Forest Holidays Reviews 

We had a brilliant stay this weekend at Blackwood, we chose cabin 60 right at the top nestled in the forest, a huge decking with BBQ and hot tub awaited us. The retreat is small but has some lovely staff and the food was pretty good. We also hired bikes very reasonable and also did rifle shooting on Sunday. The weather was so hot but we were cool under the trees. Our dogs loved going straight out of the gate into the forest, they rarely were on the lead, this site is extremely dog friendly. Would definitely recommend.

Stacey Price at Garwnant site was so cheerful and happy in her work! A real credit to the company. She makes a pretty good coffee as well!

Bed bug infestation and absolutely no concern or care from the Forest Holiday Team. I raised this issue privately with forest holiday as soon as we got home, I was literally bitten to bits, all over the bottom half of my body. My concerns were of the next person staying in the lodge.. but no care or concern shown by Forest Holidays who have still not given me an update.

Golden Oak Keldy Forest Holiday Lodge 22 - the first twin room absolutely crawling.. I will be appointing a legal representative if I do not receive an update in 24 hours.

The staff at Forest Holidays Brecon are amazing; nothing is too much trouble and they are so friendly.
The cleaning crews can work miracles in very short timescales, the maintenance teams always made of point of saying hello and checking there was nothing we needed and the team in the main building are always welcoming.
The cabins are lovely, well equipped spacious and well thought out.
The activities are great for all the family and the location hidden within the forest is just so beautiful.
Definately recommend

We very much enjoyed our first visit to Glentress (we've been to other locations several times). The lodges are well designed, with ample storage for jackets, shoes & rucksacks by the door. And we always love having a hot tub!
The path to our lodge was very steep with loose rocks. We've suggested that it might benefit from installing steps, given the gradient. In the short term, the staff were very helpful in removing stray roots and trying to stabilise the path a bit.

Lovely location and great onsite staff, v genuine and friendly. The little shop had beautiful gifts

Absolutely mind blowing, the place it self such a heaven, the accommodation stunning, cosy and clean. We’ve had an amazing time . Our kids loved it our dog too . Strongly recommend, we are definitely going back. It is worth it every penny . Thank you so much for the stuff and everyone who took care for guests to be happy and feel welcomed x

A great family weekend spent at Thorpe Forest. Enjoyed the Gas BBQ and hot tub. Weather was kind enough for us to be able to enjoy being outside in tbis lovely setting

Fabulous holiday! Beautiful cabin in beautiful surroundings….sheer bliss. Enjoyed a meal at the Forest cafe, also had a couple of drinks there and coffee during the day. Lovely friendly staff, hope to return soon. Thank you.

* WITHOUT PREJUDICE *

INCASE I NEED TO SEE YOU IN COURT.

If i could give these voulchers no stars I would. I agreed for them to keep the £50 deposits but not the £500 over payments. I booked July, August and December this year like I do every year. Sadly I lost my partner in April and made the decision to not return this year as we spent Christmas here together in this exact cabin booked (to raw right now) they have just emailed me and cancelled August booking that I had kept with a view of changing names to someone else and told me they are keeping the £500 paid including the deposit. Serious lack of compassion. Vile customer service. They have months to re let these bookings. AVOID at all costs. They dont even clean the cabins to a high standard so if you do go definitely bring your own cleaning products as they have a funny smell. The hot tub was also full of scuzz around the water line. Definitely over priced. I have photos and videos to evidence this. Ive tried to be nice but now im going to alert ⚠️ as many as I can via social platforms. No offer to transfer my bookings they even tried to tell me I had to pay the balances on all bookings until I argued it. As I stated I completely understand the £50 deposits but not the £500 over payments on each booking. AVOID

Just got back from a stay at the Forest of Dean. A really lovely place to stay. We booked a forest lodge and were delighted with it, it felt like we had our own slice of the forest. The view from the lounge was just beautiful woodland, no other cabin in sight. The cabin itself was large enough for five adults and two dogs. The park itself is very dog friendly with lovely walks and the club house welcomes dogs inside.

The only negative was the kitchen. The fridge was hanging out of the cupboard, making shutting the door very difficult. The fridge is also very small for self catering. We had to keep drinks outside on the deck as had to prioritise storing the food. Also there is just a small ice box for the freezer, not enough room for ice cream only for an ice cube tray.

