Bowood House, Calne

Yes, it's true, my children had so much fun here I fell asleep on the beautiful grass slopes leading down to the lake, I was so relaxed! (children accompanied by husband I should add, in case you suspect a case of neglect!) I completely agree with the other review in that it's worth a season ticket if you're local and your children are over 5 yrs old. I visited with a crawler and a 2 year old and while they had great fun, there were so many adventurous and fantastic facilities for older children that I felt we weren't able to make the most of it all. The adventure playground is fantastic, and the beautiful setting is the icing on the cake.

We had a lovely time at Bowood. The weather was good so we started off at the adventure playground. My son had a lot of fun playing on the pirate ship and the swing boats. At first he wasn’t keen to try the high walkways in the trees but after I had gone round a couple of times with him he was well away. There are a variety of different ways up and various slides to come down, some steeper than others. For the younger ones there are some smaller play equipment including a see saw and trampoline. We then wandered over to the lake which is a lovely place to have a picnic on a sunny day. You can also get food at the main restaurant by the entrance. We finished the day with the soft play area which though small was lots of fun. A bit pricey but highly recommended day out.

We bought a season ticket for Bowood this year because it has the best adventure playground with pirate ship, zip wire, death slide, overhead walkways, swing boats, trampolines, ball pool. Also acres of beautiful land to run about and explore. Plenty of places to have picnics and just relax. They have a cafe on the grounds of the playground or vending machines. There is also a sit down cafe at the entrace to Bowood. There are plenty of seating areas around the playground so you can sit and relax while your youngsters let off steam. My 7 year old and 13 year old love it. Highly recommended.

Bowood House is an amazing place to take children aged between 5 and 12. Children younger than this will still have fun but there is a lot more for the older kids to do. The huge grounds of Bowood estate are immaculately kept. There is a large lake with interesting features like a temple, waterfall and a cave (this is very dark so it’s good to take a torch). The adventure playground is the star attraction for the older children though. They can climb amongst the treetops and return down extremely high slides. My son also loved the ‘space dive’ – a 19ft vertical drop slide that the more adventurous will want to try out. On the ground there is a large wooden pirate ship, swing boats and trampolines. As well as the adventure playground there is a small soft play area which is handy if it rains and is more suited to the younger ones. Refreshments are easy to find with an ice-cream kiosk at the playground, small café in the soft play and large restaurant near the car park. Alternatively bring a blanket and a picnic and stay all day! We had a brilliant time and plan to go back very soon.