Black Knowl Club Campsite

Rated 5 of 5

Overall rating

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Immaculate.

Just back from four nights at Black Knowl, our first stay at this site. The wardens are to be congratulated on an immaculate site which could not be faulted. Thanks too for arranging wonderful weather and some very nice fellow caravanners!

rickandkate

Caravanner

Reviewed on 05/07/2019 15:12

3 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 1 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Disappointing End to a Six Week trip of Southern England

We booked this site for our final ten nights of our May/June trip in order to relax and enjoy walking in the New Forest after lots of sightseeing in Kent, East and West Sussex. The weather was fabulous, the location was superb and we enjoyed having some lovely people around us to chat to. The site itself is very well managed by lovely wardens and the facilities are excellent. However, how people can say they had a Quiet or Chilled stay I don’t know.! The site is huge, it’s not the largest we have been on so that isn’t the issue but the layout is absolutely awful. All you can see in every direction is almost all the 130 units, white roofs everywhere. Looks like a housing estate! It is exceptionally busy and constantly full, so the pitch choice is very limited. Although having said that the Motorhomes often move on day two to a better spot, but it’s not so easy for a caravan to pack up and do! And that is, IF there is a better empty pitch to grab! Everyday the turnover is huge so it is noisy and bustling every morning and at noon the new arrivals flood on so not very peaceful or tranquil then either. Re the layout people constantly walk across pitches to reach the service points. The wardens do try to stop this but it’s impossible. Finally, whilst the proximity to the New Forest is superb, it also creates another issue, it appeared that most people who stayed took two or three dogs with them. Fine, I understand why, but with so many on site walking around it sounded as though we were living next to a commercial Dog Kennel. One dog would set another off to bark or yap then another would start. Overall we enjoyed the area and the fabulous weather helped, but the site is certainly not a place to relax, there is no privacy and with so many noisy dogs barking it was not what we had planned or imagined to conclude a fabulous trip. Sorry this one is not for us despite the Prime Location.

SusanR

Caravanner

Reviewed on 04/07/2019 11:42

2 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Sunny Break

Stayed at this many times, we absolutely love it. For us it has everything we require. The site is very busy and is kept absolutely immaculate. The staff are really keen to make your holiday memorable. We will be going again. THANKS

jandspea

Reviewed on 02/07/2019 15:41

12 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 4 of 5

Good for families

The place to chill out!

We stayed with friends for a week in mid June and despite a couple of days of rainy weather had a really peaceful and relaxing time. As others have noted the site is located right in the heathland with woods, copses and streams all around. You don't need to travel anywhere to enjoy the ponies, cattle, horses and deer (in the late evening if you are lucky) that roam the environment right outside the gates of the site. There are numerous tracks and walks available from the site. It is a very dog friendly site with a dog wash readily accessible to clean your muddy pets (and bikes too!). It is centrally located to visit anywhere in the New Forest quickly and easily with a good access road (with the occasional speed hump).. If it is your first time at the site then please do follow the access instructions on the Black Knowl web page as many local roads in Brockenhurst aren't ideally suited for caravans and motorhomes - beware! The facilities are second to none in terms of cleanliness and the information point is crammed full of pamphlets regarding places to visit, eat and see. The wardens are extremely friendly and helpful too! There is a Fish and Chip van that visits each Wednesday between 6pm and 7.30pm which must be good considering the number of people queuing up for their suppers! All in all an excellent site that we would highly recommend and certainly be visiting again - next June hopefully!

SteveMew

Caravanner

Reviewed on 24/06/2019 10:27

10 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

A haven of tranquility

We have just returned from a 11night break at this beautiful site. The site itself and the hardworking staff make for a wonderful break. You can choose busy, quiet and anything in between the surrounding area offers it all. There are cycle tracks galore, lots of walking routes all from the site if wanted. A lovely village to walk or cycle to for the odd refreshment We have already pencilled in for next year. Thank you wardens.

Bosley

Caravanner from Staffordshire

Reviewed on 19/06/2019 06:46

2 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 4 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 4 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Beautiful site in stunning location

Beautiful, refurbished site in a lovely part of the New Forest. Wardens are very hard working and friendly. Cycle paths close by (beware some are heavily gravelled, so not suitable for 'road' bikes), with lots of walking opportunities. Brockenhurst is a 2 mile walk away and you can cycle in to the village along a heavily gravelled private road. Beware (and be careful) if you have to cycle on the roads, as on the whole the cars are too big and too fast for the narrow forest roads (despite the speed limits and warning signs about the ponies and foals), and cannot (or do not want to) easily leave the required gap when overtaking cycles. Lots of wildlife, both on and off the site, with a walk to the toilet block after dark being a special delight. We only had a couple gripes when we were there (hence the slight mark down). The first is the closure of the ladies sanitary block at 10.15am, which meant we could not reasonably achieve the local parkrun (one for the reasons we chose this site) , as sitting around waiting for a shower after running and then cycling back from Brockenhust, in wet running gear, did not appeal. It also limited any holiday lie ins due to queues in the ladies to beat the closure deadline. If the club needs to clean in the mornings, why on earth, did they not take the opportunity to design the block differently, to allow rolling closures as they do on more modern, commercial sites? There was also a constant stream of folk walking across and between pitches to reach the water and rubbish facilities, due to the layout of the site. That said, we managed to walk around the road and not walk between pitches, so not sure why others did not. Finally, there were so many dogs per unit on site - most of the units round us had at least 2, but more often 3 or 4 dogs.Some of whom constantly barked , yapped, or whined, and not all were kept on a lead round the pitches. Add to that the corresponding owners constantly shouting at said dogs,telling them to shut up, it rather spoil the peaceful aspect of this site.

