Forest Holidays Reviews 

We had high expectations as this was considerably more money than comparable accommodations, this review is based on dog owners.

The doorstep walks did no disappoint and we had a woodland cabin and the position was great cabins around you but you still had privacy.

Unfortunately as dog owners the facilities was not good enough, whilst we had under floor heating, there was no radiators or washing machine, so after 2 long walks and 2 dirty dogs, we had no clean or dry towels and found us placing dirty towels on the spare room floor not ideal.

Facilities for us also lacking considering the cost, simple things like pint glasses, ice cube tray, bowls for snacks all not available

The cabin layout itself was great, plenty of room BUT needs some TLC, door handles hanging off, shower hose needs replacing, lights not working (all things they did not stop using the cabin but once again price suggest a higher standard )

You have to leave the the cabin as you found it, there is no mop and bucket to clean the boot room area

There was construction / maintenance work on a cabin 150 yards away, we understand maintenance needs to be done, but maybe warn us, this was annoying

The shop wasn’t very well stocked and we planned to have one meal delivered they was out of stock of burgers prices are high and you have to pay delivery on top

We have a log burner at home and paid the extra for the warm pack (extra logs , kindle and lighter) there was not enough lighters for the amount of wood, when we questioned it they just offered to sell us some more ? We ran out of lighters on the 3rd morning

In conclusion from a dog owners view environment was great, but to charge the price we paid just shy of £200 per night was not value for money, you can go many other well known sites and get much better value, we did email with our concerns and feed back but had no response

We booked a midweek stay in Glentress forest.
First things first. The booking/check in/organisation was faultless. As was the lodge itself...absolutely stunning, with everything you would need. It was warm and comfortable, and the hot tub was amazing under the stars. I can't fault the lodge itself.

However I would say there are a couple of urgent improvements needed. The Glentress site is still very much a work in progress. The main hub is a bit of a mess, with building equipment laid around and three huge generators humming away. I guess this is a temporary setup...but given the huge scale of the whole project, I don't think it would have been a lot more work to make a shed/screens to hide the generators and building gear. There is another bigger issue...access. The lodges are 2 miles into the forest along a gravel road. Now I've been going to Glentress for 20+ years, but have never experienced the road like this. The increased traffic has pulverised the gravel to a fine paste. It adheres to everything...then sets like cement when it dries. Boots, clothes, cars. I'd strongly advise anyone not to let this stuff dry hard.
Of course nobody should expect to go to a forest and stay pristine, especially in winter. However there are not a lot of options to avoid the sludge-fest of the access road. Once you are actually onto the forest walking trails, it's fine underfoot; Glentress trails are known for draining really well. I just think a bit of thought needs to be put into making the same kinds of forest paths around the lodges. It would allow guests to access the cafe, and the trail network without going on the road. It would keep kids/guests away from site traffic too.

Abysmal after sales customer service , like many other complaints i have read on here about Forest Holidays, they do not respond to you if you have a post stay complaint and just basically ignore you.
We will be pursuing our claim further if needed in a county court and anyone who has not had a reply or an acceptable outcome to their complaints then i would suggest doing the same.
We have been waiting for over 2 months to get a suitable response and all you get in return is an automated email saying it will take up to 21 days for a reply!
We stayed in a large 3 bedroom cabin in Sherwood forest and paid over £1000 for a mid week stay, the cabin was grotty, tired and dirty. The TV didn't work and we had to call someone out to it who basically took the wall apart in order to access the plug socket which was shared with the microwave, his solution was to run an extension cable into the lounge to access another socket in order to get the TV working but it meant we had no microwave for the duration of our stay and having an unsightly electrical cable dangling out of the wall in our lounge.
The kitchen units were falling apart and the kitchen plinths on the floor were not fixed and kept falling on our feet
The hot tub lid was broken and didn't fit properly and the side panel was hanging off - complete lack of maintenance
the bathrooms were filthy cobwebs everywhere and dirt on the floors
We took photographs of everything and sent to them
One of the main reasons we booked a forest holidays cabin was because they sell these as a quiet and peaceful getaway retreat and we went there for exactly that but as it was bonfire night and we had our dog with us ( one of the main reasons we went was because he frets over loud bangs) the amount of noise we could hear for 2 consecutive nights from fireworks was horrendous and we may just as well as been staying in a city or town centre as the noise was unbelievable to say we were supposed to be staying in a quiet forest where we were not expecting to hear any fireworks at all and the noise went on up until midnight
had we had known about the noise which they should have informed us about before we booked and the poor standard of the cabins and the shocking standard of cleaning of them we certainly would not have booked
we have stayed in many of the other sites that they offer and have always been satisfied but Sherwood Forest was a complete shambles and it has put us off booking with them again owning to the poor after sales service they give.
think twice before staying there

