There are afternoons when being busy & productive is wildly overrated.

The emails can wait.

The washing machine will survive.

And if somebody suggests “coffee and cake?”, the correct response is not to start calculating whether you have time.

It's to find your coat.

Around Peterborough, that can mean anything from a couple of pounds for cake in Central Park to a proper booked afternoon tea.

Here are three very different ways to do it.

The Willow Café: when you really just meant coffee and cake

Sometimes “afternoon tea” is considerably more ceremony than you wanted.

You weren't planning a three-tier stand.

You just wanted to sit down, order something sweet and talk for an hour without anybody producing a laptop.

That's where The Willow Café in Central Park comes in.

Its published menu lists homemade cake slices at £2.50, traybakes at £2.30 and scones from £2.50–£2.95.

Add coffee or tea and you've got the low-commitment version of an afternoon out.

There's also the park itself, which provides the perfect justification for ordering cake because technically you've been for a walk.

Even if the walk mainly consisted of getting to the café.

Location: Central Park, Peterborough

The Willow Café

Lakeside: afternoon tea with somewhere to walk afterwards

At Lakeside Kitchen & Bar in Ferry Meadows, the setting changes the whole plan.

Afternoon tea is currently advertised at £25 per person, including tea or filter coffee, with prosecco available for an additional charge.

But the real attraction is what happens either side of it.

You're already in Nene Park.

That means the afternoon doesn't have to consist entirely of sitting at a table.

Meet for a walk first and earn the sandwiches, or eat first and convince yourself the walk afterwards cancels out the cakes.

Both arguments are scientifically questionable.

Both are perfectly acceptable.

This one needs more planning than simply turning up for coffee, so check availability and book before making the journey.

Location: Ferry Meadows, Nene Park, Peterborough

Lakeside Kitchen & Bar afternoon tea

Thirteen Wansford: make an afternoon of the afternoon tea

Then there's Thirteen Wansford.

Its published afternoon tea is £25 per person, or £30 with prosecco, and the venue asks for at least 24 hours' notice and a £10 deposit per person.

This is the option when “Shall we get a coffee?” isn't quite enough.

Wansford gives you an excuse to get out of Peterborough itself, have a wander around the village and turn tea into the centrepiece of a slower afternoon.

No shopping list.

No errands cunningly added to the journey.

Just go somewhere because you fancied going somewhere.

Frankly, we could probably all do with more of that.

Location: 12 London Road, Wansford

Thirteen Wansford afternoon tea

So which afternoon are you having?

Willow when you want coffee, cake and no advance planning.

Lakeside when you want to add Ferry Meadows and a walk.

Thirteen when you want to make the afternoon itself feel like the outing.

Three very different levels of commitment to essentially the same excellent idea:

stop what you're doing and eat some cake.

Now we want yours.

Where around Peterborough do you go when you want coffee, cake, afternoon tea and absolutely no pressure to achieve anything else?

Tell us in the comments.