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Family days out – Top 5 spots around London

June 16, 2014 by manjirichitnis 8 Comments

Planning family days out made easy

The Great British Summer is here and the weather is brilliant, sunny and perfect for days out in the park , at the beach or out exploring with the family on a weekend. There are many brilliant places that you can go to on a budget even if you don’t drive and have a really fun day out in the sun with the family.

My top 5 places to visit in and around London in the summer

Last year my 5 favourite day out spots were places where we did one day trips using public transport and carried a few essentials, there is always scope to go in groups and stay overnight in one of the quaint English Bed and Breakfast places – O.D on the morning Full English for breakfast and generally have a blast .

Recommendations for family days out in summer, in and around London

So here’s my list of my Top 5 picks for best places to spend a day out in the Great British Summer 2014, not too far from London,easy on the pocket,family friendly options and easily approachable by public transport! Let me know what you think :

Pebbled Shores of Brighton

This is trip down memory lane for me now, seems like yesterday though. my very first spring in the U.K and on a fine morning we set out for Brighton. Sun, fish and chips and noisy seagulls yes, sandy beach – no! But there is nothing a comfy deck chair can’t solve.

Family days out - Top 5 spots around London - Brighton Pier — Family days out – Top 5 spots around LondonFamily days out – Top 5 spots around London

We hopped onto a 45-minute coastal cruise. The most enchanting view on the cruise was of the skeletal structure or what’s left of the West Pier. Something very fascinating and mysterious about this relic.

Family days out - Top 5 spots around London - Remnants of West Pier Brighton — West Pier Remnants – Brighton

Ideal for a family days out in summer

Walked past the Brighton Marina to admire the many beautiful yachts.Many bars and restaurants along the quayside we choose a rather cosy looking one and had a leisurely drink watching the yachts bobbing around on the water the bright late evening sunlight bouncing off yatch decks.

Family days out - Top 5 spots around London - Stunning Views — Stunning Views – Brighton

We stumbled upon the extraordinary palace the Royal Pavilion built for the Prince Regent, later King George IV. This royal ‘pleasure palace’ is remarkable for its exotic chinoiserie style. It was revered by fashionable Regency society and is still a distinctive landmark for vibrant Brighton & Hove today.

Family days out - Top 5 spots around London - Royal Pavilion, Brighton — Royal Pavilion – Brighton

Fishing, Sailing, or taking a journey on the oldest electric train from the smallest station I’ve seen yet – Marina Station, there are loads of fun activities to do with the family on a day out. Just after we hopped off our bus to the station and on an impulse we took another bus into beautiful the coastal village of Saltdean. Whatever you do, don’t go away from Brighton without seeing Saltdean if only you do it on a plus bus journey like we did, especially since there is a road called Marine Drive at Saltdean, reminded me of Bombay it did.

Day out for 2 at Brighton will cost you approximately under £65 if you had to really budget yourself ***

Train Tickets: £20 if booked in advance via The Train Line
Plus Bus: £3.30 adult ie.£6.60
Boat Ride: £8.50 adult
Fish and Chips: Approx £5 each at The Regency Restaurant
Sundry (Ice Cream, Water, using public loo’s): £15

Soft sandy beach at West Wittering

To me a beach always meant soft white -brown sands and warm waters to splash around in , well that was until I visited a pebbled beach of course. So after Brighton , I was aching to go to a beach where I could just spread a blanket ,lie down and snooze off with the sound of waves in the distant background- ermm yes yes that sounds lazy , but heck thats me! Just walking along the soft sandy beach of West Wittering in West Sussex is very calming and watching kids screaming as they run into the bearably cold water, dogs digging busily into the sand and people generally soaking up the sun and hoping to tan evenly 😉

Family days out - Top 5 spots around London - West Wittering Beach — West Wittering Beach

Sandy beachs makes for the perfect family days out

West Wittering Beach is one of these 4000 beaches and marinas in 48 countries across Europe, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and the Caribbean that has cleared the strict criteria dealing with Water Quality, Environmental Education and Information, Environmental Management, and Safety and Other Services and is therefore a BLUE FLAG BEACH. So not only is this beach a highly picturesque place of natural beauty,wildlife and birds to enjoy but very safe too.