Booking ref 6913834
I am in part giving my most recent stay one star due to the fact that I have now made a complaint twice to the Forest Holidays post stay complaint email address and still not received a reply. Can only assume they haven’t replied because they are inundated with other complaints.
I have been a regular and loyal customer at Forest Holidays Blackwood Forest resort for over 12 years now and never once had need to complain. We have always been impressed with the levels of cleanliness, state of the facilities and customer service. Last year however, we decided to spend New Year at the Sherwood resort and were sorely disappointed from the moment we got there. Incidentally, the staff were lovely and a credit to the company. They reacted swiftly to our issues, replacing sheets, the bin, sending Maintenance etc but there is only so much you can do with accommodation and amenities that are run down, grubby and in some cases completely broken.
Arrived on Monday 30th Dec 2024 to find no heating or hot water in the cabin. Two beds with stained sheets (red and brown stains), dirty cutlery, broken kitchen bin, stained downstairs toilet, food crumbs from previous guests in all the grooves of the kitchen table, dirty tray in oven, no chopping board or oven glove, big hair ball with dirt in it hanging off downstairs bedroom door, dead spider and cobwebs in upstairs bathroom, broken blinds in upstairs bedroom and three parts of the hot tub floating in the water that couldn’t be fixed as the parts are no longer made. The WiFi we paid extra for was also intermittent at best.
Maintenance came to look at the heating and tried to fix the issue. Gave us logs and a little heater which we put in the children’s room. However, the following morning the cabin was still freezing cold with no hot water. Called Maintenance back who found out that the pressure in the boiler had gone. They fixed it but it would be hours before the cabin would warm up. When it did finally warm up the cabin then became too hot, despite having set the thermostats to 20 and subsequently 18 degrees. The floor in the downstairs bathroom was so hot you couldn’t walk barefoot on it. Weirdly the floor in the adjacent bathroom had no heat at all. You couldn’t sit in the cabin the heat was so stifling so we then had to open all doors and windows to try and cool it down. No sooner had we managed to get the temperature to a tolerable level which took us until Wednesday, the heating dropped. At first this was fine as we had been so uncomfortably hot for so long we were glad for the drop in temperature, but then the pressure went again and we woke up freezing on Thursday. Once again we had to call Maintenance to come back and fix the boiler. I would say pretty much our entire stay was dictated by trying to make the temperature of our accommodation tolerable. Add to that all of the above issues with regards appliances and cleanliness, it amounted to an incredibly disappointing stay. The holiday cost us £2432 for four nights. We were offered £450 compensation plus early check in and late check out for the next time we book. However, when you consider that we didn’t have one single comfortable day or night in the accommodation, this to me feels like little recompense. The entire experience has made us feel undervalued as customers. Sadly we won’t be returning.
Booking ref 6913834

Small but very cozy park that holds a fantastic view. Our kids had a great time there. The staff was super friendly and went out of their way to help us. Definitely recommend it.

Updated 12/02/2025 - I emailed their customer service as suggested and still no response over 4 weeks later.

