a) Municipal parks

We’re lucky, we have a park behind our house.  You might have to travel a little, but this is definitely the best resource – it’s free and they’re usually enclosed.

b) Local attractions – free

In any area you can bet that you’ll find other municipal attractions.  Buy an OS Landranger map for your local area.  It will help you to identify areas of local interest – of course you will probably know many of them already, but you might just find a hidden gem.

c) Local attractions – paid

We used to spend hours at a local working farm theme park.  Instead of paying each time we went, we bought a season ticket.  It didn’t take long to recoup the annual investment.

d) Properties in trust

The National Trust has an enormous number of properties dotted around England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  The National Trust for Scotland performs a similar role.  In England, there is English Heritage, there is CADW in Wales, Historic Scotland and in Northern Ireland, The Environment & Heritage Service.  Annual membership of these organisations does represent quite an investment, but once you’ve been a couple of times you’ll find you’re in credit on the deal.