The Sustainability Centre — Attraction in East Hampshire

Stayed in a yurt for 2 nights (October). Things I liked: Had breakfast in the cafe on one day which was tasty. All the staff we met were very friendly and helpful. yurt was cool and well equipped nice to be surrounded by wildlife good location for walks, cycle routes, visiting the sea (hayling island is nice) etc we had a lovely time!

Tips for other guests: The amount of wood they give you as standard for the stove is not enough to last through the night so unless they increase this for colder months in future (I think they should) then probably wise to order more wood. For reference, I made a hot water bottle and used my sleeping bag as well as the duvet and 2 blankets (and even wore my hat as well the second night) and still woke both mornings between 4 and 6am before it was light due to the cold from the fire having gone out due to not enough wood. The toilet in the campsite has a light and is much easier to sit on than the ones on the path (at least for someone short like me, the ones on the path are set so far back from the edge it makes them awkward to use). Plus it has a sink and soap. bring a separate gas stove for the kettle as the top of the stove doesn't really get hot enough to boil water. They did provide a kettle though. They also provide washing up liquid so no need to bring extra! recommend a meal at the Bat and Ball pub. you might very well have no (or barely any/intermittent) mobile signal

Comments for the Centre: Think a bin for paper towels in toilets would be better as otherwise you have to touch the seat after washing your hands... Some accessways eg. Accessing yurts or between field areas (eg. By camping field) get really muddy and even have puddles too - would be nice if these were better maintained eg. Laying woodchip or something to mitigate risk of slipping/sticking and to prevent bringing mud indoors would be a huge improvement.

I would definitely recommend this and would return in the future too. Very nice...

Horrible experience dealing with this organisation. I had booked to take part in a course which I was really looking forward to. However, less than 48hours before the course started I had to have a very unexpected, traumatic operation in hospital. My friends contacted the venue on my behalf beforehand to let them know I would not be able to attend.

Once I was home, I contacted them to ask if would be possible to have any money back or any money off a future course seeing as this was such an unusual circumstance. The replies I had were quite rude, showing zero empathy. They were totally focussed on policy rather than looking after their customers - despite the fact this isn't an every day occurrence. They also pointed out how, due to the fact their admin fee is so high, it is unlikely they would refund or discount anyone ever - even if you are able to cancel much sooner than I was - so watch out!

This was a total shock because you would think an organisation like this would be more considerate - or at least care about their customers' experience. If I had had good customer service, I would have certainly become a regular customer as I was already eyeing up several other courses and events through the rest of the year. However, this experience has put me off so much that I felt it was important to warn other people.

Watch out when you're booking...

I have looked forward to writing this review just as I had looked forward to visiting the Centre. We visited the Centre on the weekend. The first that meets you is the row of bins in the parking lot. I had heard about these bins from funeral guests, which does subtract from the overall experience. The second thing we saw was the notice on a tree stating that we had to pay to park! Why on earth have you got to pay out in the middle of nowhere. It turned out you did not have to pay over the weekend. Then we came to the cafe, which is set in a very unaesthetically pleasing to the eye. It has a lovely little man-made pond, which featured lovely dragon flies. We then went walking. There is very few sign posts, and we stumbled into the Burial Sight. This was definitely the highlight of the place. Our children were fascinated by the place. They loved finding all the named bird nests and other memorabilia such as wood cut benches, mushrooms etc. What surprised us was how easily it was to spot the graves. I thought the point was that it should be natural 'invisible` burial site. It was like walking around on modern Church Yard with uninhabited bird houses instead of Head Stones. Overall it was a very mixed place: partly a place of entertainment and partly a burial sight. You can also camp there: camping...