Leybourne Lakes Country Park — Attraction in Tonbridge and Malling

Absolutely in love with this place! Surprisingly, was passing by on the way to work every single day and didn't know about this awesome place until yesterday.

Good size pay & display parking with reasonable prices: up to 4 hours £1.40, which gives plenty of time to explore different trails and enjoy the surrounding beautiful lakes with swans and ducks and wildlife. If you would like to stay longer there, over 4 hours is £4. If you didn't come back before gates are shut, you have to wait until next morning when park will be open again (7:30 am) to retrieve your car. So, make sure, you are not late! At the moment it is open until 9:00 pm, but soon will change to 8:30 pm.

Season parking ticket £40 a year. Not bad I would say if you are local or living near by.

The area quite big, so your kids and dogs will love it!

Lots of benches everywhere and playground for kids, children's play area includes an adventure trail, cargo net, monkey bars and a smaller play unit for the younger ones. There is also seating and picnic benches in and near the play area too! The play area is located near the Ocean Lake.

There is also the cafe, also near Ocean Lake . Refreshments are available every weekend, bank holiday and school holiday's (weather permitting). Serving freshly cooked hot or cold food, drinks and variety of snacks, ice creams, bird seed for the ducks andeven treats for the dogs!

But that is not all! We have found out that Leybourne Lakes offers a wide range of water sports too via Watersport Centre. Activities include: stand up paddle boarding, kayaking, scuba diving, small paddle boats, open water swimming and wind surfing. They also host Aquathons and Sprint Series triathlon events via Ocean Lake Tri Club.

If you like walking, there are every Tuesday and Thursday one hour healthy walks through variety different routes around the country park organised too!

Lots too consider I would say! :)

Pleased we have found this place, apparently , 230 acres still to discover(!) and definitely...

I arrived mid afternoon with unknown knowledge of the area and it's wondrous animal inhabitants. The first thing I faced was a sign board announcing "Bird of the Month" - which this month was the prestigious yet elusive Blackhat species. After rigorous searching amongst the trees and foliage, I regret to inform I saw not one. Very disappointing to say the least. The signs were the correct height, contained compelling information, and the Latin names. Very impressed with this. I did however encounter a sign post stating the adjacent fields was full of rare flower species. There was literally none, just grass. This needs addressing. On the plus side I made contact with a small group of extremely pleasant and friendly swans. After some time and a slight cold war era style standoff, they accepted me into the pack and made me an honourable member of the community. I saw many fishermen with their state of the art gear and palatial tents and equipment. Also some who weren't fishing but were in tents far from the water line, 2 cars nearby suspiciously. An affair popped to mind. After a slight detour off road we were circling the lake. I came across 2 joggers. One was very fit and ran elegantly, the other had strange apparel on but done a lap of the lake in Olympic time. Kudos to you for that. I saw no butterflies but did see a pigeon that had infiltrated a Swan gang. Overall a good day and a must see to all. Next time I am there I shall dive the lake to properly review the quality of that also, and try make contact with any friendly fish species...

We had a great morning at the water sports centre which is amazing by the way friendly and professional. Unfortunately it was the ranger or the lake that ruined the whole day for all of us. My daughter wanted to copy another child and swim in the lake after the picnic. I said no it’s not safe just sit by it and dangle her feet in as I could see it was very shallow. When I turned round she was standing in the lake helping another child out who was not from our group. The other child had been swimming. I was very shocked when A ranger and police then came straight up to me and fined me £80!! He didn’t want to listen to my explaination at all!!! I completely agree with no swimming and the safety of everyone. Hence why my kids were not swimming! I also agree with a fine (not £80) if someone knows there is a fine and ignores it!! However, we had no intention of swimming in the lake and just had an hour of paddle boarding. So now instead of my kids talking about a great day paddleboarding, they just talk about the unpleasant ranger and the fine. Very sad. We retraced our steps back to the car park at the water sports centre and saw one tiny sign on a bin by the path. That was it!!! All seven of us missed that one little sign. So Leybourne lakes if you are robbing families of £80 then please spend the money on great big signs in places where they may go in and swim so that we can all see it !!!!! Then if they ignore the obvious big clear sign you can...