The best things to do in Buckinghamshire

We often find ourselves travelling through Buckinghamshire to visit family or using it as a handy midway point to meet up with friends. So I decided to put together this collection of things to do in Buckinghamshire to help other families find places to visit and days out in Bucks. There are some brilliant things to do in Buckinghamshire for families, from country walks to world-class museums as well as free days out and plenty of Buckinghamshire rainy day activities.

If you live nearby, do also check out my guides to Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

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The best things to do in Buckinghamshire with kids

Visit a farm in Buckinghamshire

Gone are the days when a family trip to a farm revolved simply around animals. Nowadays, there are farms with extensive indoor and outdoor adventure play spaces with the pigs and lambs a rather forgotten sideshow. Anyway, these farm parks are still a great option for a family day out and Buckinghamshire has several good ones to choose from.

Odds Farm Park, about 10 minutes from Beaconsfield services off the M40, has all the usual crowd pleasers – rabbits to stroke and goats to feed, tractor rides plus great indoor and outdoor play areas. There’s also a water play space and a big sandpit play area too.

Kew Little Pigs is ideal if your kids have a specific interest in all things piggy. The farm breeds miniature pigs and you can even adopt a pig – but you can’t swap your kids for one. You can try your hand at being a pig keeper (you need to pre-book this rather particular activity), take a guided tour of the farm and of course you can pet a pig.

Hogshaw Farm and Wildlife Park has a mix of farm animals and wild creatures. There are nature trails to explore and of course there’s extensive play spaces, both indoor and outdoor.

Take the kids to Gulliver’s Land

This family-orientated theme park is a smaller and tamer day out than some of the larger theme parks in the UK. Highlights include over 25 rides, lots of play areas, plus a separate animals and dinosaurs section.

You can stay in themed accommodation at Gulliver’s if one day just isn’t long enough!

Find out more about Gullivers Land here

Explore the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

This little museum is great for book worms – there’s lots to read here and plenty of activities for young children to enjoy. There’s also a trail around the village if you’d like to extend your visit.

Find out more about the Roald Dahl Museum

Try some water sports at Willen Lake

There’s so much to do at Willen Lake in Milton Keynes. Older kids will enjoy stand up paddle boarding and kayaking while little ones will have fun in the splash park.

Willen Lake also features open water swimming and there’s one of those aqua parks where you can leap off inflatables.

Find out more about Willen Lake here

Read my review of our Hydro-Force Oceana stand up paddle board.

Enjoy a steam train ride in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire Railway Centre near Waddesdon is the place to go for train fanatics. Aside from riding on the steam trains, there’s restoration sheds to explore, the Victorian station building and the railway museum.

Find out more about Buckinghamshire Railways Centre

Explore the brilliant Chiltern Open Air Museum in Buckinghamshire

Outdoor museums are so much more fun for kids than the traditional indoor sort. We loved our trip to COAM – it features a range of historical buildings which have been rescued and relocated here. Our kids had fun dressing up in army uniform in the Nissen hut and enjoyed learning about the Amersham prefab house and the simple post-war life.

There’s a decent adventure play area and plenty of space for a picnic. It’s a dog friendly destination too so it’s ideal for the whole family.

Find out more about the Chiltern Open Air Museum

Read my article about open air museums in the UK

Visit the world’s oldest model village – Bekonscot

Bekonscot model village in Beaconsfield is such a fun family day out. The amount of detail that has gone into each little building and scene is quite incredible. There is so much to see – you can wander round several times and still find new details to enjoy.

Bekonscot also has a good play area and there’s a little train ride too.

Find out more about Bekonscot model village

Visit Bletchley Park

I took one of my sons (age 11) to Bletchley recently – it’s great for secondary school kids who are interested in history and / or computing (and hacking!). The site is really interesting to explore – seeing everything in situ rather than in a museum. There are endless huts to peer into, which have been recreated to give a glimpse of life at Bletchley during the Second World War.

The Bombe machines are incredible. Although some of the science and technology can be hard for some kids to get their heads around, there are lots of interactive displays to help explain how the code breaking worked. There’s even a little dressing up area – always a hit with my kids!

