Scotland is world-famous for its beautiful lochs and highlands, and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park showcases both. This beautiful area is an outdoor playground, filled with endless
opportunities for family-friendly adventure. There are so many fun things to do in Loch Lomond with kids that we loved our 6-day stay, and we are confident your family will too!
Keep reading for our favourite things to do in Loch Lomond with kids, plus a short video from our family trip so you can see what it was like for yourself.
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Why Visit Loch Lomond With Kids
The Loch Lomond National Park straddles the Highland Boundary Fault Line which literally separates the Scottish Lowlands from the Scottish Highlands. Stand atop Conic Hill and you’ll see flat farmland on your left and rolling mountains on your right. Look straight ahead and you’ll see a chain of islands across Loch Lomond which were created by the fault line. A pretty amazing sight, and kind of educational too!
It’s this unique landscape that makes Loch Lomond such a fun place to explore with kids. You get a mix of gentle lochside walks, island views, castle grounds, forest trails, boat trips, and family-friendly hikes, all within one region.
One day you can be climbing a viewpoint like Conic Hill, and the next you can be wandering through ruins, chasing waterfalls, or letting the kids run around in wide open parkland. It’s the combination of beautiful scenery and easy outdoor adventures that makes Loch Lomond and the Trossachs such a memorable family destination.
Best Things to do in Loch Lomond with Kids
As you’ll see, we spent almost our entire family trip to Loch Lomond outside enjoying the incredible landscape. I’ve split up this section of the best things to do in Loch Lomond with kids into two main sections. I begin with scenic hill walking, which covers the three family-friendly hikes we enjoyed in Loch Lomond. This is followed by the easy kid-friendly walks we enjoyed in Loch Lomond.
Keep reading after the things to do as I discuss where to stay in Loch Lomond and how to get there with kids. I finish up with our 6-day Loch Lomond family itinerary.
Scenic Hill Walking
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park is home to several famous long-distance treks, including the West Highland Way and Rob Roy Way. These multi-day treks are long and hard, but this doesn’t mean families can’t get in on the fun.
The following family-friendly Loch Lomond hikes take you to the summits of several hills in the Scottish Highlands. Being uphill, they can be a bit challenging, but they are all popular family walks near Loch Lomond and should be manageable for most active families.
Before you head out, read our best tips for hiking with kids and see what we actually pack in our guide to hiking gear for kids.
Conic Hill Hike
This very popular Loch Lomond hike takes you along a portion of the West Highland Way through an ancient forest to the summit of Conic Hill. At the top you’ll be rewarded with 360-degree views of Loch Lomond National Park.
The string of islands you’ll see cutting across Loch Lomond are visual evidence that you are standing on a fault line which separates the Scottish Lowlands from the Scottish Highlands.
Get all the details in our post about hiking the Conic Hill Walk with kids.
Ben A’an Hike
Ben A’an is another very popular family walk in the Trossachs section of the national park. This is a short, steep hike to the summit of Ben A’an. The payoff at the top is sweeping views of two lochs nestled within the surrounding mountains of the Trossachs. There’s lots of space at the top to enjoy the views while having a well-earned family picnic.
Get all the details in our post about the Ben A’an Hike with kids.
The Whangie Walk
The Whangie walk is a fun, family-friendly hike just south-east of Loch Lomond. The Whangie slowly climbs the side of Auchineden Hill. At the far end of the hill is the very fun Whangie rock formation, which kids of all ages will enjoy exploring and climbing.
Read more about The Whangie Walk in Scotland with kids.
For more incredible hiking with kids in Scotland, make sure to check out our favorite hikes on the Isle of Skye with kids!
Easy Walks in Loch Lomond
Given how many hills and mountains there are, we were impressed with the variety of easy walks in Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Here are our favorites:
Devil’s Pulpit
A fun and easy add-on to the Whangie hike, the Devil’s Pulpit is a short walk along a canyon floor, where the water appears red. There’s a pulpit-shaped rock over the water, thus the name Devil’s Pulpit. Even without the gimmicks, this is a very scenic little canyon and is worth a stop if you are in the area.
