National Trust - Packwood House — Attraction in Warwick

We arrived late with a little over 2 hours until closing and took the decision to concentrate on the garden and grounds as we had a window of good weather. We aim to come come back in the autumn to view the house and give it the time it most likely deserves. The outdoors includes a kitchen garden, flowered borders, a sunken garden, the Yew garden, wooded and field walks, the lake and several other sections to discover and explore. We enjoyed a lovely couple of hours. The lake is small in comparison to some and can be walked around in 15mins at a leisurely pace with several well placed benches to sit and rest and watch the world go by. The flowered borders were full of colour (August) and led nicely to the impressive Yew garden. It was rather busy in one or two places in the flower gardens, i think we weren't the only ones who had made a late visit. We really need to go back and give it more time but were impressed with what we saw and would recommend a visit. Additional review: We have since returned the week before Christmas to visit the house and see it decorated for the festive period. Out of the 4 houses we have visited, Packwood has to be my favourite in the Christmas decoration department having adopted 'The Nutcracker' theme. The house itself has a warm welcome feel and although we found the upstairs closed for the winter period (I sense the need for a third visit 😉) the downstairs had rooms that were cosy, calm and still. One particular themed room had a lovely Christmas tree surrounded by mice on the floor made from walnut shells, it must have taken an age to make. Apparently volunteers have already chosen next year's theme and will start to make the props and decorations for this imminently. One other decoration worthy of a mention was the beautifully handmade pink and gold castle in the main reception room (see photo) ... mesmerising. Compared to the summer months, the gardens were plain as borders are prepared for the spring, the gardens look amazing in the summer! And so, a third visit will be pencilled into the diary to catch the upstairs at Packwood so watch out for a further edit of...

Had an absolutely wonderful morning here recently. The sin was shining, the daffodils were out looking beautiful and we really enjoyed our visit. Theres some super interesting history to the house here and we spent quite a bit of time talking to the NT guides about various parts of it, they were really friendly and happy to chat and answer questions and share their knowledge! The gardens and lake are also beautiful and especially the tree garden - dont miss the special secret tree hideout at the very back if you visit. Was a fab little place to discover. Our son enjoyed spotting and counting th many many sun dials that can be found all over the house and grounds and even on the family gravestone at the church! Lots of lovely grounds to wander about it and we followed the circular walking trail (the 3 mile one) that goes about the wider estate and past St Giles church and graveyard (which is also really interesting and worth stopping and spending some time looking at). The cafe here is q purpose build so spaced really qell and they have a great selection of foods and drinks plus lots of lovely icecream options. There is a mix of indoor and outdoor seating too. The gift shop is small but plenty on it and also has an outdoor area with plants and garden decor on sale

Overall we can see why this is such a popular place and will definitely be one qe...

Absolutely horrific experience. Our car broke down and wouldn’t start; we informed the staff and they were initially helpful and said it was okay for us to wait for recovery. We had to wait for several hours and were approached by a different member of staff saying they are going to close the gates. We were travelling from London and had no way of going home and were told that we can call the recovery again in the morning as they don’t care and will be closing the parking gates. We tried to explain that recovery should be there soon but they didn’t care. Luckily some family came to help us push the car out the parking area onto the main road or else we would’ve been left stranded. They were going to close the gates and the staff didn’t care about our situation. We had been waiting for over 12 hours for RAC to come. It would’ve helped if the staff members were understanding of our situation but they only added to the stress of the moment. We were just waiting in the car and it’s not like as if we were causing a problem or causing inconvenience. She spoke to us in such a unbothered manner and she couldn’t care less about us. It was such a stressful situation. This was such a horrible experience and we will honestly never be...