Find out more about Bletchley Park

Historical places to visit in Buckinghamshire

Hughenden

Hughenden is popular with many – including my family – as a good place to stop just off the M40 motorway. Former home of Benjamin Disraeli and a secret location for World War II operations, Hughenden is perfect for history scholars. Set in the Chiltern Hills, it also has lovely grounds for a wander. There’s a little play area plus a simple café in which to buy lunch.

Find out more about Hughenden here

Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon – a former Rothschild party house – is one of the National Trust biggies. Although if you read through the National Trust’s website it sounds like the charity wasn’t particularly keen on the chateau-style mansion – and took on the property merely for its impressive art collection. In fact, Waddesdon is managed and mostly financed by the Rothschild Foundation.

We use Waddesdon as a handy midway family meeting point – there’s grounds galore to explore, a very good play area for the kids (great slide) and a decent restaurant (or bring a picnic and just go for the ice creams).

Find out more about Waddesdon here

Stowe

This is another National Trust show-stopper – vast 18th century landscaped grounds. There are some good trees to climb, plenty of unusual buildings dotted across the landscape and slopes to roll down. Stowe offers big Georgian vistas – Capability Brown had a hand in here. The house isn’t National Trust but can still be visited.

Find out more about Stowe

Visit one of Buckinghamshire’s windmills

Buckinghamshire boasts three lovely old windmills – Brill, Cobstone and Pitstone. Cobstone has had a successful screen career – most notably in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It’s now privately owned. If you want to visit a windmill which you can have a nosey round, Brill or Pitstone, are open to visitors on Sundays in the summertime – check the websites before visiting to ensure they’re open.

Free things to do in Buckinghamshire

Go for a walk in Buckinghamshire

There are of course no end of possibilities when it comes to walks in Buckinghamshire so here are just a few to tempt you:

Wendover Woods is a really great place to visit with kids – there are some great walking and cycling trails (quite a few hills) and lots of trees for climbing. If you’re happy to part with a bit of cash, there’s also Go Ape but we enjoyed our day out there without needing to clamber around on the treetops.

Combe Hill and Chequers Trail takes visitors along a seven mile route through a National Trust managed site with hills, woodland and grassland. Highlights include the village of Ellsborough and a peek at the PM’s country residence, Chequers.

Penn Woods in the Chilterns has miles of waymarked trails to explore and a wide variety of habitats – wetland, pasture and ancient woodland. It’s also a good woodland for bluebells.

Family friendly bike rides in Buckinghamshire

There’s a good range of places to go for a bike ride with kids in Buckinghamshire. If you’re after something short and undemanding, try the four mile Waddesdon Greenway which follows the route of an old Roman road on its way between Aylesbury and Waddesdon.

Another good choice for little legs is the five mile Phoenix Trail which runs between Thame and Princes Risborough. There are lovely Chiltern views to admire and sculptures to look out for too.

If you’re not concerned about your children falling in the water, the 8.9 mile tow path of the Grand Union Canal from Bletchley to Leighton Buzzard makes for a lovely day out. Bletchley Park – as mentioned above – is a great day out for older kids and Leighton Buzzard is an appealing market town.

Cycling with kids? Read about family-friendly places to cycle across the UK or find a place to cycle with kids in Hertfordshire.

Admire the bluebells in Buckinghamshire

For a springtime treat, seek out the lovely bluebell woods which are dotted across Buckinghamshire. Finemere Woods near Aylesbury is a good choice and some of the National Trust properties – Cliveden and Hughenden – are also famed for their bluebells. Penn Wood mentioned above is a lovely woodland for bluebells too.

If you’re on the eastern side of Buckinghamshire, the Ashridge Estate offers a particularly fine display of these spring blooms. I’ve put together an article about the best bluebell woods in Hertfordshire if you’re keen to explore some of the more hidden local pockets there.

Rainy day activities in Buckinghamshire

Go climbing in Buckinghamshire

There are two excellent climbing walls in Milton Keynes – Big Rock Hub and Big Rock Bond. Both offer great facilities and a range of roped routes and bouldering. Bond is the newer of the two and has better training facilities.

