tasteful wooden sandpit or plastic fun?!!

[Lucky13]

I want to buy DD a sand pit or water table or both, but there are so many options.

Are the tasteful, blend into the garden, wooden sandpits good fun or just there to be unused and rot away?

Would she be better off with a plastic table combined with water play too? They look quite small though, is there enough room in them to really play compared to sit down sand pit?

Any opinions on any of:
sandpit

platic one with boat lid

water table

combined table

love the first one but you will need a cover to stop the cats from using it as a toilet

the boat is my favourite and i would buy this one, in fact I would buy 2 and use 1 for water and 1 for sand

hate this one

this will probably not last out side

I think it depends on how old your DD is.

We have a combined sand and water table, which was fine up until about 2 years but too small for ds now four to make a decent sand castle.

The pit type one are great for older children but some little ones don't like being in the sand. Also as well as the cat issue they can get really water-logged in rainy weather depending on the lid you get.

We used to have one similar to the boat, but the lids are liable to fly off in high winds so you need to weigh them down.

We have had the Little Tykes turtle for about 15 years.

plastic.

Yes wood looks better but tbh it is more expensive and less durable. My DD only used her sandpit for about 2 summers MAX. Spending a fortune on a swanky one just seems mad to me.

Also, you can keep the plastic one clean. When you change the sand you can easily disinfect and hose the plastic one out before you put clean sand in it.

Thanks for the votes!

I should have said DD is 15mths and doesn't mind playing with mud - so i hope she'll enjoy sand!

It's looking like the boat - unless anyone says its rubbish!!

We'll definitely get a cover (and weigh it down) - the thought of the cat problems...

We have a green turtle one with a lid - its from toysRus (I think), and is perfect as the DC can sit on the edge or kneel beside it if they don't want to get messy, but can sit right in it if they want to.

Its also big enough for the two of them (ages 3 and 4) can both play together. The plastic is quite tough - its seems good quality although we've only had it for about 2 years. I really reccomend it.

we had a wooden one and i think it was a total waste of money, our cheap argos sand table was much better,
we are going to buy a bigger sand table for this summer,

good luck x