First time visiting Knebworth House and Gardens but it won't be my last. Situated literally just off J7 of A1(m), the drive just into the park and to the ticket booth felt like something from Bridgeton.

First, there's a ticket booth where you show your digital barcode - at time of my visit it's a £1 cheaper buying tickets online - and you drive further into the park. There wasn't any wait but I imagine during peak summer holidays there may be.

Then you see the amazing Fort Knebworth. With a very large range of children's outdoor apparatus - slides, climbing frames, zip lines, rope climb etc and loads of space, picnic tables and clean loos, if you live close enough I would recommend a season ticket if you have kids just for the play area so they can blow off steam.

There's a drinks hut selling tea, coffee, snacks and some very tasty ice cream but you are free to bring your own food in with plenty of grassing parking available.

We drove around the rolling grounds to the main buildings after finishing in the Fort, parked up on a hard standing car park and enjoyed three hours exploring the Gardens with the sweet pet cemetery, beautiful rose walk, the well kept maze, the woodland walk with breathtaking redwood trees, sculpture work, saw dinosaurs, the most amazing kitchen garden and more.

There wasn't time to fit the House in with viewing the Gardens for the first time and I look forward to our return for this.

We arrived around 11am and Fort Knebworth was empty for the first hour. The gift shop is reasonably priced for trinkets, souvenirs and kids' toys. I particularly liked being able to buy plants from the Knebworth nursery garden that I had seen in place on my walk around.