Find out more about rock climbing in Milton Keynes

Enjoy afternoon tea in Buckinghamshire

There’s no end of options for afternoon tea in Buckinghamshire. So I’ve just picked a couple of examples which stand out from the crowd. If you’re after a traditional experience, I think the Laura Ashley tea room at the Villiers Hotel in Buckingham should provide all the finger sandwiches and floral décor you could ask for. If you’d prefer a slightly more contemporary option, the Crazy Bear hotel in Beaconsfield looks like a good alternative.

Check out your local cinema in Buckinghamshire

There are plenty of cinemas to visit in Buckinghamshire but there’s a particularly good one in Gerrard’s Cross. The Everyman cinema has a funky retro vibe and comfy sofas. What’s more, it serves a good range of food and drink which visitors can enjoy whilst watching the latest movies (along with a few old classics).

Find out more about the Everyman cinema in Gerrard’s Cross

Visit Milton Keynes Museum

I really love the look of this museum – there are lots of interactive exhibits and plenty of volunteers on hand. There is a recreated street with shops to explore and various technologies are given an in depth history – how we used to listen to music and communicate, historic vehicles and farm machinery.

There’s plenty to see outdoors too – a wartime garden, air raid shelter, and a nature trail to explore.

Find out more about Milton Keynes Museum

Unusual things to do in Buckinghamshire

Explore the Hellfire Caves

This network of caves was carved out of the chalky hillside next to the village of West Wycombe. The caves were excavated in the mid 18th century for Sir Francis Dashwood and were used as the location for illicit meetings by a club of high profile figures of the time.

Find out more about the Hell Fire Caves

Go skiing in Buckinghamshire!

Even in the middle of summer, you can head to the Snozone in Milton Keynes for skiing, snowboarding or sledging on real snow. And if you cannot afford to take your kids on a skiing holiday, you can send them to a week’s skiing holiday camp in Milton Keynes instead.

Find out more about the Snozone

Visit the National Museum of Computing

Located on the Bletchley Park estate, but operating independently, this museum of computers covers the early days of Alan Turing, my own memories of computers – anyone else have a Commodore 64? – through to the rapid advancements of recent years.

Find out more about the National Museum of Computing

Go indoor skydiving in Buckinghamshire

Another Milton Keynes attraction – this is a weird one! I’ve done this but I haven’t ever jumped out of a plane so I couldn’t tell you whether the two are very similar but I would hazard a guess that they are not. If you fancy being suspended in mid-air whilst air blasts the skin on your face in quite an alarming way, you’ll love it.

Find out more about indoor skydiving in Milton Keynes

Visit a local Buckinghamshire brewery

Buckinghamshire boasts vineyards, gin and even rum distilleries.

During our stay at Hill Farm campsite (handily situated within walking distance of Wendover Woods), we paid a visit to nearby Puddingstone Distillery, the home of Campfire Gin. This is right on the border of Herts and Bucks and both counties like to claim it as their own.

Next door there’s a rapeseed oil shop which has the most delicious rapeseed oil I’ve ever tried (admittedly I haven’t tried loads but this is definitely a good one!).

Summer days out in Buckinghamshire

Enjoy open water swimming in Buckinghamshire

As well as two excellent lidos, Buckinghamshire also boasts several lakes for open water swimming. There’s Willen Lake in Milton Keynes, Denham near Watford and Taplow near Maidenhead.

Find out more about open water swimming in Buckinghamshire

Go fruit picking at a Buckinghamshire farm

There are some great farms for enjoying pick your own produce during the summer months. Family-run Lillingstone north of Buckingham has PYO strawberries and sunflowers (plus pumpkins in the autumn). Up in the Chiltern Hills you’ll find Peterley Manor Farm offering a range of fruit picking including plums and strawberries.

Have a splash at a lido in Buckinghamshire

There are two lidos to choose from in Buckinghamshire – one at High Wycombe and one at Chesham. Both are heated and open all year round.

Find out more about Buckinghamshire lidos here or read my articles about outdoor swimming in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire for more locations near by.

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Where are your favourite places to visit in Buckinghamshire? Let me know in the comments below.