Go Ape

You're strapped into a harness, clipped onto a cable, and about to walk a tightrope suspended between two trees in Grizedale Forest. This is Go Ape - an aerial adventure park where you spend two to three hours scrambling across rope bridges, swinging from platforms, and zipping between the canopy. It's genuinely thrilling, even if you're terrified of heights.

The course winds through mature woodland with between 20 and 30 obstacles depending on difficulty. You go at your own pace, which means you can take as long as you need - or speed through if you're cocky. Kids aged eight and up manage it fine, though younger ones might find the climbing bits tricky. Adults often surprise themselves with what they'll attempt once they're thirty feet up.

Book ahead online and expect to pay around £25-35 per person, though family packages exist. Allow the best part of an afternoon. Grizedale sits roughly 15 minutes from Ambleside, making it a solid add-on to a Lake District holiday. Several caravan parks nearby - Park Cliffe Windermere and Low Wray Campsite are your closest bets - mean you could easily base yourself there and treat it as a rainy-day activity or a break from fell walking.

The forest floor is muddy. Wear proper shoes, not flip-flops. And if you're genuinely phobic about heights, this isn't your thing. But if you fancy testing yourself against something more demanding than a woodland walk, Go Ape delivers exactly that.