I have talked about taking the children camping for quite a while but wondered if our three year old would sleep. I have camped on numerous occasions before we had children. Glamping however is something i have never done. That changed recently when we were invited to stay at Hedley Wood Holiday Park.
Hedley Wood Holiday Park is a camping and caravan site near Bridgerule on the Devon and Cornwall border. As well as pitches for tents, touring caravans and static caravans the site also offers glamping tents and a safari lodge.
I was very excited to try out glamping with my children. When we arrived at Headly Wood Holiday Park we checked in and we was directed to the safari lodge where we stayed for the weekend.
The safari lodge is a tent with wooden supports, canvas sides and a zip-up door. Inside it was very homely. There is a large dining table, sofa and a small kitchen area. Outside there is a lovely decking area with a table bench. There is also space to park two cars.
The lodge was nice and spacious which is great with two young children running around.
The safari lodge also has its own little kitchen. This comes equip with a hob, microwave, kettle, toaster and all the cutlery and crockery you could need. There is also a little fridge with a small freezer compartment. Needless to say i was impressed by all of this. No small camping stove needed here.
The lodge has two bedrooms with enough space to sleep five people. The double bedroom was a decent size and the bed was really big which is great, especially when the children decided to climb in to the bed in the morning.
There are also two plug sockets, a lamp and a little bit of storage in this bedroom.
The second bedroom is upstairs.. yes, that right the safari lodge has an upstairs. There are three single beds upstairs and there is a security gate at the top of the stairs which is brilliant if you have young children.
There is one aspect of the safari lodge that is amazing and that is the bathroom. Having only ever been camping i was used to walking across a campsite with a torch for late night toilet visits. So to actually have a bathroom was amazing.
The bathroom has a toilet, sink and an amazing shower that has lovely hot water. Its the simple things that impressed me.
The safari lodge is at the highest part of the holiday park, its is a fairly quiet area surrounded by countryside. We even had sheep for neighbors’ which the children thought was amazing.
The outdoor seating area was well used, especially on an evening when the children were in bed. The perfect spot for a glass of wine as the sun goes down.
What i really loved is when the sun went down, the birds went to bed and then we could watch the little bats flying around. There was two bats that would fly near by in-between the tree’s. I loved this as i have never seen a bat so close. You cant beat spending time outside in the countryside.
I invited my mum along to our glamping weekend, which the children thought was great. We all loved spending time in the lodge and the children loved riding their bikes and scooters near by.
The Park Amenities
The holiday park has some great facilities available which we made use of when we came back to the site at the end of the day.
There was a lovely play park which the children played on numerous times, they seem to constantly have energy!
There is also a little arcade near the park, more of a games room with a pool table, table football and a few other arcade games. My youngest loves the idea of playing pool but got quite upset when the balls didn’t come back out when he put the down the nets. There is also a little aviary that the children enjoyed looking at. There was only a few birds but we loved it.
As for food – there is a little shop on the site which is open until 5pm. This stocks the essentials you might need as well as some little treats and toys for children. The children loved that there was a slush puppy machine. Blue tongues all round!
There is a bar on site too. The Woodman Bar and Restaurant is a lovely little bar. They have a small menu but the food looks great, we didn’t get round to eating in there but the size of the pizza’s looked impressive. What is really nice is that the bar and site is dog friendly which is great for tourers and campers that want to take their four legged friends on holiday with them.
Our Thoughts
I loved spending a weekend in the safari lodge, i was impressed with the size of the lodge and everything inside of it. The beds came made up with bedding which were very cosy. I kept forgetting that we were actually still in a tent and sleeping under the stars.
There are two fan heaters in the lodge which are useful for late at night or first thing in the morning when it is a little chilly. The fact that there was working electricity was such a novelty as when i camped in a tent in the past we didn’t have electric hook up.
The site is very clean and it has everything you might need. It is very peaceful, this was a bonus when it came to putting the children to bed. No loud noises keeping them awake.
There must be something in the water at Hedley Wood Holiday Park as everyone is so polite and chirpy. The staff go out of their way to be helpful and say hello. Right from the moment we checked in we were greeted with a smile.
The children loved exploring the park and playing in the park. Neither of them wanted to leave after our weekend staying there. We even had a few tears from my eldest.
It has to be said Hedley Wood Holiday Park gets a thumbs up from us. The Safari lodge is brilliant and a perfect and is a great location to take the family glamping.
We had a great stay in the at Hedley Wood and i recommend staying there. A three-night holiday starting 20 September 2019, costs from £219, based on up to five people sharing a Safari Lodge. Check out the website – www.hedleywood.co.uk, or phone for more information and booking at 01288 381404
