Kids Race across Bristol: A Family Challenge
Inspired by our favourite series, Race across the World, we challenged our kids to a miniature local version: Race across Bristol. This works a bit like an old-fashioned treasure hunt. If you would like to plan your own city adventure, and we highly recommend you do, read to the end for our step-by-step guide to planning a kid’s adventure in your chosen city. Alternatively re-create ours for a fun way to explore Bristol a little differently.
We chose Bristol because it is a 30-minute train journey from our hometown. This underrated, lively city has a thriving independent culture and boat loads of historical stories for good measure.
And OK, we may only have one team, no prize money and a distinct lack of luxury hotel stops on the way, but this mini race version gave us an easy, cheap and fun day out with a little learning along the way. If your family prefer something a little more relaxed, try our Cornwall guide to St Ives, or Falmouth.
Why did we plan a Race across bristol?
We wanted to foster a spirit of adventure, to develop problem-solving skills and most importantly resilience in our kids. This was our solution for a low-budget mini adventure which we hoped would also be a lot of fun. We knew there was a high chance of tears and tantrums, but we hoped there would be a real sense of achievement by the end of the challenge. As parents it means you can explore a city, whilst keeping the family occupied and entertained.
Planning: The night before our Race Across Bristol Challenge
The night before we explained the general premise to our 3 children, aged 6, 9 and 12. This built anticipation for the challenge. We bought train tickets to get us to Bristol (using our Family and Friends railcard to save money), planned the stops and booked a table to eat for the end point of the ‘race.’ With the start and end points defined and a budget agreed on, we were ready to go.
Our Race across Bristol experience
Race Challenge 1: Find the train station
We handed over a wallet with the challenge budget in and set them the first challenge. Our children surprised us by navigating the 2km to our local train station fairly easily. Predictably, they were already hungry and decided to stop at a bakery to buy lunch. This led to an intense argument about costs. Eventually they resolved the argument (about the appropriate number of sausage rolls required) and purchased a suitable amount of carb heavy snacks. It took the children a few minutes to understand the train departures board, but we eventually arrived on the correct platform.
Race Challenge 2: Find the ‘Paint Pot Angel’ in Bristol Museum
On the train, we presented the children with the first location: Take a photo of the ‘Paint Pot Angel.’ The angel is a sculpture by the popular Bristolian artist Banksy, which he gifted the Bristol Museum following his wildly popular 2009 ‘Banksy versus Bristol Museum’ takeover.
After arriving in Bristol, they used Google Maps to navigate to the museum. This proved to be more difficult than anticipated, resulting in a tense moment when our 12-year-old realised she’d followed the map in the wrong direction. The sausage rolls had been digested by this point, so they unanimously agreed to spend part of the budget on chocolate bars in the corner shop. Finally, they found the museum and sculpture. We snapped a quick picture before collecting a paper map of the city centre from the front of the museum.
Race Challenge 3: Find Brunel’s ‘first child’
Next, we handed over the second challenge, which read ‘Find Brunel’s first child.’ All three children have studied the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel at school and knew his ‘first child’ was the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge. The newly acquired map came in useful at this point. Calculating the distance was just over a mile, they decided to save money by walking instead of taking the bus. Again, they surprised us by doing a wonderful job following the map through town. As impatient parents, we found ourselves leading the way a couple of times, before remembering the point and putting the children back in charge.
The walk took us through Clifton village. This vibrant area has such a brilliant atmosphere. On this Saturday morning, we passed families and groups friends enjoying the winter sunshine with coffee and cake outside local cafes. We browsed the windows of the independent shops we passed and popped into a local greengrocer, piled high with a rainbow of un-packaged fresh fruit and veg, to buy some fruit to snack on. Next door we added to the snack stash with home-made Turkish Delight in a hybrid café-shop selling the most beautiful jewel-coloured glass lanterns.
Exiting Clifton Village for the wide grassy slopes of the downs, the famous landmark came into view, standing proudly against Leigh Woods on the opposite bank. The Bridge’s lofty position, high above the river Avon affords spectacular views across the city. This towering Victorian feat of engineering, and icon of the city is an awe-inspiring site and a lovely spot to spend an hour looking across the city. We joined the throng of tourists and locals taking a leisurely stroll across the bridge, snapped a photo, admired the views, and headed back for the next challenge.
Race Challenge 4: Dress up as a Victorian onboard The SS Great Britain
The next challenge was to find the SS Great Britain. Earlier in the year we visited the museum and still had a family ticket, valid for a year from the date of purchase. Using the map, the children headed down to the river where they came across a problem; the SS Great Britain was on the opposite side of the river with no visible bridge. Again, the map came to the rescue – a dotted line showed a passenger boat route. Crossing the river by boat led an extra element of fun to the trip and was the first travel expense of the day.
Once inside the children found the costumes and dressed up as Victorian ship passengers, complete with stovepipe hats and bonnets. The museum is fantastic for families with lots of hands-on activities, a mind-bending dry dock and fantastic museum. The main attraction is the ship itself, where visitors experience what life was like on board the ship during her sailing days, and learn the stories of her passengers and crew. We particularly enjoyed the reconstructed galley kitchen and cabins.
Race Challenge 5: Reach Quay Street by 6pm
With all three challenges now complete we were ready for the final challenge and reward. Find Quay Street Diner by 6pm. We had booked this diner for its proximity to the train station. After a full day of exploring, the entire family demolished diner before heading back to the station and home.
If you’d like to plan your own kids adventure, below you’ll find our planning process below. This is a really easy way to add a little extra challenge and energy to a day of city exploring.
How to plan your own kids adventure race day
- Select a location not too far from home, with plenty of places to visit. A city or town is a good option because there are likely to be good transport links and a range of options of places which are fairly close together. Cities also work in all weathers as you can easily switch to indoor locations.
- Set a budget for the day and if possible, find or print a paper map of the area. With a paper map there is no need to rely on a mobile phone and the distractions they bring. You can also mark the points as you go and keep the map as a memory of the day.
- Select 3 – 4 points to visit. You could pick a theme for the day, for example street art or history, or just space the points out to visit interesting areas. Try to keep the distances between challenges at around 1 – 2km.
- Select an end point, perhaps somewhere to eat which is close to your transport home.
- Write down the clues for each challenge and place in an envelope to reveal one by one.
- Think about where you might stop en route for lunch or snacks or pack a picnic.
Thoughts on a Race across the city adventure day
We loved our adventure day. It was a different and exciting way to explore a city. We found that the children were prepared to walk much further than they usually would, because they had autonomy over their travel choices. We walked over 8 miles, which would have caused A LOT of moaning if we’d set out for an 8-mile hike. Breaking the day into challenges or sections meant they were kept interested and were keen to move quickly to reach the next challenge.
We will definitely use a race adventure again to make a city tour more exciting and memorable. Walking between the checkpoints allowed us to enjoy some lovely hidden corners of the city we wouldn’t have otherwise come across. Our highlights of this trip were unplanned: wandering the streets of Clifton Village and taking the boat across the Avon. By the end of the day there was a real sense of achievement. As parents used to solving all our children’s problems, it is so easy to forget to let them take charge and expand their comfort zones – they are capable of a lot more than we give them credit for. Despite a couple of arguments about directions and budget, they were all glowing with pride and talked about the day for weeks afterwards.
We’d love to hear if you’ve tried a similar adventure or plan to try this out soon. Next time we would love to rope in another family to race against so let us know if you’re up for the challenge.
