Family adventure in North Wales

For instance, there’s the 100 mph Velocity 2, the world's fastest and Europe's longest zip line at Zip World Penrhyn Quarry. Velocity 2 features four parallel lines that span 1.5 kilometres over the beautiful blue water of Penrhyn Quarry lake. Here Quarry Karts, the UK's first mountain cart track, also offers gravity fuelled three-wheelers you navigate through chicanes, tunnels and a variety of other obstacles at up to 40 mph.

The same people opened Titan 2 at Zip World Llechwedd, the largest zip zone in Europe, with over 8km of zip lines set among the Llechwedd slate quarries at Blaenau Ffestiniog. This has evolved into a tour and zip experience, with four wires running parallel on each run, so you can do it as a family (we loved that aspect of it – watching each other’s big grins on the way down).

At Zip World Llechwedd, the Zip World people came along and did something barking mad: installed a series of huge trampolines inside a vast underground chamber. It’s called Bounce Below. Three trampolines, one above the other, in a space that’s like an alien cathedral, all connected with slides and ladders, and lit by psychedelic, multi-coloured lights.

If this doesn't give you enough of an adrenaline rush, they've also opened another fantastic underground attraction - Caverns. Five huge underground slate caverns have been turned into an unique adventure playground. The caverns house 13 thrilling zip lines interspersed with rope bridges, balance beams, tunnels and breath taking stretches of via ferrata: a mountain aid in which a harness is clipped to a cable running along a precipice. It's an action packed, three-hour experience for adults and families with children aged 10 and over.

Further south, winner of the Mid Wales Tourism Awards for Best Activity / Experience in Mid Wales 2019/2020, Corris Mine Explorers offers exciting opportunities to discover the underground Braich Goch slate mine workings. The mine was abandoned in 1970 and left exactly as it was. With an experienced guide, the tours offer a mysterious trip into an amazing time capsule full of discarded tools, machinery and memories. For children aged 8 and over, the Pathfinder Tour is perfect for trying out mine exploration. More adventurous explorers can go for the half-day trip - a challenging experience with scrambling, climbing, narrow gaps and ledges to conquer. 

It’s something of a North Wales speciality, creating new experiences from old landscapes. Coed y Brenin was Britain’s first purpose-built mountain biking centre, and it’s still pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on two wheels. But as well as hardcore runs for experts, there are gentler family trails for novices and youngsters, and also challenging runs designed for three-wheel adaptive bikes, which are available for hire, along with regular bikes.

Then there’s the National White Water Centre on the River Tryweryn, created when some bright spark realised that because you could control the flow of water from the dam that feeds this wild mountain river, it’d be ideal for white water rafting and kayaking, because its rapids can still thunder in the hot summer months.

For a thrilling adventure, explore the seas with an action-packed Rib Ride trip around Anglesey’s wildlife packed waters and the narrow Menai Strait.

Of course, for a family adventure, you don’t need anything more than the simple grandeur of Eryri’s landscape. There are mountain challenges for all ages and abilities here, from gentle riverside ambles, to the sharp scramble up Tryfan, to the big one itself: Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon).

There are currently three ways to get to the summit of the highest mountain in Wales or England: walk, cycle or (April to October) on the Snowdon Mountain Railway. But someone, somewhere in North Wales is doubtless dreaming up a crazy new way, possibly involving bungee elastic or giant catapults or rocket-powered llamas.

You never know what they’ll dream up next.