http://www.ayrshirecoastalpath.org/ runs through Craig Tara if this is the park you have booked? If you have booked another site it is still accessible.

daveyjp

It depends how your children handle longer journeys, but I wouldn't bother with an overnight break for a 5 hour trip, but we are used to doing 200-300 mile trips in a day.

Have a couple of stops and time will soon pass. Tebay services is one of the best in the UK and its about half way.

Apart from the stretch between M74 and Ayr its motorway almost all the way. After Kendal the M6/M74 is quiet so you can make good progress.

If a stop is required the Lake District is an obvious area to look at.

As for things to do also consider a hop over to Arran. Not cheap if you take the car, but you can go as foot passengers and have some time in Brodick.

molerat

Take a rain coat - there is a reason they grow tatties in the area. My daughter did her teacher training there and every time we visited we got wet

hollie.weimeraner

We stayed at Dunure a couple of years ago. Albeit we stayed a week we visited Arran as foot passengers on the ferry and went round the island on the hop on hop off bus. Fabulous time and also brought back some Arran Gold cream Liqueur from the distillery.