Minor issues though for such a beautiful setting. Would highly recommend and we will visit other locations based on our experience.

GLENTRESS 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
FANTASTIC.. group of mature men on a Mountain Biking week.
Weather, trails, golden with tree house SUPERB.
Retreat great service. (BBQ Gas delivery, you know who your are.. THANK YOU 🤩)

Number 11….
ONLY issue we had was me personally when the downstairs communal shower head ‘spray’ part blew off twice, first time splitting my toe nail with such force !!
Plus NO shower mats… OMG.. skating rink bath and shower trays !!

Ive got a family booking at Delamare in November… we will be taking shower mats.

Arrived at Cropton forest after travelling most of the day!!! Just wanted a shower & relax!!! NO HOT WATER!!! Even the hot tub wasn’t ready!! Reception was closed. Had to boil a kettle & have a strip wash!!!
Also WiFi was ridiculous, more off than on even though we paid extra!!
Reported to reception, after there couldn’t care less attitude, sent someone, got hot water on only for it to go off again!! And again!! And again!!!
Found a bowl under the boiler!!! Obviously a leak that they knew about!!! Why put us in a lodge when you are waiting for a part for the boiler!!!!
Dangerous or what!!!
Two days left then offered to move us!!!
Got a refund for the WiFi. No apologies & still waiting for your customer service to acknowledge our complaint. Been waiting a month now still nothing.
Will never step foot there again!!

So where do I send the booking reference number?

Okay, positives first. The Strathyre site is in an amazing spot, next to a loch, surrounded by forest and mountains and about 5 miles away from a lovely little town called Callander. Hot tub, log burner, gas powered BBQ are all excellent. The staff, or at least everyone we met, were fantastic. Certainly a 4 possibly a 5 star experience.

So why is it one star? The not so good.

1. We paid for premium TV and WiFi. For three days of a four day stay half the TV channels were unavailable (no BBC1, ITV, channel five and a whole host of others). Met a lot of staff who explained a third party provider was looking to fix but nothing they could do. Not a huge issue, as assumed management would just apologise, maybe provide a partial refund of the additional premium paid. Nope, nothing. Management apparently not interested.
2. Cabin a little shabby and in need of some TLC. Outside is a bit dirty - cobwebs, old leaves, generally needing a tidy up and a power wash. Inside is just a little tired looking. We had marks on the woodwork, a freezer not defrosted and full of ice, a patchy DIY job on the staircase, a kitchen blind that was broken and you had to physically roll up and balance on the window handle to keep it up. Not huge issues just maybe a lack of investment and upkeep which is a shame as having used Forest holidays a few times in the past it's a little sad to see the decline.
3. On our last day, my wife had a bath (in the main bedroom en-suite) before we were meant to be heading out for a nice meal in the town. Unfortunately, the bath overflow pipe wasn't connected properly so all the bath water going through the overflow was simply pooling on the floor and then going through the ceiling and light fittings in the bathroom below, flooding the room. Couple of lovely maintenance guys came out, confirmed the problem and asked that we not use the bathroom downstairs (what with water running through the light switches) or the upstairs bath and shower because of the hole where the overflow pipe should be. Not ideal an hour before we were meant to be getting ready and going out🤦. The maintenance man did say he spoke to management and said we could use another cabin nearby for showers etc if needed. Possibly all they really could do in the circumstances but just not a great way to end our 4 day "relaxing" break. Again, no direct contact from management, no apology, no offer of a partial refund for the inconvenience. Nothing at all.

When we checked out I mentioned the problems and the receptionist, who was very nice, said she'd make management aware (I'm pretty sure they already knew) and they would get in touch. Guess what, they haven't 🤣. I'm genuinely wondering what "management" do there if they apparently don't deal with customer issues. It's certainly a novel approach to customer service (simply ignoring the customer) but perhaps it needs a little rethink as I don't think repeat business is going to something they have to worry about based on my experience and some of the other reviews. The reality is that these things sometimes happen and if management had engaged properly (or even just engaged at all) we could have had a sensible chat, agreed on a sensible partial refund and everything would have been fine and a 2 star review would have been a 4 star review.
And just to reiterate, it's a huge shame as the location, amenities and the staff were all wonderful.

