As others have said, this is a lovely, almost hidden park, with a small area of formal gardens with…read morea pond and fountain, complete with a statue of Peter Pan, wild woodland areas and a large playing-field area. It has wonderful views from the top across the lower Ely valley towards Llandough, as well as some amazing mature trees. It is one of the city's oldest parks, given to the city by Charles Thompson in 1911. Perfect for a short walk or a lazy summer afternoon picnic.

Although there are a whole lot of parks in and around the Cardiff area, Thompson's Park in Canton…read morein somewhat unique. Most others offer wide stretches of grass, the odd flowered border and playgrounds. Thompson's Park is smaller than most, and has a particularly quaint feeling. This park is landscaped well, and combined areas of woodland in the heart of the city, with fountains (including the famous Peter Pan statue), duck ponds, winding stairs and a wide grassy area on its higher level. On this field I took part in many school sports days in my time. Never won anything though. Thompson's Park is small and compact, but large enough to take you away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It's like a lost garden in a city wilderness.

Let me introduce you to one of my favourite places to exercise, stroll and stuff my face with…read moreprocessed meats (Summertime BBQ's) - Cosmeston Lakes. First opened in 1978, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and Medieval Village is situated not far from Cardiff, Barry and Penarth. It is open all year round for visitors to explore it's 247 acres of land, lakes, woodlands and meadows. There's even a reconstructed 14th Century Village set within the park. Things to remember for your next visit: Parking: FREE! Lakeside Café: The Lakeside Café serves breakfast, lunch and obligatory ice creams! Open daily from 8.30am - 6.30pm. Take a seat on the patio area and enjoy the lakeside views. BBQ and Picnics: There are several BBQ units throughout the park that are available to hire from £17. There are also lots of conveniently placed picnic benches. Bird Hide: For the keen bird watchers, a bird hide can be found overlooking the western lake (visit website for map). Access to the bird hide is via steps leading from the main path. Open 24 hours. Free of charge. Horse Riding: Horse Riding is permitted, however if you want to ride along the main paths you will have to purchase a permit which costs £20 per year. Medieval Village: Open 7 days a week. Free of charge! Adventure Playground: A large children's playground can be found on the opposite side of the lake from the car park. It features a range of climbing equipment, swings, slides and a boat.

Cosmeston Lakes are the filled in remains of limestone quarries in the 19th century. When I go…read morethere, I imagine old metal towers and drills slowly mouldering away under the calm surface, with all its ducks and reeds. Cosmeston offers an easily accessible set of lakes, paths, wide grass areas and boardwalks. It is a lovely area to take in, and is suitable for cycling. There's also a large play area for small and large children alike. Also on site there's a visitor centre, cafe and the ever-popular Medieval Village. This is a great area to settle down for the day. As you do so, imagine what the mines once looked like and be in awe of the restoration project that went on there.

The Knap Gardens are one of the most popular parks in Barry…read more It's an attractive triangular garden of lawns and borders, with a small stream running into a large boating lake, which is built in the shape of a Welsh Harp. The lake is home to a colony of swans and ducks, as well as the odd seabird. On sunny week-end afternoons, it's busy with families, including those with remote controlled boats. There's also a sheltered sunken garden with a small pond and fountain, with high hedges to keep off the stiff breezes that blow in from the Bristol Channel. The park backs onto Cold Knap beach, and at the other end are shops and cafes providing teas and ice-creams. There is ample parking at the nearby car park adjacent to the beach.

Other reviews are great but I just wanted to add that there are now parking restrictions on the car…read morepark in the evening. It closes at 5.30pm -- you can get out if you've parked up before then but you cant get in to park - there are only a few spaces available (disabled parking etc). I was chased by a swan when I last went so I now leave the bread at home - and I have also noticed some 'do not feed the ducks' signs! The skate park is popular with the youngsters and there's some fantastic talent over there! It's great to go over and watch them.

