I love sharing the places we have visited with you all. I want to show my children new places and at the same time, I can show you all. There are so many places that are just on our doorstep, a little further afield and a whole world around us to explore.
If I can show just one person a new place and they visit it with their children I’m happy!
Our Top 10 Favourite Places We’ve Visited
So to kick this interactive map off I wanted to put together a post on our top 10 favourite places we’ve visited. This is either days out, holidays or walks. We live in Hampshire and Things To Do In Hampshire has an amazing list of place to visit, there are so many places to see that are right on our doorstep. But these are my top 10 favourite places we’ve visited all over the place!
Center Parcs – Sherwood Forest
I know this is a BIG one, but we have only been once and we have the best holiday ever. I never understood why people paid the money to go to Center Parcs, but I do now! The kids love it, great family time, and such fun. We are going to Longleat Center Parcs later on this year for a long weekend. The kids are already bursting!!
Check out Travel With The O’hallorans with tips on Center Parcs
Blackwater Arboretum – The New Forest
We visited Blackwater Arboretum back in September it was unexpectedly raining and we had no clue where we were going! However, once we stepped into the Arboretum with the tall trees around us and shelter from the leaves we were more than happy. Everyone else had turned around and gone home and we happily explored all the beautiful trees. It is a circular route making you find all the named trees featured. A very peaceful place
Longleat Festival Of Light and Santa Train
We have been to Longleat Festival Of Light two years in a row now for Christmas and we are more than happy to go back. It’s such a lovely day out any time of the year but topped off with the light lanterns when it gets dark in the winter months. We also do the Santa train which is such a magical Santa train. Driving out into the woods which are lit up and snow-covered. Perfect
West Wittering Beach
This is my favourite beach and I think I might be very tempted to move here when I’m older!! During the summer months it can get very busy we overcame this by having dinner on the beach and arriving at teatime when everyone was leaving. The beach was quiet and it was really good fun! During the winter months, it is a great beach to walk along and walk the dog too.
Stourhead National Trust
We visited Stourhead on our first year of having a National Trust membership and boy was I happy we had signed up. This place is simply stunning and I am so glad I have visited it. I suggest everyone visit here! I wanted to visit it on a frosty winters day as well but haven’t managed that yet.
The main lake is beautiful and the secret little paths and little caves made the kids day!
Check out Claire at The Ladybirds Adventures for her list of 11 fantastic National Trust walks in the North West
Tivoli Gardens Copenhagen
This was our first holiday abroad with the children and we had such an adventure. We had first visited our friend in a very quiet village in Sweden and had a lovely time. We were flying back from Copenhagen in Denmark so we stayed in Copenhagen and had a lovely few days exploring this amazing city. Visiting Copenhagen Zoo, Aquarium, Street Food Markets, Boat Tours, and many more things. However the most favourite for us all with Tivoli Gardens. It isn’t just any old amusement park, this one opened in 1843 and is the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world. It is really beautiful. Well maintained, fun rides, beautiful gardens and we had the best day out there. The kids say it was one of their most favourite days out ever.
Bridgewater Carnival
I had heard of Bridgewater Carnival before and considering Kev comes from Wiltshire he had never been. So one very chilly weekend off we went! It was packed, very busy and a lot of standing around to get your spot. However once those floats came around the corner with all their music playing, floats spinning, people singing and dancing it was worth the wait. Our jaws dropped when we saw them. People had spent months building these floats all for us to enjoy and we certainly did. Take a look at the video in the blog post just to see them in action.
Danebury Iron Age Fort
This is a very new one on the blog post, but it was a lovely place to walk. We didn’t explore half of it but was great for the kids to experience an iron age fort for the history and kids learn so much better when they personally experience things. They had catered for everything even with a dog exercise field too. The views up here were stunning too
Ashley Walk – The New Forest
This would be the kids favourite walk! It was a very cold icy day and all the puddles, water runoffs were frozen. With a stream to throw stones into. The kids spent ages just playing in the ice, slipping around, smashing it and they still say this was their favourite walk! So it had to be included!
Barncastle – Cotswolds
We had a lovely weekend in the most stunning converted barn in the Cotswolds with our friends for Easter. We honestly could not believe our eyes when we turned up. We were staying in that?! It was such a relaxing place but had so much to do nearby. We visited Bristol Science Museum, Woodchester National Trust for an Egg Hunt, Puzzlewood where a Star Wars film was filmed, and Beechenhurst Lodge. We are going back again this year and that is saying something as I hate to go to the same place twice!!!!!
