Cool weather and changing leaves: Experience autumn in London at Kew Gardens
As the weather cools and coats, hats and scarves are pulled out of the closet, it is once again time to explore the beauty of nature and the bright colors of the leaves. In London, one of the best places to enjoy the changing of the seasons is at Kew Gardens along the Thames. For the month of October, Kew Gardens is hosting an autumn festival with activities for adults and children to enjoy.
PLANTastic Play Area for children provides opportunities to have some fun while learning about nature and plant processes like photosynthesis. The play area is in the shape of a plant in order to encourage natural play with giant “root” tunnels, large “stems” to climb, a leafy maze and a zip line symbolizing bees pollinating flowers.
Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway allow guests both young and old to learn more about how trees function as well as enjoy their natural beauty. The walkway is 18 metres high and 200 metres long providing guests a birds eye view of the treetops in the garden. The walkway is open year round, but will be especially beautiful with the changing of the leaves.
Badger Sett is a human-sized badger sett to allow visitors to explore a badgers habitat. Badgers have naturally taken up residence at Kew as the they cannot travel further east due to the urbanization of London. Badger setts are made of a maze of tunnels that they live in during the day. In the human-sized sett, guests get the opportunity to explore these tunnels for themselves and experience what it is like in a badger’s home.
Shaghai Expo Photography Exhibition is open for visitors to walk through hundreds of stunning photos of the Seed Cathedral. The Shanghai expo is part of an exhibition being hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Nash Conservatory. The Seed Cathedral is made of 60,000 optical strands containing hundreds of seeds.
Other activities that guests can visit are the Bulbmania Exhibition to celebrate the beauty of bulbs, the Tree house towers to provide children with opportunities to climb and explore, the Climbers and Creepers to let children learn about plants by climbing through life sized models and face painting.
Admission into Kew Gardens is £13.50 for adults and children are free. Kew Gardens is about a 40-minute journey on the underground from umi Hotel London. Umi’s Notting Hill hotel is ideal for not only visiting Kew Gardens, but for visiting Hyde and Regents Park for autumn experiences.
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