Aviemore is arguably the best family base in Scotland, and the reason is variety. Within twenty minutes of the town you can put children on a steam train, on a sandy beach, in a treetop course, in front of a herd of free-ranging reindeer, in a wolf enclosure viewing gallery or on a mountain railway. Almost none of it requires them to walk far, and a good deal of it works in bad weather — which, in the Highlands, is the test that matters.
This guide covers the attractions by age, the outdoor days that do not depend on the forecast, and the practicalities of a family trip to a place where the weather has strong opinions.
Nine kilometres north at Carrbridge, Landmark is the one children ask to go back to. It combines a water coaster, treetop trails, a wolf enclosure, a tower with a view over the forest, indoor play and a lot of climbing, all inside a working pine forest. It is not cheap — parents consistently describe it as pricey but a genuinely full day — and it covers a wide age range, which is unusual. Allow the whole day, and go early in the school holidays.
Eight kilometres out at Glenmore, Britain’s only free-ranging reindeer herd lives on the slopes above Loch Morlich, and the centre runs guided hill trips out to see them. You walk up to the herd, they come to you, and you can feed them by hand. It is the single most memorable thing most families do here. The hill trip involves a short uphill walk over rough ground; there is also a paddock at the centre for those who cannot manage it. Booking ahead is effectively essential in summer.
Thirteen kilometres south at Kincraig, this is the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Highland site, and it works differently from a normal zoo: you drive through a large main reserve with bison, deer and Przewalski’s horses, then walk the enclosures for polar bears, snow monkeys, wolves and Scottish wildcats. Half a day at least, and the drive-through element keeps younger children engaged.
The heritage line runs from Platform 3 at Aviemore station for ten miles to Broomhill via Boat of Garten, hauled by steam in season. A round trip takes a couple of hours, there is an afternoon tea service for those who want to make an event of it, and it is one of the few attractions here that is entirely weatherproof. More on the Strathspey Railway page.
The funicular railway climbs two kilometres up the northern slopes of Cairn Gorm to the Ptarmigan station — the highest railway in the UK — with an exhibition and a café at the top and a view that on a clear day reaches half of the Highlands. Older children love it; it is also the quickest way to show a child what a real mountain looks like. Check the weather before you commit, since the view is the point.
Loch Morlich has a proper sandy beach eight kilometres from town, with watersports, canoe and paddleboard hire, and a shallow shelving shore. On a warm day it is the best free family afternoon in the Cairngorms.
Loch an Eilein offers a flat five-kilometre circuit round a loch with a ruined castle on an island in it, which is exactly the sort of thing that keeps children walking.
Glenmore Forest Park has short waymarked trails, a visitor centre and a play area.
An Lochan Uaine, the Green Loch on the Ryvoan track, is a manageable walk from Glenmore with a genuinely strange green colour and a fairy story attached.
TreeZone at Rothiemurchus runs aerial rope courses in the pines, and Aviemore Kart Raceway north of town covers the go-kart requirement.
Our walks guide has the routes in full.
The Highlands being what they are, you need a wet-weather list. Landmark has substantial indoor play. The Strathspey Railway is entirely under cover. Aviemore Escape Rooms suit older children. The Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore, twenty-two kilometres south, is an open-air museum of reconstructed Highland buildings that is more sheltered than it sounds and free to enter. The swimming pool and leisure facilities at the Macdonald resort in the middle of town are open to non-residents at times. And the Highland Wildlife Park works in rain, on the grounds that the animals are outdoors anyway.
Our wet weather guide covers the whole list.
Aviemore is where a great many Scottish children learn to ski. The Cairngorm ski area runs lessons and has a beginners’ area, and the season, when it comes, is usually somewhere between January and April — but snow cover is less reliable than it was and no trip should be built on the assumption of it. Sledging on the lower slopes, the Christmas events at Landmark and the reindeer at Glenmore fill the gap perfectly well when the snow does not arrive.
Aviemore is a resort town and the food scene reflects that: informal, generous and used to families. Pizzariach and La Taverna cover the pizza and pasta requirement, the Winking Owl does pub food in the middle of town, and the café at the Rothiemurchus centre is the natural stop after Loch an Eilein. Route 7 out at Dalfaber is popular with cyclists and families alike. See our eating guide.
Getting around. Aviemore’s centre is one long street and everything in it is walkable. The Stagecoach service from outside the railway station runs up the ski road to Glenmore and the mountain, which covers most of the attractions without a car.
Arriving by train is genuinely easy: Aviemore is on the main Edinburgh and Glasgow to Inverness line, and the station is a seven-minute walk from the middle of town.
Midges appear from June and are worst at dawn and dusk near water and in the woods. They are a nuisance rather than a danger, but they will end a barbecue by the loch.
Book ahead for the reindeer hill trips and for Landmark in the school holidays.
A loch day. Bus or drive up to Glenmore in the morning, spend it on the beach at Loch Morlich with the paddleboards and canoes, take lunch at the visitor centre cafe, then walk the easy track up to An Lochan Uaine in the afternoon. If the reindeer trip is booked, it slots in before lunch. Nobody walks more than a few kilometres and the whole day is within a mile of a cafe.
A wheels day. Strathspey Railway from Platform 3 in the morning — steam to Boat of Garten and back — then Landmark at Carrbridge or the go-karts north of town in the afternoon. Entirely weatherproof and reliably popular with children who have had enough of scenery.
It is worth being straight about this: Aviemore’s paid attractions are not cheap, and a family of four doing Landmark, the wildlife park, the reindeer and the funicular in one week will spend a substantial sum. The compensation is that the best of the place is free — the beach at Loch Morlich, the forest trails, the Green Loch, the Folk Museum at Newtonmore, the squirrels at Glenmore. A good family week here alternates a paid day with a free one, and the free days are frequently the ones children remember. Our free things to do guide has the full list.
The reindeer hill trip at Glenmore for the memory, Landmark Forest Adventure Park for the full day.
Yes — Loch Morlich’s beach, the Strathspey Railway, the Glenmore trails and the reindeer paddock all work for very young children.
Four gives you the wildlife park, Landmark, the reindeer and a loch day without rushing. A week is easily filled.
The paid attractions are not cheap, but the best of the area — the lochs, the forests, the beach at Morlich — costs nothing. See our free things to do.
Mostly. The train gets you here, and the bus up the ski road reaches Glenmore and the mountain. Carrbridge and Kincraig are harder.