Visiting Kew Gardens with children

– Have you had fun today?
– Yes!

I love that 20-month old Baby Girl understands questions I ask her, and always gives me very honest answers, as it makes it feel so worthwhile to take her to somewhere she loves going. And yesterday it was the Kew Gardens she loved.

We had been invited to visit Kew Gardens, and with the weather being so beautiful over the bank holiday weekend, we figured it was the perfect destination for a family day out at a botanical garden–and it was about time Daddy T could tick it off his list, as he had never been despite living in London for 15 years.

But after 30 minutes in the amazing Kew Gardens, which are now coming into bloom, we soon realised it was not something we could simply tick off. This is a brilliant destination for a family day out, and we could have brought picnic blankets and spent the whole day here.

The only challenge was that Baby Girl never wanted to leave when she had found something fun to do. First it was the pond outside Palm House. She and a number of other children were standing by the fence, watching the swans, large fish and ducks swim by and eat some food, and it was a definite highlight for Baby Girl.

Eventually we managed to tempt her with a rice cake, and walked towards Treehouse Towers, a wooden playground popular with children of different ages. Baby Girl quickly found the little slide and tunnel, and after a number of times on these and a quick stop for an ice cream in the sun, we went to the indoor play zone Climbers and Creepers for young children.

I took her around to try some of the fun sensory play, and we soon also discovered the Grow Zone for toddlers. This was the perfect place to hang out. There’s an area where parents can sit down, and young children can play on a mini climbing frame with a slide and tunnel. Baby Girl could get on with it herself, and she never seemed to tire of it.

In the car on the way home, I was Googling climbing frames for toddlers for the garden. I want one of those!

Adult tickets to Kew Gardens are £15 and children 16 or under go free. We only visited a few of the many attractions in Kew Gardens, and I would recommend reading more on the Kew Gardens website to plan your visit to this very large botanical garden.

Photo courtesy of RBG Kew

Tags: Activities for children, Activities for toddlers, Attractions, Botanical gardens, Ducks, Feeding fish, Kew Gardens, London, Picnic, Playground, Spring, Summer, Swans