We made our annual Father’s Day trip to Painshill Park today, where dads go free – which works out (as of June 2013) at £6.50 for one mum, one dad and one three and three quarter year old.

We didn’t brave a picnic as it was raining so had waterproofs and umbrellas – although the sun came out mid-way round and it became way too hot to walk up the hill to the Turkish Tent.

Nonetheless, we walked, saw The Grotto and how the restoration is going (it should be open for a few hours every weekend in two weeks) and got around a lot of the park, including the two new bridges. Things are changing at Painshill and in a good way – they’ve received money to do essential restoration work, and the next plan is a proper boat shed for their barge (which lives at the side of the main lake and has been known to sink).

We love Painshill – it’s somewhere we can go back to many times and spot something we’ve not seen before – plus there’s several long walks you can do there, and several good places you could stop for a picnic (we had picnic envy when a large group of friends with kids walked past with their various supplies).

If you got the Gardeners World 2 for 1 coupon you can get to Painshill Park using that card, otherwise it’s £6.50 per adult.