Forest Holidays in Sherwood Forest - perfect for getting away from it all!

I don't think I've ever needed a holiday quite as much as I have this year. We have seen some dark clouds cover our lives, but we try to stay positive, look for the rays of light and hold on to the promise of sunshine. With myself now having health problems of my own, I really needed some rest, relaxation and peace to recharge my batteries.

Forest Holidays has become our go-to UK holiday company when it comes to getting away from it all. Their luxury lodges, nestled in some of the country's most beautiful forests are just perfect for escaping from 'real life' to enjoy some quality family time together.

Having previously stayed with Forest Holidays in Cropton and Blackwood Forest, this year we decided to explore somewhere new and chose Sherwood Forest as this year's summer holiday destination. Located in 3,300 acres of lush pine woodland, Sherwood Forest offers spectacular views and plenty of outdoor activities for families to enjoy.

The Forest Holidays Golden Oak cabins are well appointed, well equipped, comfortable and luxurious. They come with a fabulous outdoor hot tub, where you can relax surrounded by the sights and sounds of the forest. Fluffy robes and slippers are provided in the master bedroom, and towels are provided for the whole party.  Eco-friendly toiletries are found in the master en-suite and the family bathrooms. A log burning stove in the spacious, open plan living area warms everyone up when the evenings get chilly.

The setting of the cabin was lovely. From the patio area we couldn't see another cabin or road, making us feel really secluded in our forest hideaway. Several feathered and furry friends came to visit us. Robins, jays, wood pigeons, chaffinches and a very confident squirrel were regulars, delighting Freddy who got to see them close up.

The three bedroomed cabin was so light and airy. The big windows in the master bedroom gave the most marvellous views. It was so peaceful in our cabin, it was easy to forget that the world was still bustling away beyond our holiday bubble.

In the evenings, we were able to sit on the big corner sofa and play card games or watch the Olympics coverage or on demand movies on the cabin's TV.  Spending time away from our smartphones, iPads and laptops was great. It gave us time to all connect and do things together uninterrupted by Facebook notifications!

The Forest Retreat was a short walk from our cabin. It is the hub of the resort where you can enjoy a hot snack or light meal, get a drink at the bar, meet the team, book activities and shop for both essentials and luxuries. We enjoyed a freshly baked pizza and wedges there one lunchtime before going on a walk into the forest. 

There are lots of gifts and toys available in the shop. They sell some lovely t-shirts, and we particularly liked the slogan "Forests, Treetops, Adventure, Wildlife, Mud and Fun" which pretty much sums up our experience of Forest Holidays.

The Forest Holidays resort is a short walk to Sherwood Pines Forest Park where you can experience the outdoors, explore, play, cycle and walk. They have some really excellent play areas for the kids and a number of trails to walk. We went on the Friend or Foe trail, which celebrates the mini beasts of the forest, asking children to decide if insects are useful to us or whether they are our enemies. Freddy enjoyed reading the signs around the trail and deciding whether the bugs were good or bad for humans. It was really thought provoking and made him respect the roles of bees, earwigs, butterflies and dung beetles!

There is so much to explore in the forest, we spent hours walking and discovering our surroundings. Sherwood Pines also offers Go Ape, cycle and segway hire and has a cafe and visitors centre. We loved our time exploring the woodland and we were so lucky with the weather. Discovering forests and woodland is something we love to do as a family, making Forest Holidays the perfect choice for us.

We enjoyed a midweek break from Monday to Friday at Sherwood Forest. We spent our days walking in the fresh air and relaxing in the hot tub. We made nettle tea using the nettles that were growing in the woods and collected pine cones and leaves. It was relaxing and peaceful. Perfect! Just what I needed. The tranquility of the forest felt like a million miles away from home and for a few days I was able to forget all my worries.

As we were in Sherwood Forest, we embraced the stories of Robin Hood. We bought Freddy an archery set from the Forest Retreat and Freddy soon became a dab hand at shooting his arrows at various targets. Forest Holidays offers archery lessons as an activity for anyone who wants to learn how to do it properly!

You can find out about Forest Holidays, their nine beautiful locations and their range of cabins at  www.forestholidays.co.uk. We really enjoy our stays with Forest Holidays and like the benefits of holidaying in the UK, especially for short breaks. We can highly recommend them!


We were offered a discount in return for this review.

A Wonderful Week in Yorkshire with Forest Holidays

We have just returned from a glorious week spent in Yorkshire staying with Forest Holidays in Cropton. Our accommodation was a beautiful, well equipped Golden Oak lodge situated in a woodland meadow, in the heart of Cropton Forest. The site benefits from having a Forest Retreat, where guests can meet the team, enjoy a meal or a drink, book activities and buy selected groceries. They also have a great takeaway service where you can order a pizza to be delivered to your lodge and a bakery ordering service so you can get freshly baked bread, croissants and pain au chocolats made to order in the mornings. We sampled both the pizza and the breakfast goods - both are delicious!