Family days out - Top 5 spots around London - West Wittering Beach during summer — Family days out – Top 5 spots around London – West Wittering Beach

With beautiful views of the Chichester Harbour and the South Down its a great place for adventure sports like windsurfing or kitesurfing.

After a long stroll along the beach and having clicked a few pictures especially the beautiful and colourful cabins at the back where we spotted a huge family gathering having fun around a tempting BBQ and lots of chilled beer – perfect! Ice cream at the beach is customary and after we got ourselves some at the beach cafe – braving a long queue we decided to just sit down n enjoy the sights and sounds. To find a quieter spot we walked past the area full of families and hyper excited kids and went to the area where pets are allowed, relatively fewer people and a spot just perfect to lay down a picnic blanket ! Before we knew it we were dozing and I think I dreamt I was part of Tintin’s adventures in Sussex- oh , well don’t you remember he snowy and he headed there in ‘The Black Island‘ .I have been a huge fan of Tintin ever since I first read Herge’s adorable imaginary whodunits as a kid ! I have spent endless summer holidays snuggled up in bed in the afternoon reading Tintin with my cousins or seated in a corner of my local library – such pageturners I tell ya!

How To get there: Train, Road, Bus, Cycle
Toilets Available: Yes
Food and Drink: Beach Cafe
Parking: Minimal charges ranging from £1 to £8 apply depending on what time of the year you visit.

Family days out - Top 5 spots around London - West Wittering Sandy Beach — Sandy Beach at West Wittering

Family days out - Top 5 spots around London - Beautiful beach huts at the Sandy Beach, West Wittering — Beautiful beach huts at the Sandy Beach, West Wittering

Trekking Near Box Hill

Have climbed the Snowdon last year with my husband it might seem that trekking up Box Hill amounts to no effort, but don’t be fooled! It is a fairly good exercise getting up to the top of Box Hill and people enjoy this as its makes for a good climb with breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside. Salomons Memorial (viewpoint) offers views up to 26 miles away including Chanctonbury Ring and Devil’s Dyke, Sussex, also towards the Gatwick airport and the South Downs.

Family days out - Box Hill Trek — Box Hill

Family days out - Stunning View from atop Box Hill, Surrey — Stunning View from atop Box Hill, Surrey

If you are a trigger happy camera aficionado then this place offers huge scope for taking some great shots. If your a history buff then check out the Box Hill fort built in 1896 ,similar to 12 forts in the south east of England.There’s also an upside down grave where Major Peter Labellière was buried upside down in the belief that the world was ‘topsy turvy’.

Exercise and fresh air on family days out

Another interesting tidbit about Box Hill is that it was home to the inventor of the television!John Logie Baird, the inventor of television, lived at Swiss Cottage on Box Hill from 1929 until 1932. He carried out his initial experiments by sending a TV signal from the top of the hill to the valley below,he also conducted experiments using his Noctovisor an infra-red viewing device.

Family days out - Trekking up Box Hill, Surrey — Trekking up Box Hil

You do do one of the many walks around Box Hill, there is even a trail suitable for toddlers where you can be sure to fire their imagination and get plenty of exercise and fresh air ,who knows they might just discover some interesting flowers,birds or creepy crawlies! There is also a Butterfly trail but the most amazing walk is the superb stepping stones walk which we did.Its something out of a picture pop up book and there is great scope for me time as you walk past the River Mole on a 2 mile circular walk which will take you under 2 hours. Lined by Apple and Cherry trees the stepping stones dating back to 1841 were destroyed in WWII and reinstated in 1946.

Family days out - Stepping stones at Box Hill, Surrey — Family days out – Stepping stones at Box Hill, Surrey

This is Broadwood’s Folly – built-in 1815 for the piano maker Thomas Broadwood.

