Coylumbridge – Soft Play and Bowling for a Wet Morning
A few hours.
The route
When the rain settles in over Strathspey, the Fun House at Coylumbridge gives children room to run, climb and let off steam, with soft play, mini bowling and a games room.
Lunch is just along the road at the Barn, the café at Rothiemurchus.
The day
Coylumbridge
A morning indoors with the children: a session in the soft play, a game of bowling, then a warm lunch.
About three and a half hours
The Fun House at the Coylumbridge Hotel
The Fun House stands in the grounds of the Coylumbridge Hotel, just outside Aviemore, and parking is free. Its treehouse-themed soft play has three levels of slides, ropes and ball pits, and toddlers have a zone of their own. Play goes in sessions of an hour and a half, from £4 to £7 a child by age and £1 for each grown-up. Behind the games room, with its driving simulators and air hockey, two mini ten-pin lanes cost £2 a player. Grown-ups can sit in the soft play café with a coffee while the children play, and there's baby changing. It opens Thursday to Monday, 10am to 6pm, with last entry at 4.30pm, but its days and times change with the season, so ring 01479 813081 before setting out.
More about The Fun House at the Coylumbridge Hotel3 min by car
The Barn at Rothiemurchus
Lunch
It's 3 minutes' drive west along the B970 to the Barn, the café at the Rothiemurchus Centre, with free parking beside it. Children are welcome, and there's a wood-burning stove. Lunch is soup of the day or Cullen skink with a homemade cheese scone, or one of the day's hot one-pot dishes, with a vegetarian choice always on, and there are scones and traybakes to follow. The Barn is open every day from 9.30am to 4.30pm.
More about The Barn at Rothiemurchus
If it rains
Made for a wet day: the soft play, the bowling, the games and lunch are all indoors.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Aviemore.
Photographs by Andrew Mowat and Neemit Jamwal via Google