Having stayed at Forest of Dean Forest holidays several times I recommended it to my group of friends when we were looking for a relaxing hot tub weekend away together. There were reasons that this weekend was so special to us and we were looking forward to making lovely memories. We checked in on Friday at 4pm and were told the hot tub would be at the correct temperature by 7:30. At 7:30 the hot tub was only at 25 degrees. I contacted the helpline and was told someone would come and check. When they came they said it’d be another 3 hours until it was at temperature, and if we were unable to use the hot tub that night we would get a refund for the Friday night. We were also offered the entertainment package as we were unable to use the hot tub. We waited a while for the package to be activated but this didn’t happen, so we had to call again to chase this up. We stayed awake in the hope of being able to use it that night but when we checked again at 10:30, then 11:30 it was still only 31 degrees.
Luckily the next morning it was at the correct temperature.
We went for lunch at the forest retreat and went to reception to see how we would go about arranging the refund for the night before. I was told the supervisor was on break and she would come to the lodge when she was back, this didn’t happen.
I again went to reception on the Sunday and was told I’d need to speak to the deputy operations manager, they were contacted and met me there. We were offered early and late check out next time we stayed and the entertainment package. We were hoping to book again for a few weeks time as our Friday had been ruined, and as we were told we’d get a refund for that night we thought we could put any refund/vouchers towards that break and be able to fully enjoy 3 nights. We were hoping to book this there and then however we were then told we’d need to speak to the operations manager when they were in Monday to confirm the refund.
I called on Monday and spoke to Sarah, she said that a £50 refund had been issued. We paid £900 for the weekend and had been told we’d get a refund for the Friday night.
We are really disappointed with how this has been handled and the way we were let down over the course of the weekend. The main point of booking here was the hot tub and their site advertises ‘Plan your perfect hot tub holiday or short break
After a day full of adventures, it’s time to sink into your hot tub surrounded by the forest.’ Yet we couldn’t use ours for a third of our weekend and apparently a £50 refund makes up for that. It’s bad enough that it’s not ready to use from 4pm check in but to have to wait until the next day really isn’t good enough.

We recently stayed at Sherwood Forest Holidays in a Golden Oak Cabin, and it was absolutely amazing! The cabin was clean, cozy and a nice relaxing hot tub.
The Visitor Center and reception area had great dining spaces and activities for the kids, which kept them entertained at Visitors Center.A heads-up for future visitors: the cabin comes with a coffee machine, but you’ll need to bring your own capsules or purchase them at reception. Don’t forget essentials like salt and cooking oil if you plan to cook.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and we’re already planning our next visit.

Have stayed at several Forest Lodges and they never disappoint - Particularly like The Forest of Dean because go the easy access to walk to Symonds Yat.
The lodges are spacious very comfortable and well equipped. The Retreat has a well stocked shop and provides excellent tasty food. The staff are cheerful friendly and helpful. I can't think of a negative.

While the concept of the Forest retreat is amazing, the execution is terrible. This was our 5th stay with Forest Holidays and our last. Our first stay is why we kept giving them another chance. We have stayed at Blackwood, Ardgarten Argyll, Cropton, Forest of Dean and the "crowning achievement" Glentress Forest. While the location was spectacular. I am sure you know the saying a 3 dressed up as a 9, this is a solid 1. Let me give you a rundown:
- We arrived at 4PM for our Golden Oak Hideaway and sat outside the cabin while they cleaned till 5PM. I thought that this is OK if the 3 cleaners inside are ensuring it is clean... not the case!
- The bathroom looked lovely BUT. 1) The tub was not clean my wife went to have a relaxing bath and was met with a soapy scum ring. 2) One of the 2 sinks was broken with a huge crack in it, remember this cabin is brand new! 3) One roll of toilet paper for a 1 week stay. 4) My shirt fell to the floor and was knocked under the island the sinks were on and came out covered with dirt and hair.
- The fit and finish of the cabin is terrible, paint splashed on the the windows, flooring that is buckling, flooring that does not meet the wall or missing. Plaster clearly not completed. The wood frame around the windows not coated, stained and left which meant as I brush the dust off them I got a sliver.
- No Wood starter kit was left as advertised
- The ordered meal for 6PM arrived at 6:30PM the first day. The pizza the second day was an embarrassment. The price was outrageous. I am not opposed to paying for adequate food.
- The hot tub was great even though they did not service it for 3 days then after they did we could no longer use it as the chlorine smell gave you a headache.
- None of the furniture was cleaned under DISGUSTING. Whatever you do never reach your hand down between the cushions on the couch.

We could go on but really £1700 for that??? You decide.

Beautiful cabins. Spotlessly clean. Great location of cabin - felt private. Great hot tub cleaned everyday. Very friendly staff in hub. We had a problem with no hot water and was resolved within a few hours. Lovely surrounding and walks. Great playground. Had good fun at the quiz night.

Whilst we love going on Thorpe Forest, this being our 4th visit. We were a bit disappointed. The staff were great, and happy to help anytime. However, the Golden Oak cabin we stayed in, which we have previously stayed in before, was looking tired and grubby.
The cost of staying at Forest Holiday sites is not cheap! and having holidayed at several different sites around the country, including their new site in the Brecon Beacons. I really do think Forest Holidays should spend a little of the money they earn on refurbishing some of the older sites.