Family days out - Broadwood's Folly at Box Hill, Surrey — Broadwood’s Folly, Box Hill, Surrey

Due to its historic importance and stunning natural beauty Box Hill is a site protected by the National Trust. Once is not enough, Box hill is the kind of place that draws you in and you want to go back for more. One lazy Sundays when I don’t feel like walking too much we do a mini picnic tea with a thermos, a blanket and our imagination for company – the views are strangely relaxing and I suspect its the clean mountain air and the exercise that is relaxing.

Family days out - Sunset at Box Hill, Surrey — Family days out – Sunset at Box Hill, Surrey

Walk and relax at Richmond Park

The biggest enclosed space in London ,Richmond Park is largest of London’s eight Royal Parks.It is a National Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation in south-west London. It is also where I saw first set eyes on freely roaming deer – something I shall never forget. We were dozing (again!) on our picnic blanket in a nice little woody nook in the park and I had dozed off over a book when hubster urgently jabbing his fingers into my rib – ouch in an attempt to draw my attention to a curious bystander – a huge Red stag! Its massive antler had us awestruck and a bit worried at once. It just gave us a stare and then settled down on a patch of grass munching on something -Phew! Wide awake now, we packed our things as quietly as possible and went for a stroll ….

Family days out - Richmond Park - Deer roaming freely — Family days out – Sunset at Box Hill, Surrey

Surrey’s best finds for family days out

With over 650 red and fallow deer roaming freely one must always bear in mind that though they are immensely beautiful they are wild and we must respect their space.

Family days out - Richmond Park — Family days out – Richmond Park

Entry: Free
Cafe: Yes
Toilets: Yes
How to get there: Interactive Map

Caves at Reigate in the Historic town of Surrey

Thinking of a fab day out with the family under £15? This is the place to go. Ammunition storage during WWI and air-raid shelters during WWII these caves have seen it all. Local folklore has it that the barons held a secret meeting at the Barons’ cave on their way to Runnymede to sign the Magna Carta.

Add some adventure to your family days out

These are actually old sand mines which include the Baron’s Cave in the Castle Grounds and the Tunnel Road caves in the Western Caverns.The castle which is now long gone is only a mound overlooking Reigate town centre and is composed of soft sandstone and has been mined over several centuries.Many excavations of the castle still remain.For as low as £ 2 per adult and £1.50 per child you can tour the caves with an experienced guide who will share details about the history of the caves. Disabled persons can be accompanied by upto 2 carers who go free of charge.

Visit the official website of The Wealden Cave & Mine Society, a charitable organisation here. Read more on the Reigate History website here.

Barons’ Cave. Castle Grounds, Reigate, Surrey

Image credit :Howard Walden from The Wealden Cave & Mine Society website

Image credit Nick Catford from The Wealden Cave & Mine Society website

If you want a more relaxed day out why not consider a trip to Denbies Vineyard? Read my post about my day trip here.

Also, check out my detailed guide to discovering the area around London Bridge with my insiders guide complete with suggestions for the best Foodie Finds around London Bridge.

*** All prices mentioned apply to the period of June 2014, check links for updated information and prices. Always check transport links and information relating to each tourist area before planning a day out to avoid disappointment later.

Is the British Summer really here ?

June 20, 2012 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

It’s been a fine few Sunny days this week , with no rain , the cloud all baby blue with fluffy tufts of white cloud like cotton candy flitting about , all pleasing to the eye. I notice more when I walk around , I smile to myself as I see the whole place washed in bright sunlight . I love the feeling of not wearing a heavy coat or finally getting a chance to show off my pedicure and my new Accesorize chappals 🙂 with shiny beads that glint like a million diamonds in the morning sun !

Even the early morning office goers seem to be smiling in spite of the rush!

The pubs are full in the evening with the wooden benches finally occupied with footfall fans enjoying the game with their mates.

My favourite park is packed to the brim with mum,s buggies, happy babies, toddlers of all shapes and sizes with pink cheeks crowding around the happy ice cream van vendor .

I hope this lasts though , I could really soak up a lot more sun. The evenings are definitely still chilly and as I wrap myself in my spring denim jacket and pace up home from my evening stroll , I look at the spanking new Coffee shop that;s come up around the corner .

