Planning a picnic around the Greenville area is a fun way to enjoy the great outdoors, spend time with your family, refuel after a morning at the park, and also a great boredom buster! If you and your children are ready to move beyond lunch at the kitchen table, check out our tips below for planning the perfect picnic! Lots of details can go into preparing, but here at the Kidding Around Greenville Community, we’ve made it easy as P-I-C-N-I-C!
Not feeling like a picnic? No worries, there are plenty of other outdoor activities you can try instead!
How to Plan a Perfect Picnic
Picnic Shelters: Located at many of Greenville’s parks, shelters are convenient for a nice lunch in the shade and most likely are equipped with restrooms and trash cans as well. Some of the most popular parks with sheltered picnic areas are Herdklotz Park, Heritage Park, Cleveland Park, Legacy Park, and McPherson Park. Larger Shelters can be reserved through Greenville Rec.
Invite Friends and Family: Inviting friends and family not only means double or triple the fun, but it also means you can all divvy up the list of food items! Make it a potluck and everyone can just bring one item!
Consider Seating: On a beautiful day, you may find all the shelters are full and all the tables are taken. Come prepared with a blanket or some folding chairs! Both of these items are easy enough to keep in the trunk of your car so you’ll never be without a layer between you and the creepy crawlies on the day of your picnic.
Now! Live In The Moment: Go Now! Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner, just go now! Picnics don’t have to be limited to any certain time of day.
- Breakfast picnic: Think outside the picnic basket and plan a breakfast picnic to a sunny space before it gets too hot outside like the new Unity Park, Sunset Park, Runway Park, the Pavilion, or enjoy the lovely lake views at Lake Robinson.
- Lunch picnic: Save your lunchtime picnics for parks with lots of trees and many shelter options like Poinsett Park or McPherson Park.
- Dinner picnic: Take your dinner-time picnic to spaces with grills for hot dogs and hamburgers like Butler Springs Park or Herdklotz Park. A dinner picnic would also be nice in Falls Park or The Children’s Garden – you could grab take-out from one of the many cute restaurants nearby!
Ice Cold: Freeze your water bottles the night before and wrap them in some foil (this will keep them from sweating). Use these as insulation for the rest of your lunch and then enjoy some ice-cold water! Other foods that are great to freeze and pack are yogurt tubes, grapes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and cookies!
Check out our list of 10 Places To Grab Picnic Necessities In Greenville, SC
Clean-Up: I’ve yet to meet a mother of small children that don’t keep a pack of baby wipes stashed somewhere close by! You may think of adding in a pack of anti-bacterial wipes for use before and after eating. Bring some extra plastic bags for trash or leftovers. Depending on reusable or disposable, consider how you’ll transport all these containers back home if a trash can isn’t in sight.
My first ever picnic in Greenville holds a special place in my heart. After spending my entire life in one place, moving to a new one seemed terrifying. One day, I met a sweet friend at the library. We decided to take our girls on a picnic to Legacy Park and I will be forever thankful that she reached out to me and we got to know each other over sandwiches, fruit, books, and sunshine that warm July day.
Great places for a picnic near Greenville, SC
Here’s a quick list of great places for a picnic near Greenville. These are the parks and places for picnics that we mentioned above.
We love to take breakfast picnics to Lake Robinson.