Christmas Travel

Posted by smswhiteis on 01/14/26 11:16 PM

We are looking for a `castle or cabin experience that feels authentic and historical. We are a family of 4, two adults and two kids 11 and 8 years. We want to have a magical Christmas Day and hope to have options for activities such as horseback riding, archery, shooting, ax throwing, day trips to a local town for shopping, exploring. Day trips to local sites. We love to hike and walk. We don't expect to have a vehicle or ride bikes due to the weather. Does anyone offer experience or advice to help us find the right path?

Current research has brought me to Celtic Castles with some limited information and pricing. We are hoping to keep the budget on the lower end for these 3 nights of stay. We don't want to blow our entire travel budget on the castle stay.

Thank you for your advice!
Blessings be.

Posted by Helen

Bristol, UK

01/15/26 08:10 AM

1970 posts

I think you’re slightly looking for the impossible. Anywhere that offers the type of activities and accommodation you want is going to be rural and require a car for exploring the area, especially at Christmas when transport options are reduced. It’s also going to be very expensive at Christmas. What kind of budget are you thinking of?

Posted by MC-Glasgow

Glasgow, Scotland

01/15/26 10:45 AM

1776 posts

One thing to bear in mind, is Christmas Day you have to start from the idea that everything will be shut.

Some small local convenience store may open on the morning, some restaurants are open and charge handsomely for the privilege. But activities that involve a fee, or via a gate that gets locked, are effectively going to be closed.

It can be magical in somewhere like that at Christmas, but you are essentially going to be under 'house arrest' for most of the 25th December anywhere in the UK and Ireland. So depending on where and when you eat, after the King's Christmas Message, you are going to be spending a lot of time indoors with BBC One.

Things start to open on 26th, but a lot of tourist type activities won't open until March.

Posted by isn31c

Lake District, England

01/15/26 11:48 AM

11064 posts

Budget will be your real enemy, but Carbisdale Castle may suit. It very much has history, some a bit difficult, the WW2 Norwegian part interesting. Most recently it was a Youth Hostel, now a Country Club!!
There are old posts on the forum about its time as a Hostel.
Quite a bit you can do from there without a car, except 25 and 26 December.
Unusually it has it's own railway station.

Not a castle, rather a former old shooting lodge and vast country estate (largest in Scotland at one time) is the Ardverikie Estate to the south of Aviemore. Transport is doable with the local buses, again except 25 and 26 December.
Another of those places where there is a lot more history than at first glance. Having archived the English part of the Estate records, the history is fascinating, some very tragic, but that is deep diving way beyond what a holidaymaker would ever do.

I do worry that again cost will not be on your side.