Is my lazy little ”end of the road” locality going to loose it’s villagey charm I fear ? Sighh… anything and everything is bearable I feel if the British Summer soaks up the nation in all it’s summertime glory and if last years extended autumn was anything to go by then let’s hope for a spiffing one this year round too !

The Happy uppity sort of a feeling !

June 13, 2012 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

I am SURE it’s the SUN , it’s making me feel so cheerful,peppy , and am doing a zillion things more than I would on a gloomy day !

I have thrown open wide the windows , m actually hoping to do most of the things on my LONG ”To Do” list , I am smiling to myself and humming some silly tune 😉

Yes , am sure it’s the sun !

Post vacation hangover

June 7, 2012 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

I can’t say that a one and a half day escape from city life was a vacation , especially when I ended up buying a thick jacket due to the sudden change in the weather …but , just the thought of going away from it all even for a day is so refreshing that it has given me a massive hangover .

The Isle of Wight is a beautiful place and I know for sure that we are going back for more !

The beautiful seaside , the warm sun hiding behind dark clouds , the feel of the breeze on my face , the early morning view from our B&B room window with the water sparkling like a million tiny diamonds under the weak morning sun, the tiny boats bobbing around ….sighhhhh

A lazy breakfast and walking around aimlessly ….I could go on forever ….

But am back to the grind and have to go , but every time I feel upset about something , I have this little box of happy memories inside me that I shall open and peek into , just to make me smile 🙂

England’s largest Vineyard – Denbie’s Wine Estate, Dorking, Surrey

February 29, 2012 by manjirichitnis 8 Comments

It’s was my parent’s first weekend at our flat in London and we wanted them to see someplace really nice. Having visited London many times earlier they had done the usual touristy places and were not too upbeat on going into the crowded central line all the way to Central London. So hubby came up with an awesome idea, to explore Surrey. So after an early breakfast, we made our way by overground rail to Dorking and walked across lovely tree-lined roads to get to Denbies Vineyard.

The air was cool and crips, it was bright, sunny and the sky looked heavenly. Even my mother’s heavily arthritic and painfull knees didn’t see, to mind the trudge upto the main entrance as most other visitors whizzed past in their cars.

My dad was smiling and racing ahead with hubby while mother and me trailed somewhere behind admiring the mountains in the background.

The grapes seemed to tempt us as we walked alng the way ,testing our self control, ummmm,ofcourse we DID not take anyyy! Though I wish we had 😉

The neatly lined,seemingly never ending rows of grape vines balanced on their equally fragile looking support structures seemed to create a horizon of sorts, there are only a handfull of employees who work in the vineyard which is the largest in England and they manage this enterprise beautifully I must say.

I saw this beautiful couple, much in love perched on a ledge cooing away secret nothings into each others ears so to speak, they looked so cute I just had to take a picture, thankfully they obliged.

After a long lovely walk we saw the roadsign telling us that we had reached our destination, an exciting day out was about to begin , I couldn’t help but wonder if we would get any free wine for sampling ,after all , a long walk through a vineyard on a weekend and a very parched throat for company I am sure it wouldn’t hurt to gulp down some free wine .

Unfortunately no free wine or wine tasting was to come our way as we had reached after all the wine tours had been booked for the day, yes ,it is a really popular destination ,it was late summer ,autummn almost actually ,September 2011 it was,so feeling terribly dejected we were about to resign to our fate when we were informed by the smiling receptionist that there was a tour of the vineyard in the jeep that we could do , so I heaved a sigh of relief as I saw the smile back on my mothers face . Ater all I didn’t want to ruin their very first weekend with us.

We still had about an hour on hand before the tour was to begin so we decided to explore our surroundings.On the topmost floor is a rather beautiful restaurant to be explored when you want to loosen your purse strings and splurge .There was a small area where a potrait club was exhibiting some stunning paintings , I managed to get some postcard size prints of the originals and so did my mum.

Some of the artists were really good with themes ramging from countryside scenary to pets and wildlife.

