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Outdoor Activities and Sports
Again, a huge topic and endless people we could include, so take this as a snapshot only and search around for the perfect instructors/activities for your group. If you’re short of a few ideas:
Exmoor Adventures provides a range of outdoor activities including coasteering, kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing, abseiling, canoeing, raft building, archery, hill walking, orienteering and team building across North Devon and Somerset.
BF Adventure is an outdoor activity centre and charity based near Falmouth and Penryn in Cornwall.
British Canoe Union – lists approved outdoor education centres
The Field Studies Council is a national environmental education charity with seventeen centres dramatically located throughout the UK. It runs residential and day fieldwork and activity courses for ages 7-14, 14-16, 16+ and University, over 600 residential and day courses on Natural History and the Arts.
Bristol Ramblers regular walks of varying distance and difficulty on Saturday Mornings, Sundays and Wednesdays.
National Federation of Sea Schools have details of sailing schools – get the addresses of local ways of learning how to sail - Telephone: 023 8029 3822 email: info@nfss.co.uk
Sportslinks has hundreds of useful links for all sorts of sports clubs, from angling to fencing to walking.
Woodlands Leisure Park is a camp site and leisure park near Torbay that caters for big groups.
Young Bristol have an activity centre at Poole’s Wharf, Bristol Docks, from where your group can mess around on the water.
The Outdoor Source Book, published by Outdoor Learning Services ISBN 1 874637 29 6, is an inspiration too.
Mendip Outdoor Pursuits Banwell, Weston-super-Mare - group courses in caving, climbing, abseiling, kayaking, archery, orienteering, dinghy sailing, windsurfing, raft-building, hill walking, treasure hunts and more. They are experienced at working with youth groups.
Avon Ski Centre at Churchill, N.Somerset for skiing, snowboarding, archery, pistol shooting, riding etc. Caters for youth groups with activity days.
World Jungle run a number of outdoor activity days at Breakheart Quarry, Dursley, focused on environmental learning and play. The activities include exploring the ancient woodland as well as a range of other environments and habitats and their wildlife. Suitable for pre-school children up to young adults.
Bristol City Council's Outdoor Education Service has two outdoor centres located in coastal and forest environments (Exmouth and Gloucestershire) offering a great variety of outdoor/adventurous activities and residential educational experiences. This Service also offers a general advisory facility regarding the suitability of many other outdoor activity providers, training opportunities for teaching staff, Health and Safety information, and queries on the new Education and Lifelong Learning's "Off Site Visits" Policy as implemented on 21 February 2003. Go to www.bristol-lea.org.uk then click on LEA services and then Outdoor Education service.
Outings
What can we say? There are more outings to be organised from Bristol than there are seagulls in the sky. Skim through the various ideas on these pages for a sense of what you could do.
Visit Bristol is the site of the Bristol Tourism and Conference Bureau and is a very comprehensive guide to Bristol, its coast and the surrounding countryside.
Register with World Heritage. This promotes tourist attractions in the South West and can provide hundreds of good ideas for summer activities.
Culture 24 is an online guide to the UK's museums, galleries, historic sites and heritage attractions. Check out Bristol or beyond.
Also try visiting:
Pictures of England for a guide to the most beautiful and historical places to visit in England. Search by County or individual towns, or try Exploring England and run a South West search for places to visit locally
Longleat - famous safari and adventure park about 1 hour drive from Bristol.
Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail, a sculpture park in the Forest of Dean, only 40 minutes from Bristol and close to lots of other good activities.
Days Out UK offer free discount vouchers for places to go.
Cheddar Caves - discount prices for groups. Rock climbing, caving, abseiling at Cheddar, Somerset. Visit the show caves, then climb 274 steps to the top of the Gorge via Jacob’s Ladder.
Bristol Zoo - Bristol Zoo Gardens with group discounts and offers.
Botanic Gardens, Leigh Woods - hothouses with exotic flowers in the University of Bristol Botanic Garden
West Country Walks - good walks around Bristol
Pinkery, Exmoor National Park - offers amazing opportunities to get closer to nature in one of the UK's most dramatic landscapes. The Head of Centre will be happy to discuss your individual needs and develop programmes that have something for everyone.
For general information on Exmoor National Park visit their website. See also Residentials.
The Model Village, Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire. A large scale model of the actual village. Like being in `The Borrowers`! There are tiny trees and even music in the church, a real delight.
See also Camping, Parks and Gardens