DD 2yr 3mo, Sand Pit or Sand Table - what's best?

[ForcesSweetheart]

My DD is 2 and a bit and LOVES playing with sand. At toddler group she will happily spend the whole time at the sand table. The other day we went to an NCT friend's house for a Bug Hunt and she spent the whole time playing in the sand pit. I want to buy her one or the other for in the garden in the summer but which would you say is best? I'm inclined to go for a table rather than a pit purely on the basis that she won't then be immersed in the sand and getting it everywhere, but opinions/reasons appreciated.
Ta. Lis

If you get the table, she WILL spill it everywhere

Where can you buy the sand for sandpits by the way? Sorry for thread hijack. Tried homebase but they didn't have any.

Early Learning do the sand - used to anyway.

If I had my time again, I'd go for a sandpit not a table. The sand goes frigging everywhere. Oh and get an easy-to-put-on lid not a plastic stretchy one cos you'll end up not covering it when it rains and then all you get is mud and your life becomes an eternal cycle of emptying it, refilling it, forgetting to cover it, emptying it again....

I got a 25kg bag of sand at the local squires garden centre today for 4.99.

You can buy sand where you buy your sandpit usually.

Play sand is diffeent than builders sand apparently. Finer, with less impurities..or so they say......

They sell the sand in Tesco.

I would suggest the sand pit. I think either will make a mess and half the fun of it for toddlers is getting in amongst it.

DOn't get builders sand....it will stain clothes.

Tesco do it as do TrU and everywhere else that sells sand pits.

I have gone for a table for DD3 (2 on Thurs)...hated the sand pit with DTDs

rwe have this one in the shade of a cherry tree in our garden, it is brilliant. I would go for a sand pit every time.

go for the table, we have one and DD who is 2.4yr loves it. Also we use it indoors with dry pasta in it and love trying out other stuff in it too like compost/ corn flour / gelli bath/ jelly! Much more versatile than a sand pit!

table every time

we had a sand pit but have had to chuck it out because it got infested with slugs and bugs and the wood started to rot

we not have a sand table and it is much better

if you do go for a sand pit, get a plastic one

we have a sand pit with lid (heavy bricks on top to stop lid blowing off in the wind)
No idea how but cats still manage to poo in it so we are forever changing the sand. Would go for table replacement purely so i can lock it in the garage. DD (age 2.5) loves nothing better than to sit and eat the sand - with a spoon until i catch her!!

Oh yeah teh flies that redproduce in it....I had forgotten.

DO NOT go for the blue shel pit. It is a crap shape.

I compeletly agree with beautiful days

we had a sandpit and it rotted, the sand got yucky (despite having a cover) and because it was on the ground ds seemed to thnk it was fine to put sand outside the edge

we now have a sand and water table with sturday plastic lid.. ds loves it and so far its been much less messy

thanks everyone, think I'm gonna go with the table, the thought of slugs and bugs makes my skin crawl.

The sand I got at the garden centre is Play Sand.

We had a blue shell sandpit.

It never got bugs, flies, cat pooh or anything in it. The lid never blew away either

We got argos sand table but lid blows off. In fact it was shattered. Can't remember how.

Play sand at argos too. Also Wyevale garden centres.

we just purchased a sand table water table shenanigans from elc and our son adores it
wahay!

argh didn't think of argos for sand, and theirs is half the price I paid at the garden centre. Oh well, our local argos is in a town centre mall, and I don't fancy lugging 25kg any distance to get to the car (oooh I just worked out I have lost exactly 25kg since January - still tend to think in stones, so I WAS carrying that everywhere - wow, I could hardly lift that bag of sand into the car today!)