Then we walked back down to an amazing gift shop which was crammed ceiling to floor with the most amazing gift items from post cards and the expected wine bottles to tea sets, cake stands ,home made jellies and preserves and many, many more extreemly tempting products ,I got myself a scented soap…sighhhh !

By then my husband managed to tear me and my mum away from the shop, my dad had started to grow this extreemly serious expression bordering on a mixture of impatience ,slight anger and a sarcastic smirk which seemed to say”baah women and shopping” , I took the hint and scampered out to check on our mode of transport for the tour and this is what I saw 🙂

Whilst we waited for the tour guide cum driver to arrive, I amused myself by taking some more pics , there were some brillant potted flowering plants and some lvelky banter of a large group of women apparently a “HEN PARTY” part of a day long Bachelorette party ,what fun !

Just when the small cowd beginning to get impatient that the lively ,energetic and extreemly well informed guide arrived and ensured we were all seated properly,rattled off some basic safety instructions and we took off on what was to be a tour with breathtakingly spectaluar views and laods of snippets of local history and ofcourse tons of information of how the grapes are grown, the types of grape varities grown, how popular the wine is and history about the owners of the land and the vineyard both past and present . I shall leave these details out as it would be a kill joy for those that want to go do the tour and mostly because since I had been there months ago most of it had been wiped off from the slate in my mind, strange though because even now if I close my eyes and imagine the tour guides voice I can sort of do most of the tours and see the same things as I have photographed in my mind’s ,it’s quite refreshing doing that especially on a dull winter evening . It’s early March and cant really call this Winter but heck it isn’t getting warmer yet is it now ?

This is the first picture I took while in the jeep train as I like to call it .What clear skies I say, beautiful !

And thus here we were a group of strangers on a fine Autummn day about to have a shared experience of delightfull visual impact and create a pleasant memory that will last for a long time to come!

We stopped at a spot high up on the hill we were on and I got the perfect photo opportunity I’d been waiting for …

Further ahead we came to a plateau like area where part of the massive old house inhabited by the original owners used to stand , some tiny portion has been resurected and is still in use , and by tiny I mean massive for us urabn folks living in matchbox houses , this is like 4 bog country houses put together but tiny in contrast to what used to be a grand residence of the yesteryears.

That’s our cheerfull guide holding some images of original plans of the structures back then , there was small quiz and I got a chocolate for getting some answers correct Yipeeeee !!!

Then I just took few snaps before the tour came to an end. Here they are :

After that tour we walked over to a rather quaint Kitchen Garden Centre in the premises.It has the most wonderfull things to add to ones garden and ofcourse a large amount of saplings,wind chimes,garden ornaments,pots and plants and an area selling cold sandwiches for famished souls as well,which can be consumed sitting at one of the wodden tree stump table and stools. It is a delight to stroll around the place and see the colourfull display of flora mixed with artistic and stylish garden ornaments.

By the time we were done with our stroll , it was time to adress the serious hunger pangs we all were having.

Surrey is beautiful there is so much to explore in the county, some off beat places, great places to trek or simply walk and ofcourse a vineyard to visit.

Aren’t the hedgehogs adorable 🙂 ?

Are you thinking of booking yourself in for a wine-tasting? Then you definitely check out my post about my visit to a wine tasting ‘school’ in London here. And if you are going to be in Amsterdam then definitely check out this great wine and cheese tasting experience which my husband and I were invited to and enjoyed thoroughly.

I love planning day trips and outdoor activities apart from our family holidays and trips abroad. If you are looking for travel inspiration do have a look at my other blog posts:

When I was in India, I went eco-camping with my girfriends to a beautiful hill-station called Lonavla, read all about it here:

Eco-camping in Panchgani

Also, if you are looking for some great camping trips when heading out with your family in the U.K do check out this blog post by blogger Collette

Let me know your thoughts in my comments section. It can be anything right from sharing your own experiences at Denbie’s Vineyard or about your travek wishlist. I also want to hear from you about what would you like to read about next on my blog? I love hearing from my readers!