Inchmahome Priory
Want to take a family walk through the ruins of an abandoned 700-year old monastery? The atmospheric ruins of Inchmahome Priory are reached through a fun boat ride to an island in the Lake of Menteith. When you are done with the ruins, take a stroll through dense, lush forest around the perimeter of the island.
Kids should keep their eyes open for the wooden red squirrels hidden throughout the forest by the staff at the Visitor Centre. Can they find them all?
Waterfall Trail
The Waterfall Trail in the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park is easily the most fun our kids had in Loch Lomond. This hike is filled with little interactive displays to teach kids about Scotland and life in the forest.
Our kids literally ran the entire length of this short hike, running from one exhibit to another. The kids didn’t even notice the beautiful waterfall, until we forced them to stop and take a look.
Balloch Castle and Country Park
The beautiful grounds of the Balloch Castle are a wonderful place for an easy family walk. Built in 1809, the Tudor-Gothic Balloch Castle is currently closed and unoccupied, but the exterior is in great condition, allowing kids’ imaginations to take over. Our kids decided this is where Merida from the Disney movie Brave lives.
As you explore the grounds of the castle you can walk through an ancient forest along the shores of River Levin as it flows into Loch Lomond. The pathway between the castle and Balloch is lined with many beautiful imported, ornamental plants and trees.
West Highland Way
The West Highland Way is a famous long-distance walking route between Glasgow and Fort William. Much of this route is strenuous, but not all of it is difficult. There’s a long, flat stretch of the West Highland Way running north from Balmaha.
This stretch runs through the forest along the western shores of Loch Lomond offering excellent scenery along the way. As a bonus, there are a series of beautiful beaches along the shores of Loch Lomond at the 1.5km mark. It’s a great place to take your kids to play after summiting Conic Hill.
Read more about these Five Easy Loch Lomond Walks With Kids.
Our Loch Lomond With Kids Video
Want to see what our family trip to Loch Lomond looked like? This short video includes many of our favourite hikes and gives you a better feel for the scenery, and what it was like exploring Loch Lomond with kids.
After watching, keep reading for more Loch Lomond family travel tips, our itinerary and links to our related Scotland posts.
We’re slowly adding more of our family travel videos to our YouTube channel, so feel free to subscribe if you’d like to follow along.
Where to Stay in Loch Lomond with Kids
Loch Lomond with kids is an excellent family destination in Scotland for easy walks, scenic hikes, boat trips, castle grounds, and nature-based day trips. For most families, the best base is Balloch or Balmaha, with activities spread across Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
4 Towns near Loch Lomond for Family Trips
Balloch is the largest centre and the transportation hub of the national park. This is the most convenient place to stay for families given it has many restaurants, shops and a grocery store. Plenty of organized tours leave from here as well.
Balmaha: A small village on the eastern shores of Loch Lomond where you will find the Loch Lomond Visitor Centre. The West Highland Way runs through Balmaha and is also the starting point for the very popular Conic Hill hike.
Luss: a small, but very charming village along the western shore of Loch Lomond.
Aberfoyle: An excellent choice if your adventures take you to The Trossachs region of the park. There’s plenty to do and plenty of places to stay.
Our Loch Lomond Accommodations
Not having been to Loch Lomond before, we chose to rent a holiday home in Balloch due to its size and central location. This option was great for our family as we had our own rooms, a kitchen, laundry and a supermarket.
That said, most of our daily activities were near Balmaha or Aberfoyle. I still think Balloch worked best for our family, but we needed to drive 30 to 60 every day to get to our walks and hikes.
If you are looking for a place to stay on your family trip to Loch Lomond, you can browse these holiday homes in Loch Lomond, or these family-friendly Loch Lomond hotels.
How to Get to Loch Lomond & the Trossachs with Kids
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is a rugged wilderness, so it’s amazing how close it is to Scotland’s two major cities.
