Are you looking for a fun family day out in South West London this Easter holiday? Then A Big Day Out With Peter Rabbit at Kew Gardens may be just the ticket!
We love Kew Gardens and would always buy an annual pass when we lived in the area a few years ago. But since moving house we have really missed wandering the gardens, exploring the greenhouses, conquering the treetop walkway and watching the kids run and climb in the Climbers and Creepers play area.
So when the opportunity arose to visit again with LittleBird (the family days out ticket specialists, a one stop shop for families looking for the best things to do, see and buy together) we jumped at the chance. We were there to check out the Peter Rabbit activities that are taking place over the Easter holidays, and this couldn’t have been more perfect for us considering we have a toddler who absolutely LOVES Peter Rabbit and all the Beatrix Potter stories.
LittleBird are currently offering an exclusive saving of 23% off of ticket prices for A Big Day Out With Peter Rabbit at Kew Gardens, so it is definitely worth booking through them if you are looking to visit over the holidays (please note this is an affiliate link)
And so, on the first day of the holidays, we set out on a quest to find Peter Rabbit himself.
I have to say that the weather was not at all kind to us! It rained, and rained, and then rained some more!! But we didn’t let it put us off, and we ploughed on with our search for Peter and his friends, with a few strategic stop offs in the glass houses and covered play areas along the way.
The trail starts at the main gate and leads you to the activities that takes place outside the Princess of Wales Conservatory; through the kitchen gardens and then onto the Secluded Garden.
Along the way, the characters from the Beatrix Potter books pop up along the path – much to the excitement of all the children passing by.
After a stroll through the Kitchen Gardens our first stop was Mr McGregor’s potting shed where, rather than a fearsome farmer, we were greeted with a table full of stamps and ink pads, ready for children to create their own ‘monster vegetables’. By combining stamps of different leaves with different vegetables, little ones can let their imagination run wild.
If you visit on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday over the holidays then you can listen to the Kitchen Garden talks at 11.30am and 1.30pm to discover which edible plans are grown here during the Spring.
Onwards to the Secluded Garden area, which is where most of the activities take place. Here we found a collection of tents, which felt like a mini festival, all with different activities inside.
Outside there was a Tops and Tails game, where our little ones enjoyed trying to guess what vegetable was hidden in the box just based on the leaves that were popping out. I have to say that Baby Dais Like These loved this and opened the boxes again and again and again!
We popped into the Grow Your Own Tent, where kids are tasked with cutting a strip off of a piece paper and then using it to create a plant pot, before filling it with soil and a seed.
I am not sure if it was the weather or the pure popularity of this activity that made this tent so super busy when we tried to join in, but either way we just couldn’t get to the table! The staff in the tent spotted us struggling a bit and very kindly gave us some pre-cut strips of paper that we could take with us to make at home.
We headed over to another tent where the next activity was to create bunny ears using pipe cleaners. This was a big winner, and the lady in charge was bubbly and fun and made sure everyone was happy and had what they needed. A few children reached out to her for help with their creations, which I always feel is a sign that they feel relaxed and welcomed into an activity.
Amongst the activity tents there are both covered and uncovered seating areas, where you could sit and either eat a picnic or something from the food stand nearby that was offering pulled pork, pulled chicken or veggie burgers.
I loved the picnic tables which had a different games attached to each, from a Peter Rabbit themed ‘Guess Who’ or ‘Top Trumps’ – great fun!
Unfortunately during our visit a few of the activities were not running – but considering the appalling weather, I can completely understand why! If you head to Kew on a drier day you will be lucky enough to also enjoy Foody Towers – an interactive quiz show which helps discover more about the foods that Peter Rabbit and his friends enjoy, as well as giant rabbit warren building where you can help to build a warren fit for Peter and his family.
So, after a quick run up and down the Bunny Burrows, it was time to seek shelter in one of the warm glasshouses.
And then heading into our old favourite, Climbers and Creepers. The outside play area is currently under construction until Spring 2019, but that didn’t bother us too much because of the terrible weather! Despite it being busy, the kids immediately kicked off their shoes had a blast running, climbing, sliding and jumping their way around this indoor play area. For the older boys it was trip down memory lane, and for Baby Dais Like These it was a fun new place to explore.
And despite the rain, we also managed to check out the new installation at Kew; The Hive. The boys loved running (and splashing!) around this immersive sound and vision experience which amazingly is triggered by bee activity in a real beehive at Kew.
We also climbed the long stairway up to the Treetop Walkway and wandered amongst the treetops, which never disappoints in exciting the kids!
And if Peter Rabbit isn’t really your thing, there is also the added bonus of a dragon trail around the gardens too! The Here Be Dragons trail is made up of dragon sculptures based on Blue Peter competition entries. The boys absolutely loved spotting Dragons along the way, and some of them were fabulous, this was my favourite:
So, despite the weather, we enjoyed a lovely day out at Kew Gardens, searching for Peter Rabbit and his friends (with a few dragons thrown in!). If you have a Peter Rabbit mad little one like me then I can highly recommend a trip to Kew this Easter. You can easily fill a few hours with the Peter Rabbit trail and activities alone, and you can make it a full day out by exploring everything else that Kew Gardens has to offer, from the magnificent glasshouses filled with tropical plants, orchids and even cacti, to the treetop walk way, to the fab Climbers and Creepers play area.
And don’t forget to check out LittleBird who have some exclusive savings over this Easter break – 23% off of ticket prices.
Disclaimer: I was invited by LittleBird to visit Kew Gardens in return for a blog post which features an affiliate link. However, as always, all views are my own.
There is an affiliate link in this post. If you use this link to purchase tickets to Kew Gardens, you will not be charged any more than normal.