Durham University Botanical Gardens with Kids - A Review

*This is a guest post

Today we have a guest post from Helen who visited Durham University Botanical Gardens with her children this week. It's somewhere I've not visited myself but it looks lovely (and inexpensive). Let me know if you'd recommend. Over to Helen......

The botanical gardens are a great way to spend half a day (or longer when a special event is on) with the kids. We have visited numerous times but our last visit was last week as there was a fantastic circus workshop on (included in the admission price) which my 3 and 7 year old loved. 

There are two entrances to the botanical gardens: one near the Durham Howlands park and ride (entrance via intercom) the other when you drive through Grey College, which takes you to the visitor centre. At this visitor centre there is a small car park; we've always managed to get a space when visiting. Parking is free you just need to give your registration number at the visitor centre. 

If you are just visiting for the day it's £4 for adults and £1.50 for kids over 5 years (under 5 years are free). After we had paid we picked up a Nature Hunt which is for younger children to find pictures of animals around the gardens. We did n't find them all, there was a poster saying there was a help sheet for parents but we didn't get that! Nevertheless both my kids enjoyed exploring looking for the pictures. There were other trails to do as well, for older children and adults. 

Some of the highlights of the gardens were the large wasp sculptures, bird spotting in the bird hide, and the beehive area. It was a lovely day so my kids loved running around doing the nature hunt and exploring these areas. We did explore inside too, there are a few animals: insects, frogs and fish. There's also a rainforest area where you can press a button to create mist (which the kids love doing). 

After the circus workshop, we had lunch. There are plenty of picnic benches spread around the gardens. The kids had their packed lunches and I ordered from the cafe area which was part of the visitor centre. There's a range of lunch type foods and drinks. I had a fresh cheese scone and lemonade which was just over £3 and it was delicious. 

The circus workshop made this visit even better for my kids but there was still enough there to entertain them with the nature hunt and lots of open space to run around.

Thanks Helen - sounds great! You can find out more about Durham University Botanical Garden here:  www.dur.ac.uk/botanic.garden

This summer I am welcoming guest reviews featuring days out across North East England and family holidays. If you'd like to submit a review, please email Sam@NorthEastFamilyFun.co.uk 

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