Maidstone in General > Reviews > Leeds Castle

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Sightseeing
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around

Advantages:	lovely castle and park and attractive for all the family
Disadvantages:	-

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Last summer, we spent one day at Leeds Castle. 'The Loveliest Castle in the World' - that's what they call themselves, but I can confirm that it is indeed one of the loveliest castles that I have ever been to. In fact, it is much more than just a castle.

Leeds Castle is located in Kent, near Maidstone. The best way to get there is via the M20 leaving at junction 8.

From the car park, you walk to the main entrance and ticket office. It's actually not cheap, we had to pay GBP 26.- for a family ticket (castle + park) last year, but it's worth the money.

First of all, you should enjoy a walk around the large park which will take you along the Wood Garden, the Cedar Pond and the Duckery, where you can watch a number of wildfowl, swans, geese, kingfishers, sparrowhawks and peafowl.

The castle itself is surrounded by water, you have to enter the island via a brigde and the Gate house. The entrance to the castle is through a Norman Cellar, and it is worth to walk around inside and to see the rooms where you can find a lot of interesting art and furniture from a number of centuries.

After leaving the castle - still on the island - you may want to visit the Dog Collar Museum, one of the very few such museums where you can find a collection of antique dog collars.

If you then continue your walk along the Great Water, you'll come along the Fairfax Courtyard with a nice restaurant (Fairfax Hall). After that, you enter Culpeper Garden which has got a lot of roses, pinks, lupins and poppies, and the Lady Baillie Garden nearby, which is a terraced flower garden close to the Great Water.

In the Aviary you'll find more than 100 species of very rare and endangered birds. But there is even more towards the end of the park: vineyards, 13 early 20th century greenhouses and a tea room (where you can get refreshments, teas and coffees).

The top attraction for our kids, however, was the Maze with the secret underground grotto in the middle. It was quite difficult to find the way through the Maze, because unfortunately the normal trick (turn right every time) turned out not to be successful in this particular Maze.

As you can see, it is quite easy to spend the whole day there.

Leeds Castle is not only one of the top tourist attractions in the country, it is also a famous conference, banqueting and wedding venue, a hot air balloon launch site, a concert arena, and it offers a 9 hole golf course as well as a lot of special events (Kentish evenings, dining, etc.).

Of course, there are also some shops where can buy gifts and souvenirs.

Opening times are 10 am to 5 pm March to October and 10 am to 3 pm (last admission) from November to February.

You may want to visit their website (www.leeds-castle.co.uk) where you can also find details about any special events.

If you want to have a great family day out, why not visit Leeds Castle? We enjoyed it very much last summer.

Thanks a lot for reading.

Take care.

Michael-S
March 2001