Do you know what beautiful cause is behind the Shaun in the City? From 6th July to 31st August, Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation have organised bringing 70 b-ewe-tiful giant Shaun the Sheep sculptures, created by artists, designers and celebrities, to iconic locations and green spaces across Bristol for the public to enjoy. You still have time to visit Bristol and find the flocks of Shauns! After the end of August, they will go to auction later in the year to raise funds for The Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children’s Hospital Charity and funds raised from the 50 London sculptures will benefit Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Charity, supporting children in hospitals and hospices across the UK.
We spent only one day in Bristol and didn’t get enough time to look for Shaun! Each Shaun is beautifully decorated and well presented! To help you to locate him, you can download the Shaun in the City trail app at a small fee from App Store and Android.
Bristol is a lovely city packed with lots of attractions, sight-seeing and entertainment. Over the weekend, we spent Saturday visiting At-Bristol and hopped on the Bus Tour. Then Sunday we visited Weston-Super-Mare which is approximately 20 miles from Bristol.
If you travelled by car, there are two car parks which you can use for easy access to the area. If you prefer to be in the heart of Bristol, you could park Trenchard Street car park. It is well signed, and when you are halfway down the slope, turn to your right! Or you could park at Millennium Square car park, which is within walking distance to lots of places of interest. The prices are very reasonable especially if you intent to stay for a whole day.
Things to do in Bristol:
At-Bristol
At-Bristol is an interactive science centre. It is equipped with hands-on exhibitions, like reporting your own weather forecast, guess the taste, grinding flour, launching parachutes, and many more. There are two floors which may not sound like a lot, but there is a lot to do! We had spent at least 2 hours in there but could have easily spent more if we didn’t have to leave early for other activities! We didn’t get chance to visit the Planetarium which we will look forward to next time. We all enjoyed it and learnt something new. We also went to a lesson about weather and Mr K even participated in it! I would definitely recommend it as it is fun and educational for the whole family. A nice feature about the entry is that you are allow to pop back again on the same day. So if you fancy going out for lunch, you could do so and then come back again to continue where you left off.
City Sightseeing Bristol Tour Bus
We love bus tours as they are informative and you get to explore the whole city too! This is a hop on and off bus which is so convenient for everyone! We were very lucky that we got to see two bridges (Plimsoll bridge and Junction Lock bridge) open for the River cruise to pass by! It was so exciting that I took a video of it! At the same time, it also means a longer wait in the bus! Anyway, the guide was very friendly and explained the places in detail and pointed out where the Shauns were hiding on the route!
As we were only in Bristol for a day we missed out on other attractions like the Aquarium, Blaise Castle, Bristol Zoo, Cabot Tower, Bristol Museums, River Cruise, SS Great Britain and many more.
We happened to be there for the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. Unfortunately, after we queued for nearly three hours for the shuttle bus, they had to stop taking people to the location as it was full. We missed out on the Night Glow show but nevertheless, we saw lots of hot air balloons flying past us! We found out later that it was the first time it had reached capacity in the 37 years it had been running with an estimated half a million people attending over the course of the event. Hopefully next year, we will plan well ahead!
Weston-Super-Mare
The next day, we drove down to Weston-Super-Mare which is a beautiful seaside town. There are a lot of car parks and we chose to park at the Sovereign Centre which is located inside a shopping mall.
We visited the Grand Pier which has arcade games, fun rides, 4D cinema, soft play area, golf and many more. It does require £1 per person for entry to the pier.
At the beach, there are also Donkey Rides which are run by a family business since 1886. I did offer both of my children but they both preferred to collect seashells and playing Frisbee with Mr C! We had a brilliant time at Bristol. It is very clean with a nice big beach. Also there are plenty things to do or chill out! We would definitely go back again! It is a beautiful city!
To find out more about Bristol, visit their website at: http://visitbristol.co.uk/
Disclosure: We have received free passes for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.
looks great, I was looking into visiting last year but we went to Liverpool instead. Will definitely be going in the near future
Bristol has been on my list of places we need to visit for a couple of years, we need to plan ahead for it as it’s a 2-3 day break for us to make it worthwhile, but looks lovely. Such a shame about the Balloons – they really are wonderful to see taking off
Bristol is a lovely city, I love all the waterside areas, looks like you managed to visit when there was lots going on too. I remember a school trip to Weston Super Mare, such a classic English seaside place, glad you had a fun family adventure there. Thank you for joining me for Country Kids.
Ah, looks like you had great fun. Bristol is such a fab city. My husband is from Bristol, and a lot of his family still live there so we visit a lot. We love the aquarium. Amazingly, we’ve not managed to visit while the Shaun the Sheep trail is on – it looks brilliant though. #countrykids