There are several towns to choose from in Loch Lomond, but Balloch is the most logical place to start. Nestled on the southern shore of Loch Lomond, Balloch is the logistical hub of the park where most Loch Lomond tours originate from.
Given most of Loch Lomond’s attractions are outdoors in remote locations, we highly recommend having your own rental car. Your most convenient location to rent a car is the Glasgow Airport (GLA), which is only 24 miles away from Balloch. The Edinburgh Airport (EDI) is another easy option, but it’s a 72 mile drive.
Depending on the age of your kids, you may need car seats for your rental car. We figured out that buying our own at Argos was cheaper than renting them from the car rental company for 2.5 weeks. You may wish to do the same math…
Read more on the best things to do in Edinburgh with kids.
6-Day Loch Lomond Family Itinerary
Our 6-days in Loch Lomond with kids was part of a 3-week family road trip through Scotland. We arrived in Loch Lomond after starting our Scotland vacation with three days in Glasgow with kids.
Here is our 6-day itinerary for Loch Lomond with kids. If you have less time available, we’d recommend skipping the Whangie walk and the easy shoreline walk along Loch Lomond.
Day 1 – Travel to Balloch
Day 1: Picked up our rental car at the Glasgow airport and drove 25 minutes to our Balloch holiday home. After a quick lunch, we walked to the Balloch Castle and Country Park for an enjoyable stroll along the shores of Loch Lomond and the estate lands of the Balloch Castle.
Day 2 – Conic Hill
On our first full day in Loch Lomond with kids, we drove to Balmaha to hike the very popular Conic Hill Walk.
Day 3 – Whangie Walk
It was a weekend, and there were lots of visitors from the city. Since we were still a bit leery of driving on the left-hand side of the road, we chose to hike the Whangie walk due to its close proximity to Balloch.
At the end of the Whangie walk, we were talking to a friendly local, who recommended we also visit the nearby Devil’s Pulpit. We are grateful for the tip as it turned out to be one of our favorite things to do in Loch Lomond with kids.
Day 4 – Ben A’an
We drove to the Trossachs section of the park to walk to the summit of Ben A’an to enjoy the sweeping views.
Day 5 – Inchmahome Priory
We’d been pretty active so far and thought the kids could use a bit of a break, so we hopped on a boat and visited the 700-year old monastery ruins of Inchmahome Priory. Afterwards, we drove to the nearby Queen Elizabeth Forest Park for a very fun & educational walk along the Waterfall Trail.
Day 6 – West Highland Way
We’d done our fair share of Scottish hill walking so far, so we decided to enjoy the scenery along the shores of Loch Lomond by walking further along the easy portion of the West Highland Way north of Balmaha.
Day 7 – Drive to Fort William
Day 7: Packed up and drove to Fort William and Glencoe with kids for the next leg of our Scotland family adventure.
Don’t Miss: If you are planning a family trip to Scotland, check out our comprehensive Scotland packing list for families. For inspiration, don’t miss our favorite things to do in Scotland with kids.
Loch Lomond Tours for Families
A fun way to enjoy the scenery of Loch Lomond is to take the family on a 1-hour boat ride. Enjoy the transition from the Scottish Lowlands into the Highlands as you pass the islands created by Highland Boundary Fault Line on your way to see Ben Lomond.
Staying in Edinburgh? Why not try a full-day tour of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs? In the park, you’ll visit the shores of Loch Lomond as well as the Trossachs area. In addition to the park, you’ll also visit the Stirling Castle and the Kelpies.
A full-day tour of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs is also available from Glasgow. Enjoy a 1-hour boat ride on Loch Lomond and a visit to the Trossachs. A visit to Stirling Castle rounds out the tour.
Our Travel Journal for Kids
Based on our family travels, our kids helped us design this Travel Journal for Active Kids! This engaging travel journal encourages kids to document their adventures, spark creativity, and stay entertained on the go – grab yours now on Amazon!
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