We're off to Lydbrook for a house swap holiday next week. Any recommendations for child friendly (1 year old and 3 year old) cafes,pubs,tea rooms etc.
Also there seem to be lots of FC places to visit, where are the best play areas and areas for gentle riding with child seats?

As we've never been to the area can anyone recommend any bad weather things to do, and any nice towns/villages…ideally with outdoor kit shops (Pembrokeshire is sadly lacking!). We don't mind driving abit to visit somewhere good, especially if it entertains a 3 year old!

Thanks alot…

lister

here are some useful links. Loads of good family stuff and riding. You can hire the child seats at the pedalaway centre as well. Monmouth is good for an afternoon – Salt is a good cafe there… Clearwell would be a good rainy day trip.

http://www.wyenot.com/yatrock.htm
http://www.clearwellcaves.com/
http://www.deanheritagemuseum.com/index.html
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/ourwoods.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/EnglandGloucestershireNoForestForestOfDeanCannopCycleCentreFODCATrail

cheers 🙂

Shed loads to do. The Indian in Lydbrook is good! 5 minutes drive from the cycle centre with a great family loop on gravel. voted the best in Uk or something. Outdoor shops a bit lacking. Small 1 in Ross, good 1 in Hereford plus decent bike shop, Climb on bikes. Quick blast down A40 gets you to Abergavenny and Brecon is less than an hour with 3 good outdoor shops and good bike shop. The links above are good. Clearwell caves fun and train thingy for kids just up the road. The 3 Forest towns all a bit dull, Coleford the best of the bunch, just! Good pubs are Fountain in Parkend but avoid the Woodman there. Speech House is a touch posher but good. Plenty of stuff like Go Ape or similar, Motiva at Christchurch. Local 10 TT starts just up the road on Tues but season may be over now, look for RDFCC web.
You can come out with us on the mtb on Weds eve, starting at the Tufthorn inn, Milkwall at 7,30, bring lights.
Avoid Gloucester, its a dump except the Cathedral. Cheltenham better. 2 good bike shops and plenty of all the big shops.Find the Ostrich Inn at Newland or the Boat at Redbook, just over a foot bridge in wales. Wetherspoons in Monmouth and Ross for cheap food. good chippy in Lydbrook but opening hours wierd. Canoe hire at Symond Yat east. Good maize maze at Elton coener near Littledean, search for Redhillmountain boards and bikes on same site. good 4x track open when you want.

Symonds Yat East and West up between Monmouth and Ross.
East for good pubs (Saracens Head especially) and Kingfisher Cruises up and down the river. Nice old railway line back to Monmouth that would be good for biking with a kiddie seat – about 6 or 7 miles.
West for butterfly farm and hedge maze, but only good for 2 or 3 hours.

Above Symonds Yat East is the Yat Rock which has excellent views. There's a car park up there too with a little shop for ice cream and stuff.

hey all im up that way myself next week , some nice links thanks,( sorry for thread hijack)

Second the avoid Gloucester and I live here!

Town is good during the day but bikes shops are rubbish.

Go to Cheltenham or slightly up the road to Worcester for the day.

Cheltenham is indeed nice.

Saracen's Head at Symonds Yat is an epic pub. Stupidly busy at lunchtime, but at night it's sublime. Great local food and ale, superb service.

Monmouth Canoe Hire will do you a really good hire of canoes and transfer up to Ross. Spend a day paddling down to SY, then stay at the Saracen's, have an evening of fun, then paddle back down to Monmouth the next day. Great fun.

I was around Gloucester at the weekend and actually thoroughly enjoyed it! We went to the barn owl centre and had a mooch about around the docks, including a mahoosive piece of cake in a comically disorganised but very nice cafe overlooking the boats.

raglan castle is a good hide and seek venue and very castley

Norchard steam centre near Lydney will probably appeal to your 3yr old, riding on old steam trains set up as Thomas (possibly a bit expensive)

Find info on the scuplture trail for a good walk

Puzzlewood just outside Coleford
Dog & Muffler still good to eat at? Miners Arms at Sling?

There'es one of those indoor ball parks near Coleford, should be good for bad weather.

Whereabouts in Lydbrook you staying? They claim to be one of the longest villages in England and it stretches for about a mile and a half from the River Wye up to the Forest.

You're very close to the Pedalabikeaway Cycle Centre http://www.pedalabikeaway.co.uk/ which has a small bike shop & cafe plus tagalong/child trailer hire and an 11 mile off-road family trail.

Just up the hill from there you have Beechenhurst where there is a nice cafe, a childrens play area and interesting waymarked walks (and a climbing tower).

Ross-on-Wye has a small outdoor shop (Escape) just off the main street and a bike shop (Revolutions) which is pretty good for bits & pieces, plus cafes, banks, supermarkets, etc. Chepstow and Monmouth are both worth a visit (and can be combined in one trip along the Lower Wye Valley taking in Tintern Abbey) – Chepstow has 559 Bikes who advertise on STW.

At the bottom of Lydbrook you have the Forge Hammer (great for Indian food as said above – eat in or takeaway but not so good as a family pub) and the Courtfield Arms which has a nice outdoors area for kids. Loads of other pubs within a short distance.

If you want, I'd be happy to meet up with you and mark up a map with pubs, places to visit, walks, kid-friendly rides, etc.. I work just down the road from Lydbrook and live in the area.

And of course don't forget the big falconry centre at Newent. I still need to go there. It's the biggest in England or Britain or something.

ICBP Homepage

As above and..

Craft place in Lydney which is about 30 mins from Lydbrook called Taurus Crafts
The steam railway is great, although you do need good weather for it really.
I'd recommend Gloucester Quays – it's a big shopping place that have good outdoor shops – it's a 'designer outlet', also it's on the Docks which is a good walkround and right opposite Toys R Us, the cinema and Pizza Hut.
Pubs wise, try the Courtfield, always busy there with a good atmosphere, there's the Inn on the Wye just up from Lydbrook at Kerne Bridge too (although not been there for ages). You've also got the canoe place there and just over from Kerne Bridge on the way to Symonds Yat you've got Goodrich Castle.
There's a maze and butterfly centre at Symonds Yat as well which is good to keep the kids entertained 🙂
There's loads of good walking in the Forest, places like Mallards Pike and Cannop are easy for tourists to find, but if you're confident with a map just pull in where you see cars, locals don't pay for parking 😉
Oh, Tintern is a lovely little place as well, great little pub there called the Anchor which is right next to the Abbey, they do good food and if it's a sunday there's very often a game of cricket being played on the field right next to the beer garden 🙂 Monmouth is worth a wander too
We ride on a wednesday evening as well.. half 6 from the Pedalabikeaway cetre.. mail if you're interested 🙂

Not sure if Puzzlewood is open to the public at the mo., they are filming Doctor Who in there

thanks for all the info…i've got an a4 sheet of paper covered in scribbled notes…we're staying in our friends house and overlap with them for a morning so hopefully they have some OS maps we can borrow and they can fill in the blanks for us.

cheers for the offers of rides but i'm not upto 'proper' rides at the mo cos i'm recovering from a broken wrist.

just got to keep fingers crossed for some decent weather now!