Weekend in Warwick - best things to do with DC (apart from the Castle)?

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We are spending the weekend with the DC (10 & 7) in Warwick, staying in the lodges at the Castle. What things do you recommend we visit in the area? We have 3 days, one of which we are planning to spend visiting the Castle. We are driving from SW London.

www.forgemill.org.uk/web/ Needle Museum. We went when the boys were about the same ages, very low expectations and had a great couple of hours. They still say now (16 & 13) that it was good.

The MAD museum in Stratford is brilliant. My ds adores it.

I would say have a look at Stratford too, they're so close by. Lovely town with plenty of Shakespere related museums, but also a great park and river for boat trips. You could see if anything good was on at the RSC too.

Beauchamp chapel in St Mary's
Lord Leycester's Hospital
Stratford

Skip the Needle Museum. They are doing some roadworks at Junction 3 and the traffic is hellish.

St Nicholas Park is virtually opposite the castle & is really nice to walk around. Has a play park, a little fair & boats-pedalos you can hire that you can go virtually right up to the castle. There is always Stratford upon Avon which is only about 5 miles away. U can go on an open top tour bus, visit the RSC and go to the top of the towers & also hire boats on the river.

Some great ideas, thanks. DH would like to spend one of the days in Stratford.

If you liked pizza, definitely go to Dough and Brew. Local independent place, lovely food, local beer and it wins loads of awards. www.doughandbrew.com/

Warwick to Stratford is more like 10 miles.

Kenilworth Castle (English Heritage)

St Nicholas park in Warwick is great, it has a mini funfair (may be a bit tame for the older one), paddling pool, crazy golf and pedalo rides along the river
And lovely gelato in the cafe

If you’re NT members, charlcote park and the nearby airfield

Motor museum just down the M40

Head into bham and do the thinktank

Hatton Country World

Coventry (10 miles in the other direction) has a lot of stuff. Things to do

MAD is great in Stratford and the butterfly farm is good as is the park as it has a little paddling pool.

The park in Warwick is good and mine loved St Mary's Church as we visited at the end of October and it was adorned with thousands of poppies for remembrance Sunday. The church has lots of Warwick castle history linked to it with the beauchamp chapel and tombs. Warwick itself is quite small but lovely. We didn't do the museum at the tourist information place or lord Leicester hospital but would have if we'd had more time. The castle keeps us all day and my 4yo asks at least once a week if we can go back.

Have a great time!

Gaydon Car Museum.
Leamington Spa has a lovely park and is good for a saunter generally.
Kenilworth Castle is NT and completely different to Warwick Castle.

Kenilworth Castle is NT
No, it's English Heritage.

I would recommend going for a walk in the countryside - it is beautifully lush at the moment. There are several organised walks (Heart of England Way, Monarch's Way, Avon Valley Footpath, etc) or - if you are worried about getting lost! - you could just follow a canal towpath.

St Nicholas Park is lovely as mentioned by a few people. Jephson Gardens in neighbouring Leamington Spa is lovely too. The Mill Garden is a hidden little gem in Warwick too. St Mary's Church in Warwick town centre has a tower you can go up and the views are beautiful apparently.

Warwick and Leamington have lovely cafes. Thirteen in Warwick does great bread and pastries and in Leamington there are heaps like Coffee Architects and Warwick Street Kitchen.

Charlecote Park is a lovely NT site where you can see deer, it's near Warwick and is well worth a visit

Oh, and there's a free museum in town centre which is worth a quick visit. There's usually a Saturday market there too. You will have plenty to do, it's a great place to visit

Also if you do go to Stratford go to Hoorays, fab ice cream place on the high street