Hever Castle and Gardens, Kent

May 25, 2016

We visited the 13th Century Hever Castle in Kent, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn (second wife of Henry VIII and Mother of Elizabeth I), on a sunny Easter holiday Saturday. Finding the castle was relatively easy as the castle is clearly sign posted from the surrounding villages and a member of staff was outside the venue welcoming us through the gates.

Despite the castle being busy we were able to park very close to the main entrance and there were absolutely no queues to get through the ticket office. The staff at the ticket office were extremely helpful and friendly providing us with maps and information about Easter events.

The castle is stunning, as are the grounds. I took my 6 year old daughter, 7 month old baby and my husband and can honestly say that the castle provided something for all of us.

We spent the first portion of the day exploring the gardens, lawns and boating lake. These are kept immaculately with information about some of the flowers and plants. My husband, who by profession is a gardener and landscaper was particularly impressed with the level of maintenance throughout the castle grounds.

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We moved onto the main castle building. I took my infant in a sling for the day and despite being hard on the legs this was particularly useful around the castle building where pushchairs are not allowed. The castle is well organised with a one way system for visitors. Again, although busy it did not seem crowded or chaotic. There were many members of helpful staff on hand to direct and answer questions.

Stopping for a lunch break at the Moat Restaurant we were able to find a table and highchair with ease. My daughter is a fussy eater and had her own packed lunch. My husband and I both had burgers from the BBQ on the decking area. The burgers were really good and again with no queue. I feel that at £5 each the burgers were slightly over priced.

We stopped for a toilet break after lunch. We used the toilets located within the Moat Restaurant which were clean and quiet. There was a baby change table in the Ladies toilet but not the Gents.

We finished the day in the adventure play area. A big hit with our daughter. Zip wire, basket swing, castle maze and swings. A spacious play area with a range of equipment for most ages.

We all really enjoyed our day at Hever. We would definitely visit again and I would highly recommend it to families with school age children. At £38 for a family ticket I think Hever is good value. We were able to fill 5 hours there and still didn’t see everything. I would rate Hever Castle 4.5 out of 5. A fab day out!

This review was carried out and published for the website whatsgoodtodo.co.uk

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