Case in point on Saturday when we took the three grandchildren on the train to Ballasalla and then on to Silverdale. All the picture except the obvious one, I have cribbed from http://www.iomguide.com so thanks to them and I hope providing the link will assuage their annoyance for my plagiarism.
The return fare for two adults is £20.00 and I think that it's great value for parents and grandparents that there is a free child for every adult and under a certain age is also free, so that was our only outlay on transport.
Ballasalla is only half an hour's journey, so it's an ideal distance for taking young children, though do beware that it is probably about a mile to the glen from the station and the most pleasant way to go is by crossing the ford near the Rushen Abbey Hotel and walking along the river.
It isn't the easiest path to push a trolley along though, unless you have the fancy pram wheels on it and therefore with having to cajole the monsters along a little, it took quite some time. Well worth it on a nice day when you're not in a hurry though.
By the time we made it to the lake and cafe, we were all extremely hungry, so after feeding the ducks we went into the restaurant.
The premises have been refurbished and it looks like part of it hasn't been completed yet, though it looks very well. However, the menu is somewhat limited, so I would only recommend it for a quick bite to eat rather than for a full meal.
Unfortunately, as I had to work later on in the day, we once again ran out of time, so only had the chance to give the kids a quick go on the Victorian water wheel (according to Wikipedia one of the oldest working examples in the World) and the swings, rather than have a full exploration and a row or pedal on the boating lake (the word lake is a possible exaggeration.)
