NOW CLOSED: Tell Britax your favourite Buggy Friendly Places - you could win £100 of Love2Shop vouchers

[AnnMumsnet]

We've been asked by the folks at Britax to help with their new campaign where they "want to unearth the UK's best buggy (and baby) friendly locations for a new guide to help mums and dads share their favourite places to take the family".

So, please do tell all on this thread about the places that you actually enjoy going to with your baby - places that welcome your LOs and make getting out and about with your pushchair easier?

For example, do you know a coffee shop with a buggy parking section? Or a pub with spacious seating and a climbing frame out back? Or maybe you want to recommend a library that's littered with lifts and has a dedicated toddlers? reading corner (that doesn?t have noise restrictions!)?

Please tell Britax your favourite buggy friendly locations and they'll possibly be included in the guide (MN nicknames will not be used). Everyone who adds a location on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win £100 of Love2Shop vouchers (which can be spent at over 20,000 stores - including Argos, Debenhams, Boots and Toys 'R' Us).

When posting please say

a) The name and description of the venue

b) Its location

c) Why it is so good

For more information on Britax's campaign to create the "Ultimate Guide to Buggy Friendly Britain", visit their Facebook page

Thanks and good luck.

MNHQ

John Lewis, Bluewater. Cos they have loos for mum and toddler you can take a buggy into, and a lovely spacious changing room so you can take one in with you

The South Bank centre in London has brilliant access once you figure out where the lifts are. I tend to use the lift at the back of the Royal Festival Hall - opposite the entrance to Ping Pong. The baby change area in the Royal Festival Hall is also huge - lots of space to wheel even the biggest buggy in with you!

Pushchair friendly:
the toilets in the Bishops Stortford Sainsburys are good, as they have a toilet cubicle with a door inside the baby change area, so you can park your pushchair (even a Vigour, which is a big buggy!) in the same room as you, but still piddle in peace :o

John Lewis in Cambridge are also good for pushchair drivers!

and Lakeside IKEA has some decent sized toilets/baby change facilities with space for smaller pushchairs in them.

Baby and Toddler friendly:
Pizza Express and Pizza Hut are both toddler friendly.

The Kelvingrove art gallery and museum was baby and toddler friendly last time I was there (nearly a year ago).

The London transport system is most decidedly NOT buggy and child friendly! And nor is the London Aquarium. But it is also Not Very Good in general.

Betty's Tea Rooms, at various locations but I've been to York and Harrogate. They have a buggy parking section, but will make room for the buggy to come to the table for tiny/sleeping babies.

No lifts to the different floors unfortunately, but plenty of willing staff to help carry the buggy down where necessary. Or they'll try and find you a table on their entrance floor.

For benefits beyond buggies, their toilet facilities are fantastic. Spacious and comfortable, with seating provided as well as a padded changing mat, potty and small playpen.

At the table there are padded high chairs, toys are provided, the child's menu isn't just deep fried freezer food and their meal is brought to the table first. The staff are always incredibly friendly and helpful.

And, of course, there's cake.

Costa Coffee in Ealing Broadway, lovely and spacious and plenty of space by tables to fit in even the bigger prams and buggies!

john lewis, leicester - wide aisles, big lifts, giant p&t toilet, spacious changing room. also their cafe has a good amount of room, including a large semi-walled off area at the back which is popular with groups of mums. the cafe staff are very helpful re. carrying your tray while you push the buggy, and very tolerant of crawling/weaning/noisy messy small ones - my food throwing blw'er was always welcomed with open arms. never an issue with bf there either.

The café in At Bristol is great for meeting with a group of parents with buggies. There's even a cage fenced off area for toddlers with books and toys.

The menu is really healthy and tasty and the toilets / changing facilities are clean and roomy. I've found the staff to be genuinely helpful and have thus far received no grimaces at the antics of my 'intrepid' son. The main attraction / exhibitions are wonderful too, but we often just pop along to the café for a stress-free lunch.

I have several here in Preston.

I love, as a pub during the day the Greyfriars in Preston. It is roomy, OK it looks a bit dull but it is great to have lunch.

I love the Costa cafe in Tesco Home store on the Capitol Centre in Preston. It has enough room for a few pushchairs and it has highchairs too. Plus you can go shopping in Tesco and the changing facilities are good there too. So really I recommend Tesco and Costa.

There also is Pizza Hut on the Capitol Centre too. Always baby friendly. We had my daughter's first birthday meal there with a friend. Gave her a hat and a balloon - cute!

In Preston centre I think the best place to go is British Home Stores cafe as there is a lot of room there, food is reasonable and they don't mind me brining in food for my daughter (being cows milk intolerant, I have to do). There is a changing room on the same floor as the childrens clothes and the cafe and a really big lift.

I also would like to recommend the cafe in Avenham Park, Preston. Not only is it in a fantastic area. It serves lovely food and drinks and there is a changing room there too. It is organised so that there is loads of room for pushchairs and they have highchairs too. I love Avenham park, the playground near the Frenchwood entrance is superb. Swings for the little ones and lots for the big kids too.

mcdonalds- v buggy and wheel chair friendly- good for breatfeeding too as staff are trained to tackle customers if they complain when they see someone breastfeeding. Staff always offer to carry meal to my table

Ikea- settee and tv area good for feeding, nice play areas, helpful staff

ice cream farm beeston- excellant day out, brilliant for under 2's

Another vote for john Lewis

Trafford centre- the onnly place I will shop/ visit with a small baby and toddler- good toilets/ lots of parking/ plenty of lifts

my choice has to be Alton Towers theme park. it is in Staffordshire and a fantastic day out for all.

it is so good because there are many buggy parking places throughout the theme park, the sky-ride (cable car) carriages are huge and lots of glass windows for LOs to see out of. there are all the rides of course and several small animals to see/touch.

