La Plata's main park is a 60-hectare wooded expanse that contains the natural history museum, a small lake, a planetarium, an open-air theatre, and the Bioparque La Plata (formerly a zoo, now transitioning to a native wildlife centre). Laid out when the city was founded in 1882, the park was designed as a formal English landscape garden with broad allées of eucalyptus and plane trees giving way to wilder, more naturalistic areas near the lake.
On weekends the park fills with families — mate flasks, children on bikes, students from the university reading under the trees. Paddle boats can be rented on the lake. The Martín Fierro open-air theatre hosts free outdoor performances in summer. The park is also the traditional gathering point for La Plata's substantial student population, which gives it a relaxed, intellectual energy quite different from Buenos Aires' parks. The Paseo del Bosque is best reached on foot from the museum or from Plaza Rocha, about 10 minutes north of Plaza Moreno.