The importance of family friendly

Making adventures easier

Have a think about when the idea of adventure first entered your head?

For many of us it was somewhere in childhood – maybe a thing we did with our parents or a youth group or just our friends. But often, later in life, things, even brilliant things get in the way. Family, little ones, childcare, transport – and that most precious thing of all – time!

We’ve been told a lot by people that they’d love to come on a personal skills or qualification course but either they can’t arrange childcare, they can’t afford accommodation, or they can’t justify time away from family – whatever the reason we wanted to find a way to help. Everyone at Wellness Walks is someone who knows just how foundationally important adventure is.

So what's different on these courses?

The content and standard of these courses is the same as any other course. We’ll tailor the venue, delivery styles, pace, order and challenge to match the participants needs and provide any reasonable adjustments needed for participants to take part to their full potential.

But – we’ve made a lot of adaptations to how the courses run to specifically make them family friendly.

These are courses where:

We’re launching with a one-day course – depending where you’re travelling from that might be a long day (typically 6-8hours course time) – but you won’t need accommodation.
There’s instruction for BOTH adults (16 years+) and, separately, little ones (under 16 year),
Both groups will be with an exceptional instructor.
The little ones will be with an AALA approved instructor – the nationally recognised, legally required, level of instructor to be responsible for them – this is not childcare, it’s so much more.
You’ll arrive together & then go your separate ways – each on an adventure.

What is a Family friendly course like?

The adult course is a the same as any other course we run (so you can find more detailed information on our Hill & Mountain Skills Courses – 1-day page). Typically over a coffee you’ll look at kit choices, safety in the hills, appropriate apps, weather forecasts. Then you’ll head out into the hills to look at navigation, moving on steeper/rougher ground and how to make decisions along a journey.

The little ones will also have an ice-breaker session, get to know each other and the instructor and then they’ll make a plan for what they’d like to do – this will be facilitated by the instructor but will have a strong (& safe) emphasis on adventurous play – be that messing around in woods, learning about nature or developing their own boundaries – all foundational life-skills.

At the end of the day the groups will merge together and with both instructors we’ll have a debrief and spend some time looking at how families can plan an adventure together.