This is the English version of an article first published in Polish: read the Polish original.
Wilanów has a few playgrounds you need to know by address, because you cannot spot them from the street. This is not one of them. It stands on an open, sandy meadow at Plaża Wilanów, at the junction of Wilanowska and Przyczółkowa streets, visible from a distance, well before a child gets the chance to ask if we are nearly there yet.
The theme is nautical, which makes sense on a beach by a lake. The centrepiece is a wooden pirate ship, next to it a lighthouse with a long slide, the classic yellow kind, long enough that by the third go a child gets just bored enough to immediately want a fourth.
What is on site
Beyond the ship and the lighthouse, the whole set is a sizeable complex: a five person XXL swing, a climbing net for older children, a carousel, spring rockers for the youngest ones, and a sandbox set apart from the main surface. Everything is built mostly from wood and stands directly on sand, the same sand people walk across barefoot towards the water in summer.
This is a rare combination for Warsaw: a playground, sand underfoot and a lake in the background, all in one spot, without crossing a car park to get there.
The area is fenced, which with a small child who can run off towards the water or the access road at any moment is more practical than decorative. There are benches inside the fence too, so a parent has somewhere to sit instead of standing by the slide the whole time.
What is right next door
Just outside the playground fence there is an outdoor gym, for a parent who wants to get something done while a child is busy with the ship. There is also a dog park nearby, so a dog walk and a child's playtime can happen on the same afternoon instead of two separate trips out of the house.
This is the same stretch of Plaża Wilanów that turns into a spot for evening walks and picnics in summer, including the running picnic ahead of the LOTTO na Szóstkę Run we wrote about earlier. During the day it is simply a playground with a lake view, in the evening it is where the district comes outside.
For anyone looking for a flat in this part of Wilanów, being close to a playground like this is a concrete, countable plus, not the vague "close to green space" line from a listing. Sand, tree shade and a lake five minutes on foot are an everyday thing here, not a special occasion.
