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Whilst walking around Vilnius in Lithuania, I kept an eagle eye out for any interesting play parks. Most were the usual rather dismal swing, slide, spring toy and climbing frame set. Yet tucked away in the Pavilniai Regional Park, I discovered this little bespoke beauty.

Li Play Park

It was located beside the cafe and was clearly the play provision for its visitors, thus I struggled to find a child-free moment to take some photos. I loved that it was also right beside the river and without a barrier. So naturally children could paddle there or play here. Somehow I can’t imagine this happening in the UK.

Li Play park 2

The massive white climbing structure could be accessed in several ways. A long ramp allowed a gentle ascent into the house. But in several places, other choices existed including steps, 2 rope ladders and 2 climbing walls as well as going up the slides!

Li Play park 3

As you can see, the structure is on 3 levels. There’s lots of view points and places to look out. It all felt much bigger and exciting than the actual space it took up!

Li Tarzan swing

Also dotted around were other wee surprises such as this tarzan swing beside the lowest level den. There were interesting nooks and crannies everywhere.

Li Climbing bar

Wooden totem characters are quite a common sight in the local area. I liked the cultural application to play and the use of these to create a climbing bar and swings.

But best of all had to be the roundabout tree house pictured below….

Li treehouse roundabout

That’s right! It’s a tree house on a large stump that can rotate. When you climb to the top of the steps you have to turn the tree house to enter. Parents can also spin a child from the outside too! I don’t know if this contraption exists elsewhere, but it was a first for me! So for a cafe play space this was a hidden gem!

This blog post was first published in August 2014. Because it is so unique, I’ve not made any amendments. I remember some concern on social media sites about the rotating tree house. Yes it probably doesn’t meet EU playground safety standards but these are advisory and not the law and for public playgrounds. Whether this is a private playground owned by the restaurant, I’m not sure. As with any structure, common sense is needed to work out whether a place is suitable for supervised or unsupervised use by a child and all this depends on their age, maturity and developmental abilities of different sorts.

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