I like the Eden Project with little ones. Not many stairs and large paths so it's easy to push the buggy around. Good changing facilities and spacious toilets. The food is quite child friendly (especially like the new bakery system where you take what you want and pay for it later). Lots of highchairs around and they don't mind children exploring.

If you are shopping then

Ikea (Cardiff branch) excellent for babies and toddlers. Clean, good changing facilities and bottle warming. Can leave the older children in a safe and happy environment. Lifts are positioned in the correct area. Staff really helpful and cafe good area and can breastfeed in a comfy area with the baby (very important). Ikea at Cardiff make you feel really welcome with young children.

Whole family activity - Techniquest in Cardiff. Keeps the older toddlers entertained and the babies love the dark room. Staff are so friendly if you have children and young babies. Will bring over drinks in the cafe to you if you haven't got extra pair of hands. Toddler sessions are brill for the children and really reasonable. Toilets are great. They have an area for lockers and for leaving the buggy if you don't need it. Lifts up to the next level.

John Lewis - Cribbs Causeway. If you have any spare money. Nursery department really helpful, expensive, but good. Happy to order nursery items in for you if they haven't got something in stock and will post out to you for no cost. Changing facilities - top notch and nice cafes.

Bluewater in Kent, for its great family loos which you can get a buggy into. So you don't have to either leave baby outside or wee with the door open so toddler won't scream at the top of their lungs as they can't see you.

Lakeside shopping centre is very spacious, good lifts and they do all sorts of activities for children including teeny ones as well. I never feel like my buggy is getting in anyone's way there.

Costa Coffee, coffee chain.
Huddersfield (Kingsgate). Meadowhall and Wakefield (Northgate) branches.
They always carry your tray to your table if you have a buggy or a toddler with you. I don't know if this is company policy, but they always do it, and without you having to ask for help. Always seems ample room for buggies too.

Thanks for all the comments so far...do keep them coming!

Alto Lounge in Reading
Buggy park (with space at some tables to keep buggy with you), a ton of high chairs. Books, toys and crayons to keep little ones busy and a bab change (in a fairly small venue). They balance it well with keeping it a place where adults would definitely go without children, but ones with children don't feel unwelcome in any way.

Waterstones near picadilly circus
Fantastic large children's section, with lots of tables and chairs and bean bags. Spent hours there with our dc. Elevators for buggies, baby change room (in architecture section, which we found to be an amusing choice), and lots of room/quiet in the 5th floor coffee shop for you to relax if lucky enough to have got your LO to nap :-)

I find that John Lewis in the Grand Arcade in Cambridge is great for buggy access and has great sized lifts. The lifts also are Glass so great for baby. also aisles are wide enough for speedy cornering.

a) The name and description of the venue

Metrocentre shopping mall

b) Its location

Gateshead

c) Why it is so good

Wide open spaces and plenty of lifts make getting around with a buggy easy - and also make it easier and less hairy to walk toddlers around without having to worry about traffic. When mine were still nursing, I had a choice of 3 places I could take them to breastfeed. There's lots of family bathrooms and areas with sturdy changing stations and these are kept reasonably clean and, again, plenty of toilets so there's not a mad dash to find somewhere to take a freshly potty trained child.

Pollok Country Park and the Burrell collection, Glasgow, G41

This council run park and museum is a godsend for parents. The park is very rural in parts and very wooded - it is great for children to mess about in. Most of the paths in the park are tarmaced and they provide miles of beautiful walks for mums with buggies (and siblings on scooter and bikes!)

Located within Pollok Country Park, The Burrell collection is a very bright, spacious and buggy friendly museum with a great child friendly coffee shop and restaurant.

Added to the fact that there is also a great playpark in the grounds, means Pollok a firm favourite in our family. I was a godsend for me when the kids were small and I had a double buggy. I actually measured the lift down to the cafe before I bought my double, as we are such regular visitors!

1)The Maple Tree pub in Doncaster
2)Loads of room between tables and wide walk way from the bar so lots of space to push prams/ puschairs!
A lovely wooden climbing frame
3) friendly staff happy to warm baby food, milk etc, can't do enough to please!

Pizza express in Oxford. Parking space for buggies downstairs and staff helped to carry the buggies up and down the stairs when we wanted to eat in the upstairs section so we could breast feed more discreetly.

Ikea (Leeds) sprung to mind as soon as I read the title. Easy to push a pram round, free creche for over 3's, play area in the cafe. Also the trolleys they have for carrying trays in the cafe are great when eating as a family. The family card which gives you free coffee and cheap breakfast is great too. The kids meals aren't overpriced either. In the toilets they have potties and a low toilet for kids. Space for your pram in some of the loos.

The Media Museum in Bradford is great too. Plenty of space to push a pram about and a lift. It's free and they have a picnic room so makes a cheap day out for the family (except if dh accidentally drives down a bus lane and gets a ticket ). Upstairs they have a large area with colouring stuff for kids and sofas for adults. Plenty of stuff to keep kids and adults entertained.

Bents Garden Centre near Leigh. Lots of P&T spaces, wide aisles, spacious dining areas with places to park buggy, plenty of high chairs and very decent play area.