If you are local and read my article in the Spring Issue of Raring2Go Bournemouth & Poole you know how much we Moo's love the forest and walking! One of our favourite holidays was at Parkdean Warmwell where we stayed in log cabins and M&M saw a deer in the park! So when the opportunity came to visit a brand new Forest Holidays lodge near us in Winchester we jumped at the chance.
The day consisted of a tour around a cabin, lunch, a natural trail and lots of information about Forest Holidays.
What the website says :-
Our Blackwood Forest cabins have been developed with the environment in mind. They’re heated using wood pellets generators, which efficiently and ‘carbon neutrally’ convert biomass in the form of wood pellets into heat while giving off almost no wood smoke. The carbon dioxide released by burning is balanced by that absorbed by the tree during its growth. The ash from the Wood Pellet Fuel which is rich in minerals is then recycled to fertilise the forest.
What did we like :-
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Being in the woodland and although there are some cabins in it – the actual forest was pretty much preserved. As Forest Holidays work alongside the forestry commision.
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Beautiful cabins (with hot tubs on the decking!!)
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Limited wifi and phone signal – I never take anything but a cheap phone on holiday and a notebook I like to switch off completely.
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Lovely café – with a great selection of locally sourced produce and the home-made pizza lunch was to die for!
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Fantastic walks
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Knowledgeable guide who took the small ones out – M&M loved this especially catching and identifying bugs. The ranger also knew all the good spots including some baby mice and even asked me (luckily not Moo otherwise he'd have said yes!!) if I wanted to see some slow worms which were protected and monitored in this site.
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Lovely park which was fenced off so you could sit on the decking at the café and chill whilst the children played.
Not so keen points :-
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Price … ekk I know its luxury but ekk! Especially when you consider it is in fact self catering.
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The additional costs – there were posters up of things going on - bat walks (which Moo would LOVE!!), nature trails with rangers, pottery painting but all at extra costs and when there is 5 of you this soon mounts up over a long weekend. I think I would possibly prefer these to be included in the price of the holiday.
As this was a blogging event we met lots of other bloggers so don't just read my review see what others thought of it too! And if I missed you out please do leave your link in the comments below :)
*Sponsored post - we were provided with food and entertainment for free but views are our own.*
Some of these images came from Gracie May Photography,
Recently my friend told me that Kiddicare had been bought out by Morrisons and with it a new wave of actual shops ... ooooo! We were lucky enough to be invited to a bloggers event at the new store at Hedge End the day after opening. I took two of the 
The resonably priced cafe with play area for the little ones – the food was also very good and very healthy. 
The community hub room – we enjoyed a 
