Reopened this year, Parc de l’Ukraine has been completely renovated with funky and modern play products, a splash pad, a redone chalet, gardens, a ping pong table, and a central area with pétanque and plenty of picnic tables.
The new configuration of the park, designed entirely by the borough’s professionals, honours the borough’s Ukrainian community. There are special touches throughout the park, from the design and layout, to the flowers and metal arches of the garden (which are reminiscent of the Tunnel of Love near Klevan, Ukraine), to the painted tridents near the splash pad.
I love this kind of playground, where the kids have to pause to figure out what they’re going to play with first. And how they’re going to play.
The fully fenced and gated playground has some really interesting products from Berliner including the two wood and rope “houses” with their metal slides, and the stainless steel and ultra-modern seesaw and spinners. There are also FOUR kinds of swings including baby and adult swings, an adaptive swing, and one of my favourites: The Expression Swing where siblings or parents, or grandparents can sit face-to-face with a baby or toddler.
In the middle of the playground is a shaded sand box, which was FILLED with kids right after we left 🙂
Besides the cool products, another design choice which I loved here is the inclusion of the splash pad right beside the playground and within the fencing. So if you have kids with you who want to play, and some who want to splash, you’re all in the same safe area.
The small splash pad is unobtrusive with ground jets and sprays, and a cute painted maze pattern on the floor. There are benches surrounding the water area, and towards the middle of the park, and near the beautiful gardens are a ton of picnic tables. Everything is pretty, new, and clean.
We didn’t venture into the renovated chalet, but it’s designed for families as well as being wheelchair-accessible. I didn’t notice any posted opening hours by the door.
So, we really liked it. It’s all very pretty, well laid out, and has some rarely-seen play products that got the kids’ imaginations working overtime! One observation that I’ve heard from users of the park, is that both play houses are too similar, and that’s one thing I would agree with. Though there’s a certain difference in the levels of difficulty, they’re both almost identical.
Other than that, it’s a win 🙂
Things to note:
-The splash pad hours for this borough are 9am-9pm. The button sensor to turn on the water sequence is on the ground. You can read more about the borough’s splash pads HERE.
-The playground and splash pad are in the same area, and it is fully fenced AND gated.
-Save for the sandbox, the playground equipment is all on wood chips.
-There was some nice, scattered shade over much of the playground when we visited around 10am.
-While the park was empty when we were there, it is VERY popular with local daycares, and as soon as we stepped out of the gates about 40 kids arrived. So it’s not as serene as it seems 😉 But it was great to see how much the kids enjoyed it all.