8 Best Parks and Playgrounds In Monmouthshire and Gwent

Low ground, if you want the safer bet. Cloud sits on the valley tops long after the coastal strip has brightened, and forestry roads collect the run-off from everything above them. The wetland and the parkland near the water often give you a usable afternoon on a day that looks written off from a valley window. If the tops are clear, reverse it, because forest on a bright day is much the better outing.

Better than people expect, provided you set it up as looking rather than doing. Paths are level and generally pushchair-friendly, water holds attention on its own, and hides give children a job and somewhere to sit out a shower. What it will not do is entertain a child who came expecting play equipment. Bring something to look through and treat spotting as the activity, and it holds up in weather that would finish off a playground visit.

Water and woodland. The wetland becomes most interesting when the weather is least appealing, and forest tracks are largely unaffected by frost or rain. The town parks keep working as short local outings whatever the month. What falls away is anything that depends on a dry surface or a still afternoon, mini golf being the obvious example, so keep that for a settled day rather than squeezing it into a doubtful one.

You can. It is a route, not a site, so the start and finish are yours to choose and you turn round whenever you like. That flexibility is its main advantage with small children. The catch is exposure: long stretches sit on high, open ground where there is nothing to get behind if the weather changes, and no easy way to cut a day short except walking back. Pick a low section and keep the outing short.