Exploring the best parks for a family picnic

Why Hertfordshire punches above its weight for picnics

Few counties give you quite so much green space within such a short drive. In Hertfordshire you can be on a riverside meadow in St Albans, in an ancient wood near Sandridge, or beside a lake in Stevenage within twenty minutes of each other. The trick is knowing which park suits which kind of family afternoon. A toddler who needs a fence and a slide has very different needs from a nine-year-old who wants to disappear into the undergrowth with a stick.

The other local advantage is timing. Most of our country parks are busiest between 11am and 3pm on a sunny Sunday. Arrive by 10am, or come after 3.30pm, and you will often have a whole lawn to yourself. Car parks are the giveaway: if the main one is full, there is usually a second entrance or a side road within a five-minute walk that almost nobody uses.

The big open lawns: room to spread out properly

When you are carrying a cool bag, a blanket, a ball and a folding chair, you want flat grass and a short walk from the car. Three places deliver this reliably.

• Cassiobury Park, Watford – vast, level lawns with mature trees along the canal. Plenty of shade at the edges, and space in the middle for rounders without annoying anyone.
• Verulamium Park, St Albans – the lake, the Roman remains and a huge sweep of grass. The slope near the Abbey means you can pick a spot slightly above the crowds and still watch everything.
• Panshanger Park, near Hertford – more open, more rural, with wide meadow paths. Fewer facilities, but far fewer people, which is exactly the point.

All three have decent shade if you walk a hundred metres further than everyone else. That extra distance is the single best crowd-avoidance trick in the county.

Parks designed around children

If your picnic will last ninety minutes before somebody needs a swing, prioritise playgrounds with toilets nearby. Nothing ruins an afternoon faster than a twenty-minute trek to a loo with a complaining five-year-old.

• Fairlands Valley Park, Stevenage – lakes, a large play area, and enough paths for scooters. The water is the main attraction, so keep an eye on little ones near the edges.
• Stanborough Park, Welwyn Garden City – two lakes, a play area and plenty of picnic benches. Good for a paddle-free, duck-feeding kind of afternoon.
• Aldenham Country Park, near Elstree – a farm, a lake and woodland all in one, with parking close to the main facilities.

Bring a change of clothes for anyone under six. Water, mud and ice cream are an unstoppable combination in Hertfordshire from May onwards.

Shady woodland for hot days and quieter afternoons

On a genuinely hot day, open lawns become frying pans. Head for the woods instead.

Heartwood Forest near Sandridge offers new woodland, old hedgerows and wide grassy rides. There is no café and no playground, so bring everything you need and take everything home again. Nomansland Common near Wheathampstead is smaller and wonderfully scruffy, with gorse, bracken and space for dens. Broxbourne Woods gives you proper oak and hornbeam cover, which keeps everyone ten degrees cooler than the car park.

Woodland picnics need a slightly different kit list: a groundsheet rather than a thin blanket, long trousers if the nettles are up, and a rubbish bag because bins are often absent.

The ten-minute rule: keeping the walk short

Most picnic misery comes from walking too far with too much. A simple rule: the picnic spot should be no more than ten minutes from the car, on a surface a buggy can manage. Gravel and tarmac are fine; steep grass slopes after rain are not.

Before you commit, check three things on arrival: where the nearest bin is, whether the toilets are open, and which direction the wind is blowing. A spot with a hedge or tree line behind you gives shelter and stops your plates sliding across the blanket.

Practical notes for a smooth afternoon

• Go early or go late. Before 10.30am or after 3.30pm gives you the best grass and the shortest queues.
• Freeze your drinks. A frozen bottle of water doubles as an ice pack and is drinkable by mid-afternoon.
• Bring a lidded tub per child. It stops the wasps, contains the crumbs and saves a lot of squabbling.
• Take a bin bag. Many Hertfordshire parks have limited bins, and a full one is worse than none.
• Layer up. Even in July, a Hertfordshire evening turns cool once the sun drops behind the trees.
• Check for events. Village fetes, parkruns and cricket matches can take over the best lawns on a Saturday morning.

Do that, and a Hertfordshire picnic becomes what it should be: an easy, cheap, unhurried few hours outdoors, with the car park visible in the distance and nobody else within earshot.