Outdoor Activities in Exeter

Everything you would want to know before your child gets near a river. Minimum ages, what is supplied and what you bring, how many instructors are on the water, and what the arrangement is for a child who wants to stop. None of that sits in our listings, and the answers vary from operator to operator, so put the questions to the venue rather than assuming a family listing implies a family set-up.

Open sites rather than booked activities. Somewhere like Canonteign Falls lets an older child push on ahead while a younger one dawdles, and nobody is stuck at the pace of the group. Activity sessions tend to run to a single ability band, which means the wrong child is either terrified or bored for the whole hour. Split the family if you have two adults.

Four of the seventeen have indoor space attached as well, so the odds are against you. This is a properly outdoor list. That is not a reason to stay home — most of these places run in ordinary British weather and the children mind far less than the adults do — but it does mean reading the forecast in the morning rather than the night before, and carrying a change of clothes for anyone small.

Wider than the city itself in some cases, which is normal for outdoor attractions, since the space they need is not to be had in a centre. Look up where a listing actually sits before you commit to a start time, and count the journey as one of the things the day contains rather than as something outside it. That single habit prevents most of the rushed arrivals.