A Day Out At Leeds Castle

A Day Out At Leeds Castle

During half term, I wanted to take my niece (5) and nephew (8) for an awesome day out. I had a look around for anywhere that was doing something special for half term and came across Leeds Castle. I'd been there a few times over the years but hadn't taken the kids before.

I had a look through the ticket options and found that they had a family ticket with loads of benefits like having lots of the events included in ticket, trips on the swan boat or little train, the maze, the kids playground, exploring the castle and it's a year pass so we can go as much as we want. I went for the Ultimate Explorer as it was for 2 adults and 3 kids so that Sean can come with us as well on days out.

On the day, I needed to go into the gift shop to get my ticket as they give you a physical ticket and take a picture of the adult, I guess that is so you can't give you ticket to someone else to use.

We walked through the grounds to the castle instead of getting the train and I am glad I did because the kids loved seeing all the ducks, and the views of the grounds were beautiful.

I wasn't sure if the kids would be interested in looking round the castle but they loved it because the theme for half term was Chaos In The Castle. The story behind it was that a new piece of furniture had arrived in the castle which was making other objects start to misbehave. We had to solve riddles, there was a sheet the kids had to fill in to say what object they would like to invite to live in the castle and look out for objects that were misbehaving.

The kids were quite excited about trying to get through the maze so we walked through the Culpeper Gardens and headed straight into the maze.....which we walked around for 45 minutes before finally getting to the middle. Top tip, get a picture of the maze from Google Maps and work out the route, I wish I had thought of it before going lol.

I thought the kids might be a bit scared of the underground grotto that you need to go through to get out of the maze but they really liked it. I love the big green face when you first go into it and then there are figures that look like they are made out of shells and murals as you walk through.

We then walked around to the kids play area which is in 2 parts, the first is for smaller kids with slides and a little zip line that has swing seats so the kids don't have to hold onto the rope. The other is a big wooden castle that the kids disappeared into and occasionally re-appeared screaming my name for me to wave at them lol. both are great though because the kids can run around and have fun.

There is a few cafes where you can buy food or you can take your own food with you. I popped to Tesco on the way to pick up some meal deals to save a bit of money but the kids really wanted ice cream so we went into the cafe near the play area to get ice cream.

There is a brilliant assault course that both the kids had fun on. My niece can climb on anything so she did everything like a total pro and my nephew has long legs so he was stepping over most of it haha.

An owl flying over our heads

We watched the falconry display where an owl flew over our heads, that was quite exciting for everyone. It was really interesting to watch but the kids weren't 100% on it so we left after a little while, I think they had expectations of huge birds and not little ones lol.

The kids really loved the beach scene near the playground, it was another area for them to explore and it's a nice big space so there was plenty of room for everyone. Plus, they have deckchairs for adults so if you close your eyes, it feels a bit like being on a real beach.

I couldn't believe it when I looked at the time and saw that it was 3:30pm, we had been there for 5 and a half hours and the kids were shattered. So we started walking towards the pick-up point for the train, Elsie, to go back to the entrance. It was only £1.50 each and the kids had been asking all day about getting the train so I thought "why not?" It was a great little ride round, we got one last look at the castle and the lake where all the ducks were still wondering around and the trains stops right next to the gift shop which is also next to the car park.

I am not surprised at all that both kids passed out in the back of the car before we even drove through the castle gates. i can't wait to take them again.