Riverhill Himalayan Gardens

On the Easter Bank Holiday weekend – IF the sun shines – any self-respecting Brit will either:

A) DIY

B) BBQ

C) Day trip with the fam.

And a bonus point if you manage all three (I did!). This time, our family activity of choice was a day visit to the Riverhill Himalayan Gardens in Kent, where I live. Kent is abundant with nice places to visit and this place had been on my ‘to visit’ list for a while; it did not disappoint.

We arrived just in time for mid-morning coffee at the café which somehow then turned into cream tea. The selection and size of the cakes on offer was pretty insane and even the cream tea came with two scones a piece as opposed to one. Considering we ordered four cream teas for three adults and a child that was a fair few scones between us! This was all served in dainty china under the beating English sun: Bank Holiday bliss!

Next it was off to sign up for the Easter egg hunt which entailed spotting as many wooden bunnies in the grounds as you could in exchange for the equivalent amount of mini eggs upon your return. My daughter is just starting to age out of stuff like that now and although initially interested she was quickly sidetracked by swishing her hair all over the place like some kind of pop star. I should explain, Moo has very curly hair and came home from a sleepover (the night before) where it had been straightened. Since then, I do not think she has stopped admiring herself in a mirror or asking me: “Do I look like Ariana Grande?”. So off we went, three adults peering under trees looking for bunnies that would equate to eggs that we wouldn’t get to eat whilst the tween flounced round whipping her hair back and forth, and asking me to take photos of it. FML.

The gardens are beautiful and full of rhododendrons. There was colour everywhere and it was pretty stunning. We eventually wound our way to an open area full of picnicking families and a maze which we promptly ventured in (Mum held the bags lol).

This area gave way to a steep climb up a grassy bank with incredible views across the Kent countryside and from there we entered the wooded walk. At this time of year we are lucky to get woods full of Bluebells here in the UK and en masse they turn the ground into a purply blue blanket into which any self-respecting parent will immediately fling their off spring in order to capture the ‘shot’ of the day! Obviously, Ariana was not for posing amongst these flowers and so I had to get shots of her flouncing instead lol!

I jest however the walk was beautiful and we loved strolling along through the dappled sunshine. There’s an area where kids can build dens and we found lots of constructed dens abandoned by their builders from days gone past that we then added to. This place would be perfect for a day out with a group of kids as they could just run off to their heart’s content. There’s even a Yeti that puts in an appearance, I hear!

On the way back down we visited a play area and saw the most gorgeous garden with fountains in that we had somehow missed coming up (too busy hunting for bloody bunnies for Queen Ari).

This is the kind of place you could easily spend the day so if I ever visited again I think I would bring a blanket to thrown down, a picnic to graze off, a book to get lost in and borrow a friend’s child so ‘Ariana’ could play in the woods and get back to being her ten year old self. However, as somewhere to spend a few hours strolling leisurely amongst beautiful surroundings it was equally as perfect. Kent: you came up trumps again!

SoM 🙂