There are lots of lovely spots by the Thames in Buckinghamshire. We haven’t explored them all yet, but one place we have been to a couple of times is Marlow. There’s a large playground by the river (with a Costa Coffee with lots of outdoor seating), and the river walk is great for watching the rowers,…
Category: daytrips
Cutteslowe Park and Jacob’s Inn, Oxford (14/10/17)
Looking for a day out? We had a great day in Oxford recently visiting Cutteslowe Park and having brunch at Jacob’s Inn. With Oxford being only an hour’s drive away on a weekend, it’s an ideal ‘day out’ distance. Both locations are near one another and away from the city centre, so there’s no need…
Building Research Establishment (BRE) Open Day (19/09/17)
We’d missed the Building Research Establishment (BRE) open day in 2016, and were desperate to go this year after hearing great things from friends. We’d booked in advance (tickets were free), planning to spend a couple of hours there, but the huge amount of things to see and do meant that we ended up staying…
Ruislip Lido and Train (27/08/17)
A Watford friend had mentioned Ruislip Lido as a good place to visit so on bank holiday Sunday, on one of the warmest days of the summer, we decided to brave the crowds and check it out. First hurdle was finding a parking spot! The council are obviously used to managing a large number of…
Colourscape and Waddesdon Manor (04/06/17)
We’d seen someone post about Colourscape on at Waddeson Manor on Facebook somewhere and thought that it looked like a pretty cool event to go to and then promptly forgot about it! Luckily, we managed to remember in time to catch its last day. And we’re so glad we did as it’s really rather special. We…
Wrest Park (14/05/17)
Wrest Park is an English Heritage property about 45 minutes drive from Watford and makes for a great family day out.
Chiltern Open Air Museum (07/05/17)
The Chiltern Open Air Museum is about a 20 minute drive from Watford and well worth a visit.
East Herts Miniature Railway and Van Hage Garden Centre (01/04/17)
The East Herts Miniature railway is in the Van Hage Garden Centre in Great Amwell. The garden centre itself is a great destination for mooching around: it’s massive and our toddler loved wandering around but the main attraction for him was the railway – he could have stayed watching that for ages!
Hatfield Park Farm and Playground (26/03/17)
A brilliantly sunny Mothers’ Day and what do you do? Where do you go? We were meeting Mr New to Watford’s parents at Dunstable Downs in the afternoon and needed somewhere to go beforehand. Discounting Whipsnade Tree Cathedral as being too similar an activity to the Downs , we decided on Hatfield Park Farm. We’re so glad…
Stockwood Discovery Centre (11/03/17)
Having heard about the Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton on The Smallest of Things blog, we decided to check it out on a rainy weekend day. With it only being a 25 minute drive from Watford, it was a handy, FREE, indoor place to visit with an energetic toddler. First stop was the Discovery Hall, which featured…
Berkhamsted to Boxmoor canal walk (03/02/17)
We’d spied the canal (and its pubs!) when visiting Berkhamsted Castle, and were keen to take a stroll along the towpath. We set off south with the intention of walking for an hour before stopping off at the Fishery Wharf Café at Boxmoor for refreshments. There were countless narrow boats taking advantage of the tranquil mooring spots (if…
Watford v Walthamstow (28/12/16)
We’ve lived in both but which is better?
Oxford Natural History Museum (01/11/16)
We woke up one Sunday to a particular wet weather forecast and thought, with just a tinge of panic, ‘we must get out of the house otherwise we will all go mad’. Out of that was born the idea of going to Oxford for the day, as it could offer a treat for us as…
Heritage Open Days: Amersham Heritage Day (07/10/16)
This was our last visit of the Heritage Open Days weekend held over 10-11 September. We hadn’t visited Amersham before: the town was far quainter than we’d anticipated, with some lovely independent shops, ancient pubs and a beautiful park.
Verulamium Park, St Albans (07/08/16)
We’ve been to the playground in Verulamium Park in St. Albans a few times – it’s only 20 mins by car and the car park is free for a couple of hours on a Sunday. The park itself is large, and features Roman remains dotted here and there. There’s also a paddling pool with a…
Ashridge Estate (31/07/16)
The Ashridge Estate comprises 5000 acres of free-to-explore woodland just outside Berkhamsted on the edge of the Chilterns. We drove up there on what turned out to be a very busy day – there was a huge geotagging event on, with hundreds of people having breakfast at the large café adjoining the visitor centre. That said the driveway…
Butts Meadow playground, Berkhamsted (29/05/16)
We fell in love with Berkhamsted when we visited it for the first time after it had snowed the night before. It looked absolutely magical on the drive in and walking about in the snow. We saw a lot of families in the Costa Coffee coming in with sledges and we wondered where they had been…