Victoria Park is, apparently, one of the most popular parks in the UK. I can understand why. This…read morepark is full of flowers (beware, hay-fever sufferers), trees, winding paths and grassy areas. This is a fantastic place to bring children on a sunny summer day. Victoria Park is probably most famous for its spectacular playground and massive shallow paddling pool (in the summer). Imagine ice creams and picnics and children splashing water everywhere. Good times. There are also a number of summer events that go on in this park. Summer Fetes and Scout/Guide events, face painting and throwing wet sponges at teachers. There is also a bandstand and a cafe. The only thing wrong with this park is its popularity, as it does manage to get heavingly busy on hot days. You've been warned. I have lovely memories from Victoria Park, so could you!

A lovely traditional park, covering nearly 20 acres, situated just west of Canton, on Cowbridge…read moreRoad. It has been awarded a prestigious 'Green Flag' award and attracts over 600,000 visitors a year. It was founded in 1897 and contains a mixture of traditional flower beds, mature trees, a paddling pool, bandstand, children's playground, tennis courts, a 5-a-side football pitch, and open lawns. There's a cafe, toilets and a park-keeper's lodge - one of the few left in the UK where the keeper lives on site. The park used to have animals in a small zoo (my mother used to visit them in the early 1930s), most famously Billy the Seal; caught accidentally by a local fishing boat in 1912, he was donated to the park, living there until 1939. After he died, he was found to be female! She is commemorated by a life-size statue in the park. A great place for families and children, as well as for a quiet stroll.

A beautiful place to go for a stroll and take a picnic. The lakes and surrounding paths are well…read moremaintained. The coffee shop quite often gets busy on nice days and can be pricey for what you get but it is clean and well staffed. The toilets smell a bit and the childrens paly park needs lots of attention but all these things aside, it really is worth a visit on a nice sunny day. Made the most out of the adjoining Medieval Village too!!

We used to spend a lot of time here when we lived in nearby Barry. A nice place to take a picnic,…read moreas the last reviewer suggested, or to have a snack in the cafe (there is a small gift shop inside too). The board walks and level pathways make this a pleasant place for everyone. A good area for photography too: water fowl, bees, butterflies, wild flowers and the views across the two lakes. A large free car park too.

This may be called a wetlands reserve but its more like a little walkway along the reed area of the…read moresea front. Its not very big and don't expect to see a huge array of animals. There are information boards around so if your a keen wildlife spotter or want to get the kids involved they are a nice touch. What it is, is a very peaceful spot where even on a very busy summers day you can find a spot to sit and enjoy the sun, or feed the ducks (although I don't think your meant too!)

This is a fairly exposed nature reserve with a boardwalk for visitors to stroll along, bordered by…read moremarshy reeds and offering views out over the Bay. These wetlands were created in 2002 when the barrage was completed to compensate partly for the disappearance of the old saline mudflats, which of course were being turned into a freshwater lake. The wetlands provide an important habitat for over-wintering and breeding birds, so the reserve is justifiably popular with birdwatchers. On a cold and windy day, this isn't the most pleasant open space you could choose to explore because it often gets really windy with a nasty chill factor - far better off finding some secluded woods to shelter in. In the summer, however, it's a different story - with some good views from the boardwalk back over the reserve and to the Bay's skyline and out to Cardiff Bay Barrage.

The Ely is a well under used river - it's potential glory is stolen by the river Taff…read more The river is as curvy as a gymnast's ribbon, full of oxbows (u-shaped river bends). It's a really beautiful river that meanders through the Vale and into Cardiff. The river flows through St.Fagans, through Leckwith and into the river Taff. Most of the banks are tree lined. Follow the river by bike along the Ely Trail, which starts in Cardiff Bay.

This attractive and steeply sloping park has large areas of lawn, formal borders, a small…read morearboretum, bowling green and tennis courts. The gardens were laid out at the end of the 19th century, and my grandfather played football here before going on to become a professional soccer player, so it has a close family connection for me. The park is busy with families, children and students on sunny days - a great place for kicking a ball about, or maybe flying a kite (so long as you stay away from the trees!). It's just a stone's throw from the Knap Gardens and beach at Cold Knap, but tends to be more sheltered.

