Stratford / Bow / Hackney
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park · Photo: Arne Müseler
Two of east London's biggest green spaces in one dry day: playgrounds and wildflower gardens in the Olympic Park, a picnic, then a walk across to Victoria Park for its boating lake and play areas, finishing with a weekend snack on Broadway Market.
Park · 10:00–12:15 (2h15m)
Big playgrounds and riverside paths; free.
The 2012 Olympic site, now a 560-acre free park with riverside paths, wildflower gardens, sports venues and big playgrounds. You can mix a free afternoon of play with a paid swim, the Orbit slide or the VeloPark.
Photo: Arne Müseler
Food stop · 12:15–13:00 (45m)
Picnic on the lawns before the walk west.
Photo: Arne Müseler
Park · 13:20–15:45 (2h25m)
Flat, buggy-friendly park with a boating lake, several play areas and two cafes; the Regent's Canal runs along one edge.
An outdoor park in Tower Hamlets.
Photo: Mark from Brighton
16:00–16:45 (45m)
Weekend street food; London Fields is next door.
A Hackney street market running between Regent's Canal and London Fields, with food stalls on Saturdays and Sundays. Pick up lunch and eat it on London Fields, which has a playground and a paddling pool in summer.
Photo: N Chadwick
LondonRichmond
Climb from Richmond town through the sloping Terrace Gardens, take in the long view from King Henry's Mound in Pembroke Lodge's gardens, lunch on the tea-room terrace and then spend the afternoon on the open grassland of Richmond Park looking for red and fallow deer. A big-sky outdoor day.
Terrace Gardens → Pembroke Lodge → Richmond Park → Pembroke Lodge
LondonSouth Kensington
Dinosaurs in the morning, a garden picnic at lunchtime and hands-on science in the afternoon, all within a five-minute walk of each other and all free to enter. Because everything is indoors except the V&A garden, it holds up in any weather.
The Natural History Museum → Victoria and Albert Museum → Science Museum
LondonGreenwich
Walk beneath the copper hull of a Victorian tea clipper, graze the street-food stalls at the covered market, peek up the spiral stairs of the Queen's House and finish by climbing Greenwich Park for the view across to Canary Wharf. Everything is in one compact riverside town centre.
Cutty Sark Clipper Ship → Greenwich Market → Queen's House → Greenwich Park
