Ideally located, good for families and touring the New Forest
Have visited this site several times before, ideal location for touring the New Forest. Good choice of trails outside the site for walking, running and cycling on and off-road. The site was very busy as expected during our stay, especially families during the school holidays. We had a choice of only one serviced pitch when we arrived, near the main entrance. Nearly all staff were cheerful and helpful on arrival. Unfortunately one lady was a little grumpy, not exactly what you want customer facing, telling people off, no more than two in the shop at any one time or going to the shop 2 minutes early!
Our overall impression of the site was that it has become much bigger, seemed less space between some pitches, though there must be regulatory distances. Think the units and vehicles may be larger and what people take with them. The toilets and showers are cleaned once a day under contract, it did seemed most people didn't clean the floors after use, there was toilet paper on the floors (mens and ladies), possibly left by young children as some toilets weren't flushed after use.
It's great to see busy sites and families enjoying time away after the covid restrictions. The site was quite noisy at times, it seems safe for families and children. One of the biggest issues we found was children on bikes, many not supervised using the road systems in all directions, also riding around the main entrance areas which are busy with incoming and outgoing traffic. Certain areas including the Centenary Garden and around toilet/shower blocks should be free from bikes, unfortunately this was generally being ignored by many young and older children. Everyone needs to be safe on site and although parents are responsible for their children's welfare, more could be done to manage this on site as some children thought was no problem riding around the pavements by the reception/shop so you needed to be very aware at all times. This continued into the dark hours, most without lights.
Overall we had a fairly pleasant stay but our impression was not as good as our previous stays. Maybe that was just our experience. Most places in the area are very accessible by care or bikes, lots of walking/running whatever your preference. It's certainly more pricy, perhaps to be expected. There are lots of other sites much better and less expensive in the network which we have toured. Choice is always good and much depends on what you want from your time away.
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