This restored Victorian garden is like a secret treasure hidden in the city centre. Step inside and…read moreyou're in another time and place. The sound of running water, the fountains and 'ruins', planting on various levels and in varied styles make this a charming place to wander around or simply sit and enjoy. This is somewhere very special to spend a relaxing hour.

A beautiful and remarkably well hidden garden, this is a lovely place to visit and spend an hour or…read moreso. The Plantation Garden is also a surprisingly good place to bring kids - it's pushchair accessible and great for hide and seek. There are a few steep slopes and a fountain, so younger children might need close supervision. The Garden is normally unstaffed (payment of the entry fee is by way of an honesty box) but on Sunday afternoons volunteers are usually there to serve tea and cake.

What an incredible park! Tons of features for various aged children, be careful with water lover…read morechildren,the water feature is on even when it's quite cold and is not activated by a button, it's just on.

Holywells park has a long, rich heritage, dating back 1000s of years. In the 1750s, Thomas…read moreGainsborough painted the area that was to become Holywells Park - in fact the pools he depicted are still there today. The modern history of the park really starts with the Cobbold family, who owned the land and used the water from the natural springs to make beer. In the 1930s they donated the land to the people of Ipswich. Today the 67 acres are a mixture of parkland, fields, ponds, brooks and woodland. There is also an impressive play area (named after the ship Discovery that sailed to N America and founded Jamestown). The various footpaths through the woods and the parks are great places to walk dogs (in fact, if your dog is well behaved, the park is ideal to let dogs off their leads) and you can sometimes find it hard to believe that you are only a few minutes from the centre of Ipswich.

Eaton park is one of the best green spaces in Norwich. It is great for sports and has pitch and…read moreputt, tennis, bowls and croquet areas. There are also flat playing fields for more informal ball games and running around. All the paths are smooth and flat and are ideal for children to ride their bikes on in a safe environment away from roads. My children's favourite part is of course the play area which is all built over sand so don't forget to bring your buckets and spades with you too! As well as spending a great deal of time here we also like to play games of Hide and Seek in and around the Rose Garden and try and spot fish and frogs in the Lily Pond. Be warned if you have very young children as this is not fenced off. There is also a model steam railway (open Sundays only in the summer) and a model yacht pond. The focal point of the park is the bandstand in the centre of the park. A small coffee shop and toilet facilities are also to be found near here. We always enjoy our time here and of course it's free!

This was a great find!…read more We werent entirely sure what there was, i had just seen an advert about it and we headed over. It was so much fun! When we paid to get in Adult £6.90 Over 60's £5.80 Child £4.80 the very friendly woman at the counter gave the kids a sheet to fill in. It was a picture sheet, if you find the stampers dotted around the park and stamp the shapes, you will get a little something at the end. There was loads of things to keep us amused. There are beautiful gardens. Nature trails. Kids esp enjoyed the trail with the stampers on it. It was just the right distance for kids to walk. It was in the woods and right on the lake too. There are LOADS of places to picnic arouind the park, we were sat right on the lake. It was a superb view. You can take a rowing boat out on the lake, free of charge. We had planned to but the weather turned bad and didnt fancy being stuck in the middles of a lake in the rain! The childrens play area was fantastic, they had this giant cushion thing that looked really fun! But it was out of bounds when we got round to it because of the rain. There was loads more to do tho. A fort and adventure playground. There is also golf,putting and pony rides that you can pay extra for. In the building where you play to get in they also have benches and paly area for kids, a gift shop and a food counter. For the price to pay to get in , it's really good value. I could easily spend a whole day there. x

Great forest for family fun! Many different things to do and enjoy all day Lots of different play…read morestructures spread out threw the forest, bike riding trails, hiking/ walking trails, Go Ape activities, picnic areas, and open fields, tons of parking, bathrooms available, cafe shop for cup of coffee or hot meal. Plenty to choose from

We often come here from Norwich for a day out as there is so much to do…read more First, there are some lovely walks in this beautiful, mostly pine forest. With our small children we tend to take the route that includes all the fantastic wooden play sculptures. This means every few hundred yards or so you come across a wooden rabbit, bird, squirrel and so on designed to be explored with slides, fireman poles, ladders etc This keeps them going all the way round and they have a lot of fun. There are also some fantastic cycle routes available, different trails according to the level of difficulty. If you are a seasoned mountain biker you may wish to bring your own bike, on the other hand if you just want to have a taste of what it is like there are bikes available for hire by the hour or longer. We hired some once with a kids trailer fixed to the back of the bike and our girls loved it! There is a lovely open grassy area near the High Lodge Visitor Centre where you can play your own ball games too. We have been with a large party before and had a great day here using that area, hiring the barbecues to cook our lunch on and exploring the adjacent adventure play area. The centre itself has a gift shop and largish restaurant if you don't feel like bringing a picnic. There is a small charge of £6 to enter Thetford Forest if you park at High Lodge. Well worth it when you consider a family can have a brilliant day out for that amount!

A nice peaceful place. Good for a dog walk, run or short bike ride. Co-op and a really good…read moresandwich nearby for refreshments.

From the owner: The small town of Clare contains an extraordinary number of historic buildings (135 listed…read morebuildings) and sites for its size. Clare Castle Country Park falls within the Clare Conservation Area and was transferred from Suffolk County Council to Clare Town Council in March 2015. Clare Town Council holds the land and buildings as Custodian Trustee with the overall management of all aspects of the Park being carried out by the Clare Castle Country Park Trust. The Park extends to 13.2 hectares (32.6 acres) and is visited by around well over 100,000 people each year.

