Visiting the Isle of Man with kids.
The Isle of Man is a self governing British crown dependency, located between the Uk and Ireland in the Irish Sea.
It is a very short fight time from Manchester to Douglas (less than an hour) and from the UK there are multiple flights a week to the capital city of Douglas.
We stayed in the city of Douglas and considered hiring a car, but we found the buses and other transport systems to be very effective. There is a frequent bus from the city to Douglas but also to other parts of the Island, Such as Port Erin located down on the coast of the island.
Douglas is a lovely little town with a lengthy promenade to walk down. It was not overly busy, but there is a lovely harbour called Douglas harbour with a great selection of bars and restaurants overlooking a very beautiful harbour.
The rest of the promenade was made up of smaller independent hotels and some more eateries/pubs. You can also get the necessities, when travelling to the Isle of Man with kids, by visiting familiar shops like Tesco and the Coop.
The town centre is also very picturesque, with small streets but also featuring many well known brands.
One of the main tourist attractions in the Isle of Man is its electric railway. The Manx Electric Railway. This is especially interesting if you are travelling with kids to the Isle of Man, if they have any sort of interest in trains.
One of the journeys we took was from Douglas to Laxey and then up to Snaefell on the mountain railway. This made up the majority of our first day exploring and it was a fantastic day out.
The trip on the electric railway to Laxey was a lot of fun for Teddy and also very child friendly (room for prams, portable potty’s etc) We saw some fantastic scenery on the way, as a lot of the journey was right by the coast.
The main highlight of Laxey, and the Isle of Man in general is the Laxey wheel. We disembarked the train here and had a walk round Laxey which is a gorgeous little village with a pub, cafe and some really beautiful places to sit and take in the views. We stopped off at the pub for a drink and got Teddy an ice cream.
The path to the Laxey wheel was only around a 15 minute walk and was mostly pram friendly. The shorter more scenic path through a woodland required us to fold the pram up and carry it, but on the way back we took the road and had no issues.
The wheel is very impressive and very much worth a trip to have a look at it. It is the largest surviving waterwheel in the world.
After a trip round Laxey and the wheel, we got back on the Manx electric railway and headed up to Snaefell on the Snaefell mountain railway.
This was very much a worthwhile day but upon leaving Laxey behind, and heading up the mountain the sun disappeared and rather than being able to see the seven kingdoms, thanks to the cloud we could barely see our hands in front of us. There is a cafe at the top and I can imagine on a nice day it’s a fantastic place to stop and get some dinner.
On this occasion though, we got the train back down and still had a great time riding it.
The next morning we had another look round Douglas’ main shopping centre and then got the bus down to Port Erin on the southern coast. This was about a 50 min bus trip. Seeing as the weather wasn’t great it was actually a good way to spend the morning as we stayed dry and luckily the weather brightened up considerably when we reached Port Erin.
Port Erin is a lovely little beach town. The tide was out so Teddy had a great time playing in the sand in, what was now a beautiful day. There is a nice little selection of hotels, cafes and shops along the promenade.
We made the slightly strange decision to then walk back to the airport as it was actually very close to Port Erin and only a short bus journey away. The walk however was only 2 hours and seeing as it was a beautiful day and we had the pram we decided to go the scenic route along the coastline.
This was absolutely the best part of the weekend and one of the most gorgeous walks I have ever done. We went through Port Mary and then Castletown where we came across a really lovely beach which again gave Teddy a chance to walk along it. I mean how many kids don’t enjoy a beach?
In Castletown centre there were some lovely pubs which was great for a meal before finally heading to the airport. Again it was a beautiful little town that I’m really glad we decided to walk and see more of the island.
Visiting the Isle of Man with kids doesn’t need to be a long trip but it is worthwhile visiting if you are looking for a short break away. Especially if you are travelling from the north west where there are an abundance of flights from Manchester and Liverpool.