Black wood Forest, Golden Oak Cabin. Ok, so the only good point was that the hot tub was great and hot. But very strong smell of chlorine.
I booked this holiday to take my elderly mother and my children away for some quality family time. Unfortunately my mum got very sick and was admitted to hospital on the Saturday, before our 5 day break starting on the Mon. My mum was very sick, the consultants told us that she wasn't going to survive the hospital visit and started her on palliative care. The hospital was 1 hour away from our lodge so we decided to go on the Monday and visit my mum in the hospital during the daytime with the children. On arrival late Monday afternoon around 7.30 ish we arrived. We told the staff on reception our situation and the response was that it's to late to order food. If we want food we would have to buy what they had in the freezer section and cook it. So we did, totally overpriced and not worth it.

The next day we needed to sort out the WiFi so we could keep in touch with family and hear of news of my mother. My husband went to the reception and asked for help. The response was that they only knew how to set it up on Iphones. They don't know about Android.

Sadly my mum passed away on the Tuesday night. We were all devastated and decided to use the lodge as a place to rest and come to terms with what has just happened before setting off again.

In those days I had one hot shower as there was no hot water. And before you reply forest holidays yes we turned down your "luxury" floor heating but still no hot water. The cutlery and plates were dirty with old food stuck to them so had to wash everything before using. The lodge was average not anything luxurious. The full TV package we bought was basic, log fire basic. That's it!

Awful customer service, no compassion whatsoever. Worst week ever 😢💔

Well what an experience during Storm Darragh. We had a full black out yet your team (especially Rob) were exceptional. They were so positive and did absolutely everything they could to keep everyone safe and with a great sense of humour! Thank you for being so incredible we will be back (but hopefully without the storm!) thank you for everything! A special thank you to Rob, and the elves Reagan and Dai! And a lovely lady that we didn’t get her name that was with Rob. Lastly the 2 ladies on reception on Friday were just fabulous too! Thank you all. Stay safe and see you soon!

This year was my 40th birthday so to celebrate booked a cabin at their Brecon Beacons/Garwnant site.

Before we even arrived however there was a disconnect between the site management and the information provided by email or on their website.

Day 1: Friday - Check in is from 4pm onwards which is fine, email and website states we can arrive by 8pm, so the decision was made by ourselves to drive down after work.

Received a call at 7:00pm asking if we were on our way as they close at 7:30pm. First disconnect between Brecon site and emails/website.

Managed to pick up the keys at 7:20pm so got there just in time. The ladies on the desk gave a quick rundown and that was that.

Drove to our cabin, as it’s just under a mile away from the visitors centre and settled in for the night. The cabin itself I couldn’t fault, spotlessly clean, very spacious and was in a nice looking location.

Day 2: Saturday - Decided to order breakfast with delivery to the cabin which is advertised on the website, on the TV and on a sign on the dining table.
There was a variety of breakfast delivery options with breakfast delivery from 07:30am onwards. Made our selection and scheduled breakfast delivery for 9:15am.
Received a knock on our cabin door at 09:00am to be advised that the kitchen does not open until 10:30am and they could deliver until 11:00am. Not what was advertised on their website or their booking system.
Second disconnect between Brecon site and emails/website.

This left us with very limited options on activities in the area due to the massive delay in breakfast delivery.

Went down to the visitor centre to book some activities to be told there were very few activities being conducted. (Archery and the Quiz at 5pm on Saturday were the only activities available). The numerous activities available to book on the website were unavailable. We booked in for the pub quiz.
Third disconnect between Brecon site and emails/website.

We eventually managed to find an activity to do but this was with a different company not associated with Forest Holidays.

The pub quiz was held in the Forest Retreat Cafe which was next to the visitor centre. We attended the quiz where the quiz master (an employee) proceeded to drink 3-4 pints whilst still being “on the clock”.

AT 6:35pm, as the quiz was nearing its conclusion we decided to book a dinner takeaway to our cabin, again the booking system giving us a multitude of time slots, we booked a takeaway delivery for 7:15pm. Within minutes we were approached by one of the sites employees advising that the kitchen was closed (at 6:40pm) and that we would receive a refund.
Fourth disconnect between Brecon site and emails/website.

