7 screen-free activities kids will love to try on holiday
Try engaging outdoor activities such as birdwatching, whittling and fruit picking to help get your kids off their devices when you’re on a break.
Published: Monday, 12 May 2025
Try engaging outdoor activities such as birdwatching, whittling and fruit picking to help get your kids off their devices when you’re on a break.
Published: Monday, 12 May 2025
Kids glued to their screens too much? If you’re struggling to get them off their devices and outside into the fresh air, make holidays about exploring your surroundings and connecting with nature.
Try these engaging outdoor activities to boost wellbeing and make new memories together when you’re away
Birdwatching is one of the easiest ways to spark kids’ interest in wildlife as they can often spot feathered friends from the garden. But to see something out-of-the-ordinary, head to Fairburn Ings Nature Reserve in West Yorkshire.
With hides where kids can quietly observe birds up close, this RSPB-run site is a great place to introduce children to species they wouldn’t normally see from home. Look out for colourful kingfishers and some of the UK’s rarest birds, including bitterns and spoonbills.
The cosy Wakefield Hotel St Pierre Sure Hotel Collection, just half an hour drive away, is an ideal base for your bird-spotting adventure.
Thanks to the UK’s miles of rugged coastline, there are ample opportunities for kids to discover rock pools and learn all about the rich marine life that inhabits these shores.
One of the top spots to explore what’s lurking beneath the surface of the water is Wembury Beach in Devon. Have your buckets at the ready at low tide, keeping your eyes peeled for limpets, anemones, crabs, sea scorpions and Cornish sucker fish.
Stay at the nearby New Continental Hotel, Sure Hotel Collection by Best Western in Plymouth.
In summer, lots of farms throw open their fields for visitors to pick their own fruit. As well as being an opportunity to get out in the sunshine, it’s a way to pack in some healthy eating.
At Crockford Bridge Farm in the Surrey countryside, you can pick your own strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, along with a host of other seasonal fruit and veg. Why not collect a punnet to enjoy on a family picnic or back at your hotel? Just remember to wash them before you tuck in.
Stay at Best Western Ship Hotel in the delightful market town of Weybridge, less than 3 miles from the farm.
A scavenger hunt is way to add excitement to family walks – especially if you turn it into a competition. It helps youngsters develop their observation skills while exploring their surroundings.
You can find templates online to help you create a list of things to find for your mini explorers, from specific flowers and leaves to colour-themed treasures. Alternatively, visit a nature reserve such as Testwood Lakes near Southampton. It provides ready-made scavenger hunt leaflets and activity sheets to help guide you around the reserve and its intriguing wooden sculptures.
Stay at Best Western Chilworth Manor Hotel, around 10 miles from Testwood Lakes.
Whittling, or the art of wood carving, is a bushcraft activity that uses fallen sticks from the forest to get creative. Kids can learn safe knife skills, using a simple vegetable peeler to strip the bark, then sanding the stick down with sandpaper until it’s smooth.
Once they’ve got to grips with the basics, they can have a go at all kinds of wood-carving projects, including making spoons, flowers and simple figures.
Soft woods such as silver birch and pine are the easiest to carve. That makes Thetford Forest an ideal setting for practising whittling and other bushcraft skills as it’s the largest pine forest in Britain.
Stay at Best Western Priory Hotel, Bury St Edmunds, around a 15-minute drive from Thetford Forest.
Art galleries don’t all have to be about paintings hung on the wall and quiet reflection, which children might not find particularly interesting.
Jupiter Artland is a contemporary sculpture garden set over 100 acres of meadow and woodland just outside Edinburgh. Its large-scale installations can spark youngsters’ imagination as they go off exploring, and there are regular events for families to connect with art in nature in a unique way.
Base yourself at Best Western The Hilcroft Hotel in West Lothian. It’s around a 20-minute car journey away from the park.
Dust off your bikes to explore the great outdoors on two wheels. The winning combination of exercise and fresh air can boost everyone’s mood.
Cheshire’s Delamere Forest offers superb off-road cycling trails in a natural environment, giving bike rides extra gusto. The Hunger Hill trail is a relaxing scenic route for families, while the blue sections are for more experienced mountain bikers who want to test their skills. If you don’t have bikes, you can hire them at the forest.
After working up a sweat, rest in comfort at Best Western Frodsham Forest Hills Hotel, only around 5 miles from the forest.
