Summary of Rathwood Teddybear Picnic
The Rathwood Teddybear picnic is a mixture of a train ride around Rathwood grounds, songs, games and teddy bear making. It is a fun day for kids and parents alike. Everyone will leave this days adventure looking for a similar day out. Overall, it was a very enjoyable day with polite staff and good value for money.
Cost of Rathwood Teddybear picnic:
- Adult- €7
- Child- €11
- Baby- €0
Try to be there 10-15 minutes before the beginning as it starts exactly on-time and lasts for an hour. We started our adventure at 1 o clock and arrived at the end picnic at 2pm, we relaxed at the picnic area for a further 15-20 minutes.
We have no affiliation with Rathwood, we just wanted to share our nice experience. For more information, you can check out the Rathwood website: https://www.rathwood.com/teddy
Our Rathwood Teddybear picnic Adventure
We started our Teddy Bear picnic adventure in a small cinema type room in Rathwood. A lovely girl called Goldilocks came on stage to greet all the boys, girls and parents. She explained to everyone that she didn’t eat her porridge for breakfast and because of this she didn’t have golden hair today. Goldilocks showed all the Boys and Girls a greeting dance that they should do if they meet any Bears.
Goldilocks lead everyone on a walk to the teddybears house. Where everyone found Mamma Bear. This is where we all did the Bear dance that we learned with Goldilocks. Goldilocks and Mamma bear joined in and had everyone laughing with their dance moves and jokes.
We then hopped aboard the Yellow ”Rathwood Express” Train where the train driver secured the doors so we were all safe inside. Mamma Bear and Goldilocks got on the train as well and she sang ”all aboard choo choo”
The train brought us down past the maze towards the woods and everyone had to look out for Baby and Daddy Bear. This was great fun, the kids all loved the train and the sense of adventure.
Along the train ride, we passed all the animals in Rathwood, we also passed a number of fairy houses. One of the Fairy houses even belonged to the tooth fairy. Goldilocks and Mamma bear kept us entertained along the way and had everyone looking out for baby bear, we had to shout ”where are you Baby Bear” eventually we found baby bear near the woods.
Baby bear got on the train to help us lookout for Daddy bear. The train started moving again and there was great excitement by everyone trying to spot daddy bear. We stopped at the teddy bear factory to see if daddy bear was inside.
The teddybear factory was a timber building hidden away in the forest. It was lit up with fairy lights and gave off an amazing atmosphere of adventure and playfulness. When we went into the workshop, we found daddy bear sleeping. Goldilocks and Mamma bear asked everyone to sing a song to help wake Daddy bear up, so when we sang the ”bear greeting” song he jumped up from underneeth his blanket.
Each child got a small teddy bear and stuffing. They all sat around at small tables to stuff their bears. Goldilocks and the three bears were dancing around the factory and Ourlittlehiker was amazed by all their energy and amazing dance moves. She followed them around staring up in their faces.
I had to help her finish stuffing her Teddy bear as she couldn’t take her eyes off the three bears singing and dancing. We then brought our newly stuffed bears with us on the train and went through the woods to feed the geese at the lake.
We stopped at the lake and stayed on the train while Goldilocks went to all the boys and girls giving them bread to feed the geese. Everyone started to feed the geese and they loved it. All the birds ran toward the train, which was very exciting for the boys and girls and the Mammys and Daddys 😁. As the train started to drive off, all the geese followed the train around the lake. It was very exciting and everyone loved it.
On the train journey, we all sang little duck songs and played games like which train carriage could shout the loudest. As there were four train carriages this lead to lots of shouting but great fun too.
Rathwood Teddybear Picnic
We then arrived at our last train stop, the Teddy bear picnic. Little tartan blankets were scattered around the grass under a blown-up rainbow beside a small cottage.
Each child received a Picnic Bag here, which included:
- 1 bottle of water
- An Apple
- 1 Smarty cookie
Ourlittlehiker loves drinking water, so I was delighted that it was a healthy lunch choice that they provided water instead of fizzy drinks.
The three bears sat on a bench to give each family an opportunity to have pictures taken with the bears. The picnic was so relaxing with the sun shining with proved to be a perfect location.
The bears then left and we finished our picnic. Ourlittlehiker was not quite ready to go home yet so we went over to Rathwoods newly built Playzone called Ark. Where she played with her little friends and we got a bite to eat.
Tips:
- I carried Ourbabyhiker in the Ergo carrier, which was so helpful because it allowed me to have 2 free hands to look after a 2.5 year old while also to breastfeed on the train and give me privacy in tight situations.
- I also noticed some parents brought their buggies and there was space at the end of the train carriage for these and wheelchairs.
- At the picnic, we saw some parents had brought their own packed lunches of sandwiches, fruit, and drinks for themselves. We forgot that this is a picnic for kids and not adults. We were looking at the people with the sandwiches thinking these people are geniuses. So our top tip, bring a packed lunch for the adults, this will make the kid’s picnic far more enjoyable. Obviously, we overindulged in the Rathwood restaurant afterward 😉.
- Picture opportunity. If your anything like us and love taking pictures to help capture an adventure, remember this one. The picnic is the last stop on the train ride. The three bears sit on a bench and you will have an opportunity to get a photograph with the bears here. If you want this picture get it before the picnic starts, as the bears only stay a short while because they go off quickly to greet other boys and girls for the next train.
Conclusion on Rathwood Teddybear Picnic
Overall I would highly recommend the teddybear picnic in Rathwood. As a parent, I enjoyed every second of it. It was made even better by the excitement on Ourlittlehikers face throughout the whole experience.
Throughout all our hiking adventures people constantly ask us, why do we bring such young kids hiking, they won’t remember it. We never think this way, we will always remember our amazing adventures together as the kids grow up so quickly, we are making life memories as a family and will enjoy telling stories and showing the girls all the pictures when they are older. We started this blog for them, a place where they can look back and read about their earliest adventures.
Ourlittlehiker is 2.5 years old and ourlittlebabyhiker is 6 months old now and our 6 month old loved looking around at all the different shapes, colors, and sounds of the whole day while taking it all in.
The staff was extremely friendly, we forgot Ourlittlhikers sunglasses in the factory and they went back and got them for us. The teddy bears that we all stuffed looked very good quality and you’d imagine that they would be expensive to buy.
And remember ”If you go down to the woods today, You’re sure of a big surprise……….Because today’s the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic”
Enjoy xx