Driving from London to South Wales - where to stop

[Lockdownmummy]

We are driving from SE London to South Wales later in the week with a toddler and a baby.

Does anyone have any recommendations of places to stop about halfway (between Reading and Swindon) close to the M4 where the toddler could have a run around and we could grab some lunch?

We have NT membership if that's helpful.

Thanks!

There’s a lovely farm with cafe and nice little shop junction 15 I think called three trees about 5 mins drive from the motorway which we stop with ours

The Pheasant pub on the south side of junction 14.
www.thepheasant-inn.co.uk/

The Brewers Fayre pub chain has some that have a big soft play attached, we used to plan long journeys around those.

Dyreham Park National Trust is just off Junction 18.

Bowood House.

Berkshire has various country parks.

Lydiard Park, its about 5 mins from J16 and is brown sign posted.

Bath resident here: is the M4 the route recommended for you?

We often go down the M3 and go across Salisbury Plain if the M25 is busy.

Otherwise, the A4 runs reasonably parallel to M4 for quite a lot of the journey.

We often take the Hungerford turn off (A338), through Marlborough (nice town with lots of teashops on the High St), past Avebury (NT manor and stone circle are just north of the A4) and Chippenham (Lacock NT village is about 5 miles south).

If the kids are restless by the time you cross the Severn Bridge the Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre is near Newport or Castell Coch castle might be worth a look (think that isn't too pricey).

A bit further on but there is a pub in Aust Village with a decent sized garden where my DC used to enjoy a run around.

Thanks all!

Lydiard Park - it's fab! 🥰👍

If you're David Lloyd members there's one in Heston just by the services. We usually leave our SE London home at 7am and stop there for breakfast. You can do the main services at Heston as well for breakfast.

Bowood house is really nice and the cafe is next to the car park. Lots of space to run around. If you do a breakfast stop at 8, you'd likely get there for about 10am.

Leave after lunch there for the final leg.

Lacock is nice and there's a nice playground there BUT in the summer and at weekends parking is terrible.