Days Out around London and Greater London for under two's?

[RuthT]

I have a few places but it is always good to have a few up your sleeve - and new places are always very useful to know about. I'll start - hope there are some new ones in here for some of you.

Isabella Plantation - Near Kingston Gate, Richmond Park - take your wellies and some water proofs. It is just beautiful. A couple of streams, three ponds, stepping stones, wild rabbits, badger, bird feeding stations and its free!

Odds Farm - High Wycombe - Petting zoo and outdoor farm

KidsSport - Woodside Leisure Park - Watford - Indoor Activity Centre well worth the trip it is clean and the food is decent

Bunny Park - Hanwell - Minature Farm Kids Play area Maze (that you can wheel kids round) -

Kew Gardens - Climbers and Creepers - botanical indoor and outdoor play

Aldenham Country Park - Petting zoo and Winnie the Pooh lanscaped gardens '100 Aker Wood)

Cassiobury Park - Watford 3 Outdoor Slash Pools Minature train and Park.

Any more very welcome!

Ruth

Hounslow Urban Farm - Near Feltham. Not sure of prices. Not as good as Odds farm but lovely to pass a morning or afternoon.

Zoom - Indoor play area - Beaconsfield. Quite small, no small toddler play area. I thought this was clean and has a little cafe inside also seemed very clean.

Ruislip Lido - Ruislip, West London, sandy play area with equipment and they have mini train.
rides. At Xmas they have a santa run on the trains, i think this is £5.

Doea anyone know about Bushey Park. Also is Hampton Court any good?

They sound good, I'll be checking them out with my dd

Do you know any decent clean local authority pools. The ones I have been to are vile. Hair all over the floor and when you put a towel down it returns black - yuuuck

Just seen this - we went to Hampton Court in the Summer (just the two of us as DD was only just two then). It's lovely there, but I would recommend more for slightly older children - 3 plus who'd appreciate the gardens more and not run around all over the plants (hopefully)! Apart from one "natural area", everywhere is very pristine. Take a look at the website as there is a kind of messy area if you go inside the Palace, but I think it said it was for over 5s?

Depending on where you live, Godstone Farm (just outside Greater London) and Bockett's Farm in Leatherhead are really good. Lots of space, animals, petting small animals area, cafes, indoor soft play areas and outdoor play area (although this bit is for slightly older children)

Archway pool behind the library is great for little kids, it has a beach for babies. Also a slide and wave machine for the older ones. Last time I went it was pretty clean too.
Ruthyn

We've recently started a walking group in London for parents with babies or young children. We meet once a month, currently on the first Sunday of the month.

Anyone with small kids is welcome to come along -- there's no charge. It's a great chance to meet fellow parents and get a bit of fresh air and exercise to boot.

Our next walk is Sunday 3rd December in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. If anyone's interested there's more information here .

If you are anywhere near it Dorking pool is very good, It is a really modern and clean pool and they have larger than average changing rooms that have fold down seats with harness to pop DC in whilst you get changed.

Check out here for more ideas

Bushey park is great with a really nice play area.

Hortons farm in chessington is good value, an adult goes free with every paying child, also has indoor soft play for about 80p extra.

Coral reef pool in bracknell is excellent with slides for older and younger children, also has a pirate ship.

The London Butterfly in syon park is also good, the butterflies land on you so depends whether your child would like that.

Barnes Wetland Centre -- you need to keep an eye on small children because of the water, but generally good and the eXplore interactive play area is fantastic (at least as good as Climbers and Creepers). It is outside though so better for a non-rainy day (although there is an inside information-about-wetlands bit that DS also liked).

London Aquarium on the South Bank -- DS loved petting the rays (well, actually he loved petting the water and didn't really care about whether there was a ray there at the time or not...)

PaulT - am very very interested in the walking group. Can't do this Sunday (or the first Sunday in January... curses) but will start reserving other first-Sundays for 2007.