You may remember that we recently went on a review break to Forest Holidays in The Forest of Dean, a full review of our stay will be up next week but first up I wanted to share six reasons why Forest Holidays are great for kids. These were answers given to me by Izzy when I asked what her favourite parts of the holiday were:

1. Going on the special bikes.

Both our girls loved the special bikes ( adult bikes with a tag along trailer attached ) that you could hire at Forest Holidays and their shouts of delight when Andrew whittled through the forest with them attached to his bike could be heard for miles.

2. Going on a mini beast adventure and colouring the trees.

During our stay we went on a Forest Ranger experience which involved going out for a walk through the forest with the really helpful and friendly ranger ( I wish I could remember his name as he was fab ) hunting for mini beasts ( bugs ) and doing a little tree rubbing ..obviously we didn’t actually draw on the trees 😉 The children collected leaves, twigs and pine cones to create a face mask when we returned to the lodge reception. Both girls had a ball. Can’t recommend this experience enough.

3. Making Dens with Daddy.

There are lots of little dens all strewn about the forest and of course you can create your own from scratch too. Izzy and Chloe both enjoyed running around finding the best sticks to build up the den which someone had started outside our lodge.

4. Our swimming pool bath…and the duck. Definitely the duck.

By swimming pool bath she means the hot tub. This was a favourite for all of us. It was so incredibly relaxing and as it was literally outside our back door we could run in with the girls bundled up in towels so they didn’t get cold. There is a forest holidays rubber ducky on top of each hot tub lid when you arrive and Izzy fell a bit in love with ours. In fact I had to sneak it out of her bag before we packed up to leave.

5. Running around and playing on the big swing.

They ran around all day every day. Tiring themselves out, getting rosy cheeked and loving the fresh air. In fact we all felt pretty good and a lot worn out each evening. The big swing is the large swing in the park which comfortably sat me and both girls while Andrew swung us higher and higher.

6. The Ice Cream.. The one with chewy bits.

There was only supposed to be 5 reasons but Izzy kept talking about the ice cream so I thought we had to make it 6. She is talking about the Marshfield Farm toffee ice cream which she loved and you could buy from the shop at reception. Chloe even tried the lemon sorbet..possibly a little too sharp for her 😉