We are off to stay at a beautiful self-catering cottage at Mazzard Farm at the end of May for a
long weekend and we are all very excited. This isn’t an area of the country we
have explored before but it is only a four hour drive and just along the coast
from my beloved Bournemouth.
I’m starting to think about where we may go and visit when
we are in East Devon, so I asked for recommendations on one of the blogger
forums I use and I got a whole ton of suggestions of local places to visit and
even better than that, I was pointed to loads of review posts, so I can really ascertain
what might suit our family.
Mummy’s
Little Stars was the first to make a recommendation and she suggested we go
to Escot, which is a 220 acre natural haven in the heart of East Devon. Looking
at the pictures in Fiona’s post I know my kids will love it here. We live in
220 acres of natural wood and parkland and this looks very similar but with the
added bonus of a huge maze, trampolines and tons of trees to climb on. I can
see why Escot is called the Natural Place.
Mary at Over
40 and Mum to One advises we visit Charmouth for the beach and discovery
centre there and it appears there is fabulous rock pooling, so that will be a
big hit, just look at this beauty –
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| Image Credit: Over 40 and Mum to One |
Emma at Bubba Blue and Me recently visited Devon and had a fun day at the House of Marbles (17 miles from Mazzard Farm). This is somewhere so different to the regular visitor attractions that I feel I must take my kids here. A marble museum, loads of fun marble activities, a working glass factory where we can watch glass blowing and finish off with a huge cream tea, yes please!
The Boy and Me suggests Pecorama
which will be practically on our doorstep, about 10 miles away. This site hosts
the Beer Heights Light Railway, a number of interesting gardens and lots of
plays areas for the kids, both inside and out. All my kids love model railways
they can ride on so I think this will be a big hit.
Two people suggested we visit Diggerland and I see it
is about 22 miles from where we are staying, so very doable in a day but I’m
not convinced it is right for my older children. Check out these two reviews from Family
Fever and Global Mouse
Travels, it looks great for pre-schoolers.
My family adore visiting National trust sites and as we have
membership I think we need to include a least one visit when we are down on the
Jurassic coast. Kara at Chelsea Mamma was the one to flag the Golden
Cap up to me and from her pictures I can see we will really enjoy walking
along the cliffs and looking out for miles. If you are down this way you are
worth exploring Kara’s blog as she has lots of posts of places to visit in Dorset/ Devon on
there.
Adventure Mummy said we ought to try the World of
Country Life and it looks like a really nice farm with animals to pet,
tractor ride and both indoor and outdoor play areas.
I was surprised that no-one recommended Crealy to me as this is one of the places that Mazzard Farm themselves have highlighted in their extensive guide to where to visit and what to do in East Devon that they send to every customer. Crealy looks like it would keep us super busy with over 100 animals, 70 rides and a couple of massive indoor play areas.
Of course we are also going to make sure we just kick back and enjoy a glass of wine whilst the kids play in the wonderful grounds of Mazzard Farm -
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| Image Credit: Mazzard Farm |
There were so many more places recommended to me, it seems Devon has loads of wonderful places to visit but I’ve tried to keep this post about the area closet to Mazzard Farm as that is where we will be staying and as it is just a few days break we do not want to waste it in the car when there is so much on our doorstep.
Do leave me a comment if you know of anywhere else very local to East Devon.
Thanks, Mich x
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