The manager (who was also the inebriated quiz master) was fumbling around on the system trying to work out how to refund the under which he advised he had managed to do.

It is now 3 weeks later and I am still yet to receive the refund on my food order to the total of £77.25, despite me emailing on the 22/11/2024 requesting it again. Unsurprisingly I have received no response to that email.

Thought not to worry, the onsite shop which is also the visitors centre is open until 07:30pm, we can get some of the frozen meals from there which they had advertised to me the day before. Nope.. they closed the visitors centre for the quiz..

During our limited stay, twice we were let down by their advertised takeaway service, the inconsistency between information from their site, emails and the information provided by the site employees.

Our stay in a basic cabin cost over £600. With the lack of available resources and activities I would encourage anyone that is contemplating a stay with Forest Holidays to save your money and go somewhere else!

Forest holidays; I booked our stay with you based on the activities/services as advertised, I have not sought compensation for false advertising or failure to deliver on the advertised services. I just want the refund of £77.25 for the Saturday evening meal which we did not receive. Please initiate the refund.

Edited on 21/12/2024:
Further disappointment from Forest Holidays - I can see you have acknowledged other disgruntled customers before and after my review but have still yet to even acknowledge my email or review (yet you continue to send me your marketing emails!)

Edit to reply to Forest Holidays Response (22/01/2025): You mean booking reference 6497632 which had already been supplied to you by email on 22/11/2025 & 08/01/2025 - which neither you have responded to… Please just refund my money.

Issues started as we broke down on route therefore we were going to be arriving late. I contacted Glentress and they informed us that they would leave our key in the cabin and just to go to reception in the morning to register that we had arrived.
The cabin was immaculate and the hot tube was amazing. We had food delivered for 2 days and this was a lovely treat and very tasty.
But the negatives as there was construction going on not much in the way of wildlife. The site is still under construction and the roads are full of either plaster cement which is wet and was getting everywhere. I have stayed in other cabins in forest locations and I do expect mud but this was awful. I planned on going for walks in the forest to take pictures but the first time I tried my boots were thick of cement stuff. On the Tuesday evening while chilling and watching TV having the premium package there were a couple of occasions when it would freeze or go off so had to search the film again. Left it till the next day to try again and the same was happening. I did report this late on Wednesday for it to be looked at on Thursday 10.30. We also went out for the day on Wednesday but we found the drive up the hill a second time back to the site was very steep and not enjoyable. We therefore made a decision not to go out on Thursday even though there were places I wanted to visit while in Scotland. So missed out on this as this was also my Birthday treat.
Woke up Thursday morning and made the decision to just go home a day early as I am not able to go out due to the state of the area to walk taking photos. I hope in time once the building work stops it starts to feel more relaxed.
When I got home I had to take my car straight to the car wash as it was caked with cement all in the wheel arches and felt it needed to be washed straight out. Again I have been to plenty of forests and expect mud but this was thick and bad. I think if it mentioned about the steep road up I may not have booked also if I was aware there was still construction going on I definitely would not have stayed. I am not expecting anything just to review so people are aware of the situation.

We were so looking forward to our stay at the Cornwall site. My daughter has been so excited to stay in a tree house! Except it wasn't a tree house at all, just a lodge which was actually fairly run down. The images on the website are misleading. I emailed the company twice with my concerns and had absolutely no reply or response. Terrible customer service and a really disappointing, over-priced stay. Definitely not luxury.

just stayed at the new site at Glentress in Scotland- wonderful break, Harry and Mark were excellent in booking us in and sorting a hot tub issue, went well over and above top customer service!

Lodge was spotless - only very minor gripe was no Wednesday quiz and food offer was a bit hit and miss but it's the 2nd week of opening and this will improve . Would I recommend - well we are booked again for January and November in 2025 so most definite!

Forest of Dean stay. Lodge was filthy, looked tired and lots of broken parts. We went on a girls weekend to relax in a hot tub but ended up being a warm bath due to no jets and lights! took 24 hours for someone to attend and we left 24 hours earlier than planned due to the issues. Emailed complaint over and never had a reply. Waste of money

Deer Park is a beautiful and tranquil setting and we have been for several years. Staff are friendly, chatty and always very helpful. The lodges are perfect for our needs and we always have a fabulous and very relaxing break there

Great location for scenic walks. Accommodation was perfect and very well presented.