Thinking of going over with my young son this Saturday and would be grateful of some advanced knowledge.

Is it likely to be rammed on Saturday with the mayhem thing close by?
Is there a play area?
Is there much uphill on the blue and red after the initial climb?
If the red was in the alps what grade would it be?

Thanks

Ian
I have done the Blue route a number of times with my young son (11) and its not too challenging at all. It depends on your sons age and ability.
My son has no real MTB experience just general bike skill learned messing about outside the house etc.
There are a couple of steady drags but nothing difficult.
Surfer

oops wrong thread

to answer your other points, it is normally always busy at the weekends.

no play area for kids.

I like the blue for riding on with my kids.

not sure about the alps thing as haven't been. (to the alps)

expect it to be pretty busy this weekend..
the new skill section is open and is there not a merida there or something?
maybe worth doing another weekend?

i was planning to ride there this weekend

what day will be less busy?? ie no race

i just rang up the visitor centre teh race is in ruthin and not at teh trails so should be fine

ahh ok

As Surfer said. Have done it with my 9 year old. Take the initial climb easy and then it is a fairly easy ride back down – good for a first experience, I would probably take my lad on the red next time. Nowhere near as difficult as the Gisburn and Whinlatter blue routes if that is any help.

It's a great place to get your son going, I've taken my brother a few times and he really likes it.

Nothing on the blue is too taxing, it's a nice route to learn more MTB based stuff on.

It's always quieter later on in the day IMHE

Merida site suggests people check it out on the Saturday, could be busy! Great for beginners though usually

Llandegla is always rammed on a saturday so business as usual. Get there before mid morning and should be fine.

With young kids we find it much better not to park in the bottom car park (busy and constant car traffic coming / going). Drive up to the top overflow parking – right at the far end. Much quieter and more scope for kids to play. Also parking is quarried into the hillside so take toy dump truck / bruder tractor / spade etc and my boys (7 & 5)are happy for hours when not riding 🙂

The top parking also means very young kids are right on the easy trails with less climbing. Or can do little practice loops dropping down to the cafe on various grade singletracks and then climbing back up on fireroad.

Considering tons of families use it is really strange that the place is lacking even a basic playground.

Umm…I think it's one big playground!