A second visit for me because I enjoyed it first time so much and missed quite a bit. Luckily, on…read moreboth occasions, the weather was kind to us. Different season, so different aspect. This is one thing about gardens that I enjoy. Love these visits but one niggle. Would the lady in the hut at the entrance give a smile, once in a while, please.

Marks Hall Gardens and Arboretum in Cogglesgall, Essex features landscaped woodland walks and…read morefootpaths, with vistas across lakes to an 18th Century Walled Garden. The Trust that runs it is dependent on their own resources and our generosity as visitors. The development of the Arboretum is an ongoing project. The trust's aim is to achieve a large collection of shrubs and trees from across the temperate regions of the world. The collection is planted geographically, so plants from the principal regions of the world are grouped together. There are areas representing Europe, Japan, China, Asia, the Americas and Gondwanaland (Southern Hemisphere). Upon entering the Arboretum you encounter the European section, which blends with the countryside beyond the deer fence thereby creating a liberating sense of space. Ancient oaks are a reminder that this former deer park contains the relics of monastic planting going back 700 years. The 'Gondwanaland' section is devoted to the super continent that eventually broke up to create South America, the Indian Subcontinent and Australasia. It is an undulating landscape of low mounds, sheltered by southern Beech and Eucalyptus trees. On warm days the aroma of eucalyptus provides a heady scent. There are also swathes of Cabbage Palm, Agapanthus and Cortaderia which in early summer lend a pleasingly exotic touch to this otherwise very English place. The lakes had once been three fish ponds created for the monastery that once stood on the site. They contain Roach, Golden Orfe and Goldfish. Next to the lower lake is an original nuttery containing Cob Nut trees. This area is now a spring flower area with snowdrops, species of daffodils, cowslips and other wild flowers. The Millennium Walk is located within the Asian section of the Arboretum, and has been planted with autumn, winter and early spring in mind. Dogwood and Rubus provide colourful reflections in the lake whilst Sarcococca (Christmas Box) combine with the Chimonanthus (Wintersweet) to provide a spicy sweet scent that compliments the bold colour contrasts. The Walled Garden is the piece de resistance of the whole garden. Created from five separate gardens, it is now a huge space containing sculptures and planting. Long stone seats provide a structural contrast to the lush planting and are complemented in turn by spheres of clipped box. In another part of the walled garden, an undulating stone wall acts as the foil to fiery plantings of red, orange, gold and yellow, where the colours last well into autumn. There is lots more besides, a walnut walk that follows a track within the conifers to a clump of young walnut seedlings, a grove which in Spring is carepeted by snowdrops and the long avenue which once formed the main entrance to the Estate and approach to the Mansion and now a planting of Oaks and Wild Service trees. The Visitor Centre offers a Tea room (with lovely cakes!), Gift Shop and Plant Centre. Marks Hall is the perfect place to escape London for a sunny Summer afternoon.

Not too far from Southwold, Tobys Walks is a picnic area with a difference. The wide open…read moregrasslands of most similar British spots is missing here - what you have instead is dirt and gorse, and plenty of it. That may sound like the last place you want to have a picnic, but trust me, it's fantastic. If you have youngish children, they (and you!) can run riot around the place, and there are plenty of natural hollowed out sections in the gorse that make perfect hiding places. I spent many, many a day over there with my Dad and my brothers when I was young and can't wait to take my son there too when he's older. Especially worth a trip to at night, park up in the car park and shine your headlights over the top of the walks, then go down for a game of night time hide 'n' seek, spookiness abounds. The reason it is so spooky is because of how the place got its name. Legend has it that Toby Gill was a black drummer in the army, specifically in Sir Robert Rich's 4th Dragoon Regiment, in the late 18th Century. They were stationed in East Anglia to try and combat the local smugglers. Toby, or Tobias to give him his full name, was apparently a pleasant man, but had a tendency to be a bit of a fighter when he got drunk. Indeed, he'd been barred from a lot of the local pubs. One night in June, 1750, Anne Blakemore, a woman from nearby Walberswick was supposedly murdered, and a drunk Toby was found next to her body. He was imprisoned in Ipswich gaol and tried at Bury, where he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. He was then subjected to gibbetting (the dead body is left to hang on a gallows with nails or chains for weeks after the execution). The ghost of Toby is said to roam the walks as the crossroads where he was hanged is right next to them (where the Walberswick Road meets the A12 now). Apparently, you can often see him driving a coach drawn by four black horses. Further analysis of the historical records paints a rather different picture, but whenever I went there when I was young my head was filled with the ghost story my Grandad had told me, and that's the best mind to be in to visit the Walks.

I used to love this place as a kid, it seemed fitting 25 years later to start visiting with my own…read morechildren so we made a suprise visit with my grandmother who at 93 had never expected to see the place again after taking me and my sister there regularly on route to oulton broads. We were devasted on arrival to find a locked gate and an overgrown entrance , i went and looked and found we could walk inside around the gate and so we all went for a look and an explore. Rubbish in the no longer maintained bins suggested people do still visit tobys walks, and aside from being deserted and some of the trails being overgrown a bit all the memories came flooding back. We enjoyed a picnic whilst there and took our rubbish away with us. What a beautiful amazing place, so much fun my kids didnt want to leave and neither did i! What a waste of such an amazing place, suffolk council should be ashamed , we should be taking our kids to places like this. Other than nowhere to park other than outside the locked gate and also a noisy motorcross meeting going on opposite tobys walks on the sunday we visited i would recommend a visit to anyone. Also sadly the sign for tobies walks has been deleted , all i can say is im gutted and hope tobys walks doesnt end up in a dusty corner of history. Surely it could have been kept open with the minimal amount of maintanance.