Forest Holidays Delamere Forest

Easy to find but main road is riddled with pot holes at thd mo so be careful. The gravel track to the actual holiday village is pretty poor too, could do with tarmaccing. The lodge was stunning, spacious and bright. Lovely and warm underfloor heating. Really well equipped (apart from dust pan and brush!). Bbq was good, fairly powerful showers. We were in no.36 which was very secluded out back. Glad we paid extra for it. One massive negative was it was cashless at the Retreat, not good for kids and pocket money seeing as they have lots of lovely gifts in the shop. Also not good for the economy!
Apr 18th, 2023

Forest Holidays (FH) Delamere opened for visitors on 12 April 2021. Any reviews here before that date are irrelevant as they couldn't possibly be reviewing what it's like to rent from from FH and stay there - because it wasn't open yet! I discovered FH years ago as a great getaway from London for my family of 5. We've been to Blackwood Forest, Thorpe Forest, Sherwood Forest (twice), Forest of Dean, Keldy (Yorkshire) and this one - Delamere Forest, Cheshire. The cabins across all FH sites are nearly identical. They are wood cabins with slanted roofs and large windows and a large back decks surrounded by trees. I love that I can try different sites around the country with different local features but I still know what to expect when I get to the cabin it will be tasteful, comfortable, spacious, uncluttered, equipped with everything I need in the kitchen, with a good vestibule for coats and muddy boots, underfloor heating, heated towel rails, bbq and hot tub. I prefer this to taking a gamble on a unique airbnb or holiday cottage which may be lacking what I need, or full of the owner's clutter. Also, I know that the activities on site at FH will be limited and focussed on enjoying the forest and nature guided nature walks, self-guided trails, bushcraft, bird talks etc. There is a cafe on each site open during the day serving meat from local butchers and local brands of beer, cheese and ice cream etc. There is also a shop onsite selling basic and premium groceries a bit more expensive than in a major supermarket but it's worth it not to have to drive 15 minutes into town for something small like marshmallows for roasting or a couple of beers. There is always a wooden, quite natural playground beside the cafe. They rent bikes at their locations and there are activities nearby like Go Ape etc. Unlike other holiday parks FH is about getting back to nature and not about crowds, chain restaurants, a big swimming pool or laser tag. There are different price points depending on whether the FH cabin has a barbecue, towels & robes, wood burner, hot tub etc. Delamere Forest is the first FH to introduce a premium cabin called White Willow and we were excited about trying it out. We checked into FH on 12 April 2021 so we were the very first occupants of the newly built cabin. The main features of the White Willow cabin compared to the usual one we get (Golden Oak) included better (Hypnos) mattresses (a very welcome upgrade!!), wireless speakers, an outdoor gas-powered Ooni pizza oven, a Nutribullet, a Nespresso machine, giant Jenga and early check in time. We had a great experience overall. The check in was smooth, friendly and socially distanced. We had pre-booked one off-site activity a Junior Owl Experience at Cheshire Falconry for my son and they gave us a voucher for that. (He loved it!). In the forest there are miles and miles of biking and walking trails (we did about 7 miles a day), a lake, a bike park (for tricks) and a cafe with toilets. Signage is not as good yet as it is in Sherwood Forest or in Dalby Forest (near Keldy) but the trails are really wide, visibility is good and it's easy to find your way. It's quite hilly with FH at the top of a hill and many of the trails lower down. We did a hike up to the top of a hill Old Pale from where you can see 7 counties. We did a quick trip to walk around the Chester city wall. Best things: big hot brand new hot tub, hanging chair the kids loved, the built in wireless speakers, bike trails and what we go for the forest and the trees. Negatives: they had no bikes to rent because their shipment hadn't arrived yet. We rented nearby but couldn't keep bikes overnight.
Apr 12th, 2023

Apr 9th, 2023

Apr 9th, 2023

Feb 5th, 2023