Our lodge had three bedrooms (one double, two twin), with very comfy beds, two bathrooms, plus a large open plan living area with a good kitchen (with microwave, dishwasher, oven, hob and all crockery and utensils) complete with dining area. A large flat screen TV allowed us to enjoy some great movies in the evening, taking advantage of the Forest Holidays pre-bookable in-cabin entertainment package. This gave us unlimited wifi, access to over 125 movie titles (which included Cinderella, Focus, The Boy Next Door, Fifty Shades of Grey and Big Hero 6) and the Sky channels including Sports for the duration of our stay. (This costs from £35 and we were well impressed with it.)

The outdoor hot tub really is a wonderful addition to the lodge and we used it everyday. Freddy absolutely adored his hot tub time as did I! It was blissfully warm and relaxing. Toiletries in the bathrooms were a nice touch, and there were robes and slippers for Ian and I to use, along with fluffy hot tub towels provided for everyone. We also had a log burner in the cabin, which we used to make a roaring fire on the cooler nights.

The lodge was very comfortable, spacious, light and airy and yet still homely with lovely artwork and sumptuous furnishings. The views of the forest through the huge windows gave a magical feel to the accommodation, connecting you to the nature outside.

There are some lovely walks and cycle routes around the site, where we enjoyed spotting the flora and fauna of the forest. We saw plenty of rabbits, birds and bats during our stay. There are deer in the forest but they proved too elusive for us to spot. My favourite wildlife spotting was made whilst we enjoyed a sunset hot tub session when a barn owl flew directly overhead carrying some prey in its talons. That was something I had never witnessed before and I was pretty excited!

The Forest Holidays site is a perfect base for exploring the North Yorkshire Moors and the coast is just a half hour's drive away. Nearby towns include Pickering, Helmsley, Whitby and Scarborough, with the city of York being an hour away.

We spent a day at nearby Dalby Forest, which is a massive area of national park land featuring a visitor's centre, forest walks, cycle trails, adventure playgrounds, an activity centre, Go Ape, a shop and cafe. Parking is £7 for the day, and you can drive between the areas within the forest throughout your visit.

Freddy loved the well equipped adventure playground which had things to climb and clamber over, swing in, spin on and jump off! A stream ran past this part of the forest and children were paddling and splashing in the water. It was a real wonderland for the kids. The cafe was lovely for a quick snack and a coffee and had lots of outdoor seating.

We went for a lakeside walk around Staindale Lake, which was lovely with good paths and boardwalks and with plenty to explore. It is such a pretty area and very peaceful.

I did a bit of research before we left and discovered that English Heritage had several sites in the area that we were staying in. Whitby Abbey, the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula, is a lovely gothic ruins overlooking the coastal town of Whitby. (After the castle we walked around Whitby and had a brilliant lunch of vegetarian Homity Pie, mash, peas and gravy in the quaint, old Humble Pie shop!) Helmsley Castle and Pickering Castle are interesting places to explore, both found in bustling market towns. Scarborough Castle is a big clifftop castle overlooking the North Sea. It was hosting a Clash of the Knights tournament while we were there, which was really great fun. The kids got to meet the knights, try out different helmets and weapons, cheer on their favourite teams in battle and Freddy even learned how to sword fight.

Having the English Heritage membership gives us access to 400 sites around the UK. Using it for some of our holiday days out, virtually paid for the price of 12 months membership, so was well worth doing. It's definitely worth having for family days out and if you do decide to buy one check Google for discount codes, I saved myself 20%!

Whilst we were visiting Scarborough for the castle, we decided to spend some time exploring the seaside town. Unfortunately the weather turned making our beach visit a bit grey and gloomy, but we had our waterproofs and were undeterred by the unpredictability of English summertime. We bought some sticks of rock, dodged the over zealous hordes of seagulls and looked round the souvenir shops. Scarborough reminded me so much of my own family holidays when I was a child, there was a real sense of nostalgia as I walked along the seafront with its array of amusements and shops selling nick-nacks, buckets and spades. Scarborough has a fantastic vegan restaurant called the Calf Cafe, where we had lunch. The food was divine. Their Peanut Butter Cheesecake was out of this world!

We used our Merlin Annual Passes to visit the SeaLife Centre, which had some adorable seals, free roaming penguins and a fabulous display of jellyfish to keep us all enthralled.

We visited York one day, where we again used our Merlin Annual Pass, this time for the York Dungeons, which is always fun. We walked around The Shambles and visited some shops. We had lunch in a lovely vegetarian cafe in York called Goji where I had an Indian platter with chapatti, coconut dahl, a samosa, pakoras and salad. It was delicious. We went to the Fudge Kitchen and were delighted to find that they stock vegan Dairy Free fudge so stocked up on some Salted Caramel fudge for Megan.