Kenv

Campervanner

Reviewed on 18/06/2019 11:43

3 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 4 of 5

Good for families

Quiet and peaceful stay

A beautiful location. Staff helpful. Toilets and showers are spotless. Very dog friendly which is important for us. We will certainly be returning.

judecor

Reviewed on 11/06/2019 10:38

1 review

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Wonderful site

We stayed here for half term and were joined by our daughter and 8 year old grandson. He loved it. Couldn’t get over the “wild” animals roaming around Brockenhurst. We visited Hurst Castle. A lovely day out and a short ferry trip. Also we had a day trip to the Isle of Wight. Would recommend the Rainbow Fish Bar in Brockenhurst. Great fish and chips. If you need a large supermarket there is one at Hythe which takes you through Beaulieu. Will definitely be visiting again. Staff were friendly and helpful. Facilities clean despite the number of people on site. Highly recommended.

ClubMemberD13677D81B

Caravanner

Reviewed on 04/06/2019 09:46

16 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 4 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Excellent with just one gripe!

We really love the Black Knowl site and have stayed here on a number of occasions. The location of the site is amazing, right in the middle of the forest so you get complete peace and quiet. We love the fact that you can step out the gate of the site and walk off in a number of different directions through the forest. Cycling in the area is also great with many waymarked cycle paths through the forest. The wardens on the site are really friendly and helpful and although the site was busy when we were there the wardens coped admirably and everyone was checked in quickly and easily despite a large number of people arriving at the same time. We were on a serviced pitch which was brilliant. Nice and big, flat and with a water tap and waste drain on the pitch. Each pitch also has a reasonably sized grassy area beside the pitch where you can sit out if the weather is nice. The quality of the facilities are second to none. The toilet block is only a couple of years old and has excellent showers and toilets and washbasins in cubicles which are all kept spotlessly clean. There is also an excellent laundry room on the site which was handy as we were away for 10 days and ran out of clean jeans! I only have one gripe about the site and this might be something that the wardens could consider for the future. Each morning the ladies toilet block closes for cleaning at 10:15am which in my mind is far far far too early. The men’s block doesn’t close until 11am. I know I’m generalising here but in my experience ladies take quite a bit longer than men in the shower and it might be an idea to swap the cleaning times over so that the men’s closes earlier and the ladies later. On several of the mornings that we were there there was a large queue of ladies waiting to use the shower around 9:30am. On a couple of occasions I didn’t get into the shower because of the queue until 10am which meant that my shower was very rushed and on one occasion I still hadn’t got into the shower by 10:05am and I knew I would never make it before closing time so I ended up having to shower in the caravan. My husband said that there were never any queues in the gents showers as men seem to be in and out a lot quicker than ladies. Perhaps a trial of closing the showers the other way round would be worth trying. Apart from that we think this is our favourite site on the network.

HeatherMac

Caravanner from Merseyside

Reviewed on 04/06/2019 08:58

1 review

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Family BH Break - As Wanted

We had booked a serviced pitch when bookings were first available for a long BH weekend to enjoy family time. The drain on the newly built serviced pitches are just simple enough to work well. Using the solid pipe method, as here http://caravanchronicles.com/2013/05/26/connecting-your-drainage-on-serviced-pitches/ the hinged cover on the drain holds the pipe in place. Arriving early on friday it was amusing to find 2 other dads had towed down to pitch up then go collect the family after school/work. Air awning erection single handed makes things easier. Family on site and our much awaited break began with a campsite curry as is traditional. Saturday we explored the myriad of cycle paths just outside the site entrance turning right at Ober Corner and following signs with no idea of where our bikes would take us. Tree covered trails lead onto open expanses with the odd beaver dam built in streams and finding a circular route back to site with the evening arrival of horses, ponies and cattle to walk amongst. A Cadac meal cooked and eaten in the open with the setting sun framing the memories created. Sunday we took the car to Milford on Sea for fish & chips in the refurbished Needle Eye Cafe, a tradition sea front cafe that serves superb food at very reasonable prices. The weather was blustery and the Needles in sea mist and low cloud, despite the site in blazing sunshine. Monday we collected elderly parent and used her wheelchair for the first time to go and see the horses and ponies, returning for another Cadac cooked meal that went down well. Evening saw the air awning packed with ease and ready for a leisurely departure this morning. The wardens kept the site pristine, even sweeping gravel off the roads. Grass trimmed. Refuse taken away. Toilet block immaculate. The number of bicycles and demography shows just what this site is for, getting out without a vehicle. We are booked for next year.

KeefySher

Caravanner

Reviewed on 28/05/2019 16:40

24 reviews

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