Location: Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Edgbaston, B15 3TR
Opening Hours: April to September 10am – 6pm weekdays and 10am – 7pm at weekends
Prices: Family (2 adults and 3 children) £22, Adults £7.50, Children Over 5 £5.25, Under 5s are FREE.
On Saturday 19th May we decided to head off to The Botanical Gardens for a picnic. The sun was shining, temps of 21 degrees and we knew that we wanted to go somewhere that the girls could run around.
We arrived and parked the car in the reasonable sized car park, easily finding a space (make sure you put your reg code into the computers in the centre as although the parking is free, you get charged if you don’t input your details). We used our Culture Card to get in to the gardens (2-4-1 entry) and headed off into The Botanical Gardens to start our day out.
We passed the swimming owl who had information about membership passes (a year pass is such great value if you live nearby). I know one of our friends has purchased one to use throughout her maternity leave.
The girls stopped to wave hello to the Koi Carps that you see when you first enter.
And we had a look at the bananas that were growing.
The girls were hungry, so we popped into the Pavilion cafe and purchased some hot sausage rolls and some refrigerated drinks to add to our picnic.
We then walked over the grass to sit in front of the bandstand to have our picnic.
We really enjoyed the picnic and the girls made friends with a little girl and we chatted with her nan who was lovely and played with our girls.
Some friends came to join us and we enjoyed a good 90 minutes on the grass relaxing whilst the girls ran around, running up and down the hills.
Everyone in the gardens seemed very friendly and the whole place seemed peaceful and calming.
We popped back up to the cafe for ice creams to cool down a bit. There was a good variety of ice creams and we spent just under £8 on four ice creams.
After ice cream, the girls wanted to head to the play park so that’s where we went. It is a great park with so much for children to do.
Matilda and Jemima both really loved the tall straight slide that they had.
And Matilda really liked the swings.
They had baby swings too but they were sadly out of action yesterday.
The park now has a set of three tree house style houses that Matilda really enjoyed playing in.
There’s also an assault course for older children that is quite fun.
Other bits include a smaller slide, roundabout, see-saw and a mini trampoline. There’s wooden climbing things, ropes to climb and more slides. It’s such a good playground for children of all ages.
After we finished in the park we went for a walk around the gardens.
The girls liked the little pond surrounded by flowers.
And the rhodedendrun walk…
Which was so beautiful and colourful.
Jemima loved running through the insides of them.
And Matilda liked posing in front of them.
We then moved onto the honeysuckle walk which smelt lovely.
Matilda and Jemima soon found the scarecrow and ran around him, giggling and pretending to be him.
We had hoped to walk through the Butterfly House but sadly it was still closed for winter at the time. So we carried on exploring the gardens.
The girls ran through a small reed maze, with the end point being a chair that you could sit on, Matilda found the chair first. I think you can tell she was happy by the look on her face.
We then headed to the large white aviary to see the birds and parrots.
Before heading to the shop on our way out, we stopped off at the Japanese Gardens to see the Bonsai trees. A must whilst you’re here.
We stopped at the shop before going home and the girls chose a gift each. Jemima had a bag of lollipops and Matilda had a Tamagotchi type thing. She’s got a dog called Sue that she has to keep alive. 24 hours later and Sue has died about twelve times (courtesy of her younger sister who appears to be a serial killer). A bargain £3.99.
There’s so much to do here at The Botanical Gardens and we didnt manage to get everything done.
We often come to the gardens so will update this review next time we come, to add any extra parts such as the Cactus House and the butterfly House.
The venue does outdoor theatre nights, outdoor film nights, half term activities, Christmas events and you can even have it as your wedding venue.
Hey, if you liked this review or maybe were inspired to try this out because of my post, you can always buy me or the kids a drink or a slice of cake on our next big trip! Just hit the button below, if you want to. 🙂
Buy me a coffee
What a beautiful place! There’s so much space for them to explore and run around as well.
It looks just gorgeous!! Enjoyed this!
Having lived in Solihull all my life ive never been here! It looks beautiful and now the flowers are now in full bloom, you can get some great shots! Sound like a perfect afternoon out with a picnic!