It is a pleasant spot and definitely a nice place to walk all year round. We often used to go there…read morewhen we lived nearby.

Running from the edge of Porthkerry Park to the promontory known as 'Cold Knap', this is a popular…read morebeach for dog walking and with wind-surfers. It's very pebbly, but is used by intrepid bathers in the summer. There is good fishing from the rocks at the far end of the beach, on the promontory itself. At high tide, it's quite steep, although there is a shingle/sand stretch revealed at low tide. Situated on the Bristol Channel, this stretch of coastline has the second highest tidal range in the world, at about 15m, so it really does go up and down. (It goes without saying, therefore, that you should be careful about not getting cut off under the cliff at very high tides). There's a large, free car-park at the foot of the cliffs, a favourite place for showing off souped-up Ford Escorts in the evenings. In summer, there's an ice-cream van as well. Porthkerry Park can be reached 0.5km along the beach if you are reasonably fit, and the tide is out, although it can be hard to walk on the larger pebbles and rocks. The cliffs and rock formations on the beach offer a text-book example of horizontal sedimentary geology, and are amazing to look at. In various places there are sea-cut caves, although given the propensity of bits of cliff to tumble down from time to time, it is not recommended that you get too close to the foot of the cliff itself. The beach also has some rock pools, although the tides and waves mean that they are not the most interesting - although you can find the odd hermit- and shore-crab if you are persistent, and perhaps a small fish or two. It's a favourite with beach-combers, too. Above the beach, the green by Marine Drive offers spectacular views across the Bristol Channel to the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm, and the Somerset coast, 15-20km beyond. There's always plenty of shipping to watch too, heading up- or downstream, or simply waiting for the tide to take them to the docks at Bristol, Newport, Cardiff, Barry or Sharpness.

This pebble beach in Barry is generally quieter than the sandy beach of Barry Island, just a few…read moremiles to the east, although it still gets busy on hot summer days. It's located in one of the wealthiest and most attractive areas of the town, near big houses and expensive flats. It was originally used by the Romans as a port, and now has a lake right next to it where people go to feed the swans and ducks. This - Cold Knap Lake - was the subject of a poem by Cardiff-born poet Gillian Clarke. It's most attractive on a really crisp, frosty day when the sun's out but few people are about. A former outdoor swimming pool has been filled in and turned into part of a tourist trail. The area is also home to a skate park.

Very lovely for a day out a lot of variety to do very exciting and has everything to offer like…read moreentertainment food has alot to offer definitely recommend

It seems now you can't mention Barry Island without mentioning the popular T.V sitcom 'Gavin and…read moreStacey'. I'm not saying this is a bad thing because Barry Island got the recognition it deserves, as it has been a wonderful leisure park and beach that I grew up in for many years. Where do you start with Barry Island? There are so many choices! Lets start with the main attraction in the summer; the beach. Believe it or not the beach is huge, plenty of space to build those sandcastle and then kick a ball to destroy it. I'm not going to like but the ocean doesn't look like the most appealing water to enter in mainly because it's brown. But that still doesn't bother anyone because it's Barry Island and we wouldn't have it any other way. There is an amusement park which was under construction the last time I visited, I wasn't sure if it was being torn down or being rejuvenated. Some of the rides did include a ghost train and a log flume, which is great fun. Now of course I can't forget the arcades down the island because they are such a big part of it. You have a wide choice of arcades. My favourite was always 'The Carousel'. Finally, I need to talk about the crazy golf course they have there. This was knocked down and then rebuilt into a pirate themed course, which I had a lot of fun playing with friends. Barry Island has now gone down as a famous tourist attraction due to Gavin and Stacey but that is irrelevant as the people who go there still have a fun day and I'm sure they would consider visiting again.