I would give zero stars if I could.
Stayed in Garwnant Forest Holidays for a long weekend. The maintenance and cleanliness of the cabin was very poor. We had food still left in the fridge, with a broken door and mould growing around the inside,dirty floors, walls and furniture. The kitchen cupboards were so dirty that we had to clean before use. We had sockets coming out of the walls and one bathroom we could not use as water wouldn’t drain when we showered. We have never stayed anywhere so dirty and poorly maintained. We reported so much it was embarrassing but judging by the reviews and the timescale of replies from customer service they are obviously inundated with complaints. I’ve been offered a 15% refund! We didn’t even stay the whole weekend as it was so uncomfortable. Stay well clear of Forest Holidays. We ve since had a £200 refund which doesn’t even cover half the cost of the weekend away and an apology reply! Honestly was the worst weekend away I have ever experienced. It’s an absolute shambles. If people had any sense they would never stay at Forest Holidays. I’m going to contact the CEO as it needs shutting down totally!

Meant to book Centre Parcs, accidentally booked this. £250 mistake.
I booked with a £25 deposit and when I realised my dumb error, naturally I wanted to cancel. The booking was for 5 months in the future, so I was quite surprise that I was then made to pay £242 to cancel... a scam and a rip off. As if they wouldnt be able to get a new booking in 5 months. Disgraceful. Hope their cabins burn down lol

Shocking experience with Collette who answered the phone. Me and my husband booked a lodge holiday 2 days ago and yesterday we found exact same holiday with exact same offers much cheaper on different website. I called Forest Holiday and asked Collette who answered the phone what is the benefit booking though Forest holiday and what are you offering more compare to other company as you are charging more but she wasn't able to answer the question.

All she said was i can not speak to you due to data protection and we will charge for cancellation. Call handler agent who doesn't know benefit of products that she is selling and not even try to understand and empathise customer's frustration.

Very disappointed with this company as price of the lodge is overpriced and customer service on the phone was terrible! Not recommended and do your search before booking with them. Surprised to see how many bad reviews on trustpilot. I don't write reviews as i have no time for this but the way how i treated on the phone by Collette was shocking!!

Went to Blackwood Forest 7th to 11th April cost of £1389.
Door did not lock and resort was closed by the time we discovered this. Place was very dirty I spent 3 hours cleaning it. My bed was full of someone else's hair and there was a stench of sewage. Made a complaint in the morning of the 8th Door was fixed they did offer to clean the lodge but i had already cleaned it. the were very dismissive of the swage smell woman just shrugged her shoulders. That evening once all lodges were occupied again the smell was so bad it was making us feel sick. I checked on my youngest and he was covered in red ants biting him so we packed up and went home. complained to the head office and they addressed each concern I had but dismissed them all and gave me no compensation or even a good will gesture. No one leaves an expensive holiday after 1 night if everything is acceptable. in the resort lodge we also witnessed them serve food to the wrong customer then 5 minutes later collect the food from that table and return it to the rightful owner. when the customer asked for a fresh meal he huffed and 3 minutes later returned with the same plate of cold food.
Shame really as our last experience at sherwood forest was amazing.

We have stayed at a few different sites and some were fantastic deer park, blackwood forest and delamere staff were brilliant cabins clean and any issue delt with quickly.
Sadly the same can not be said for forest of dean and garwnant, cabins are basically illegal having many safety issues decking falling apart and smoke detectors missing and when you Contact customer relations they just say sorry we will do better but when your spending decent money you expect a safe and relaxing stay I would advise to spend that little bit more and get what you deserve.

We were really looking forward to this break in Thorpe forest. We were not impressed by what we found on arrival. The bathroom was not cleaned but fortunately I had cleaning supplies in my car. There were brown marks under the toilet seat,the sinks were not clean and lime scale everywhere that could have been removed with proper cleaning. The decking had not been swept and there were copwebs everywhere, even in the bedroom. Every time we put the outside lights on the whole lodge tripped out. We didn’t sleep as you can’t turn the heating off so felt like sleeping in a sauna even with the thermostats turned off. We paid so much money for a wasted weekend. We came home early just to get a good nights sleep. We stayed in lodge 19 from 25th April. The only good thing about our experience was the staff they were so friendly and helpful.