We packed so much into our week in Yorkshire. There was a lot of stuff we didn't have time for, (like the Eden Camp, exploring more of the North Yorkshire moors or riding the steam railway from Pickering to Whitby) but we really enjoyed the things we did. We loved the Cropton site with its walks through the forest and we adored our lodge home, which we always enjoyed going back to at the end of a busy day, having a relaxing hot tub session before settling down to a good movie.

Forest Holidays are great for all the family from the youngest to the oldest. My grown up girls loved it as much as their little brother did. We all had a fabulous time, making some brilliant memories of quality family time spent walking, climbing, exploring, playing and eating some good vegetarian meals! We love Yorkshire and definitely plan to return!

Find out more about Forest Holidays and their nine stunning locations at www.forestholidays.co.uk.


I was offered a discount against the cost of this holiday.

A Fantastic Family Holiday with Forest Holidays

With the beautiful weather we have been having, holidaying in the UK has been a great option this year.  So we were delighted to spend a week staying in a gorgeous and luxurious log cabin at Blackwood Forest in Hampshire with Forest Holidays.  The stunningly beautiful 270 hectare Beech forest is the perfect setting for a tranquil break surrounded by nature, but with easy access to major roads, Micheldever railway station (which is just 40 minutes from London) and local amenities.

The large three bedroomed Silver Birch cabin was exquisite and quite honestly the nicest accommodation I have ever stayed in at a holiday resort.  A feature floor to ceiling window gives magnificent views of the idyllic surroundings and makes you feel a part of the great outdoors, while making the rooms feel light and airy. The decor was modern, clean and well conceived, bringing in elements of the forest along with a bold but tasteful colour theme that runs throughout the cabin.  The place was spotless and so well equipped, with an excellent kitchen, which included microwave, oven, hob, fridge freezer and dishwasher.  Little touches such as the inclusion of Jenga and Scrabble made you feel immediately at home.  The optional entertainment package offers wi-fi and TV channels if you want to stay connected to the outside world.  It was cosy, comfortable and a real home from home.

Having a private outdoor hot tub was the most luxurious addition to our holiday home.  It was serviced daily and had a rubber duck left on top to let us know it was safe to use.  It was wonderful to relax in the hot tub, and it was particularly fabulous at night with its underwater lighting.  Freddy absolutely adored it, thinking it was his own private outdoor bath/swimming pool.  

The forest setting is glorious.  The cabins are spaced well apart so you feel quite secluded, adding to the magic and enchantment of the break. The cabin has two parking spaces outside, which is really convenient. There are lots of walks and cycle tracks around the forest and a really great 3.8 km trim trail, which we went around several times in the week.  Some days we never saw another soul on our walks, it was so tranquil, peaceful and relaxing.

The exercise equipment around the trim trail caused some healthy competition as we tried to outdo each other.  On the squat lift apparatus, Ian felt quite superior, being able to lift the same weight as the three kids could lift together!  It was fun to challenge each other on the monkey bars, sit up bench and balance beam. All the equipment was wooden or made from green metal so it blended in nicely with the surroundings, and came with clear instructions for use.  It was a great way to enjoy some exercise and following the trail provided a well signposted walk through the forest.

The Forest Retreat is at the centre of the resort, offering a cafe, coffee shop, reception and well stocked shop.  You can book activities and in-cabin spa treatments and pre-order take away food such as pizzas (which can be delivered directly to your cabin) or baked goods to be picked up for breakfast.  The quality of the food was excellent, especially the freshly baked pain au chocolats that we all enjoyed as a morning treat. We loved the coffee shop and were able to sit outside in the sunshine with our drinks on the decked area. They have a nice menu offering light lunches and meals, and also have a bar. There is also a cycle hire shop and a children's play area. The facilities are more than adequate, providing everything we needed, with friendly, helpful staff on hand.

Getting away together to such a lovely place, with amazing accommodation and being blessed with such gorgeous weather has made us even bigger fans of holidaying in the UK.  From our location in Hampshire, we had easy access to the New Forest, the Isle of Wight and Winchester for day trips, but mostly we just really enjoyed exploring the forest and relaxing in the hot tub together.  We even took part in the #getyourskillson challenge and had some fun in the great outdoors while we were there.

One of the biggest pleasures of our holiday was simply having fun in the forest: running, jumping, balancing, playing, hiding, swinging and exploring.  We looked at the flora and fauna of the forest and breathed the fresh air on our outdoor adventures.  It's exactly the kind of holiday that I would want my children to enjoy together.  It was perfect.

Forest Holidays offers "simple luxury in stunning locations" with nine idyllic resorts to choose from. Blackwood Forest was beautiful, tranquil and the cabins are outstanding. The resort wasn't overcrowded or commercial, it's just so peaceful, unspoilt and in harmony with the nature that surrounds it. It is definitely somewhere I'd stay again, we loved it.  Somewhere to escape to and reconnect as a family.

You can find out more about Forest Holidays and book your own break at www.forestholidays.co.uk.

We received a discount to use against this holiday in return for an honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own...we genuinely adored it!