I hope you like where we’ve been and you find a new place to visit by checking out our days out section on the blog.
44 Comments
I am determined that this year is going to be the year we do the festival of light at longleat, it looks amazing
Oh yes you really must, it’s such a fantastic day
You’ve visited some lovely places. I’ve heard great things about Centre Parcs but still haven’t visited. The Long Leat light festival sounds amazing
Yes they are both amazing places, should do Centre Parcs and Longleat light festival at the same time as they are across the road from each other!!
You’ve visited some fantastic places, such a varied set of experiences for the kids. We used to want to take our lot to Center Parcs at Longleat but with the 8 of us it was always too expensive. I’d love to visit Bridgewater Carnival one day, the floats and costumes always look amazing!
Thanks for linking up with me on #CountryKids.
Yes Centre Parcs is amazing, it was a very big treat for us! Thank you, it’s lovely seeing it written down.
Looks like brilliant places. We are yet to visit Centre Parks but I would love to take my boy there.
Oh I think you would all love Centre Parcs!
These all look like fabulous places to visit. West Wittering beach is my favourite beach too – we always try and go there in the summer when we visit my twin sister as she lives reasonably close by. That’s a good tip about going at teatime and having dinner on the beach – we usually set off very early in the morning so we can get there before the rush. Stourhead is the only other place on your list that I’ve visited and it’s somewhere that I’d definitely like to go again. #countrykids
Thank you, I glad you love West Witterings too. Beach dinner was really nice, very peaceful and watched the sunset too
Such an amazing list. Blackwater Arboretum should be my favourite despite the unexpected rain.
Thank you, is was lovely there and so peaceful
Each and every places you visited are lovely. That carnival visited us too so I know how amazing each float are. This is a lovely compilation of places to visit with kids. #countrykids
Thank you, the carnival is amazing isn’t it. I really want to see it again another year
What a fun idea to put it all on an interactive map! One of my favourite family holidays ever was to Gothenburg in Sweden.
Oh my friend moved to Sweden and it was beautiful when we visited.
These all look like wonderful places to visit. I think Longleat Festival Of Light might have to go onto my bucket list!
Yes add it to your list, it’s stunning and such a fun day
This post is making me want to book a flight to the south of England! Load of info here and some great tips for places to see!
Ah do it’s lovely down here!!!
Copenhagen is an amazing city with a lot to do and see. A lot of people seem to be heading there these days.
Yes it is well worth a trip, we had a great time and a beautiful city
Oh I LOVE The New Forest, we had the best holidays there as children!
Such a beautiful area isn’t it, so glad to have it on our doorstep
I love the sound of these places. Badly in need of a holiday.
I quite agree!!
Fantastic places. It’s my goal to visit more places this year so thanks for providing me with inspiration. 🙂
Glad to inspire you, there is so much on our doorsteps that we don’t even know about
Such stunning places to visit! I love the look of those forests, especially!
Thank you, nice to have these things on our doorstop
You’re so well-travelled, I’m really jealous of all those places!
Yeah only around the South Coast though!! Hopefully we can start dotting them around the map a bit more!!
We are off to longleat next week and I cannot wait as it has been a few years since our last visit
Oh have a great time!
I like the idea of this interactive map! Good for readers to be able to pin point the places you are documenting. That picture at the fort with the horses is simply amazing – you should print and frame it!
Ah thank you, I am glad you like it as well. Post card photo isn’t it!!
Wow they all look amazing. I think my favourite though is the Bridgewater Carnival it looks like so much fun!
Bridgewater Carnival is AMAZING!
All of these look like places we would love! A trip on the Santa train is definitely planned for next year x
The Santa train is so magical when it’s dark and all Christmassy. Great Christmas treat
Such an informative post – thank you! I have now added many new places on my list for the weekends 🙂
Thank you, enjoy your trips there!
The New Forest and Longleat are on my list of places to visit in the UK too. I adore Copenhagen, Tivoli gardens is just magical! The street food there was absolutely incredible. Copenhagen is my favourite European city with little ones in tow.
Oh your love both those places when you tick them off your list! Yes we loved Copenhagen, I am glad it was the first city break place we went with the kids.