Hainault Forest — Attraction in London

Not been here for a few years but met up for a family picnic yesterday. It's much improved I must say, used to be quite muddy walking around but now has gravel paths making it much easier. A good place to go now for the not so able bodied and would be well suited for anyone in a wheelchair I think. Has a new cafe and a new restaurant too, not tried the restaurant (although the menu looked very good) but the coffee at the cafe was good quality plus they do sandwiches and ice-cream. There is also a Wildlife Trust shop with nature displays and seating areas for children to learn about wildlife in the park and draw pictures. There is a picnic area near the restaurant if you want to bring your own food and it looks like there will be a great kids play area soon. We walked down by the lake and sat with the water birds and all their cute babies( The cafe sells duck food). It is dog friendly but good to see people were sensible about keeping their dogs on leads near the birds. Still some building work going on around the old barn so only saw the Shetland ponies outside but the builders said about a month until the farm is fully open. Lots of parking (not free) but if you don't drive, the 247 bus stops right outside. A really nice place now for a day out, definitely going again to try the restaurant and maybe a walk up to the...

Ok after reading some poor reviews I went anyway as I need a good walk with the dog. He loved it, forest areas are nice and it's fairly clean beside the odd can of Stella about but nothing worse. The cafe is well priced with good food available but nothing very healthy just the usual stuff. The coffee and tea is bad and there's only cows milk and no brown bread so very basic, expected I little more for the money. The cafe staff although polite enough are not attentive and rather busy watch YouTube to remember what i ordered would have helped if he was listening.

Amble parking with £1 for an hour and £3 all day why you'd want to spend under hour here is unlikely as its quite a way anywhere.

Zoo is pretty pointless as is the audio for the walk round. Again the dog loved it. The toilets were ok considering but out of soap which is ironic for a public toilet.

For a wild life park is very poor as my dog couldn't find any life in the forest in two hours and believe me he can smell a squirrel a mile away. So that was quite disappointing as I had to keep him interested with fake suggestions of wild life being present.

Over all the rain didn't bother either of us and I would recommend going once or more for the dogs sake....

I had been looking forward to visiting this park just the same way I look forward to visiting Lake Dristrict cause of the amazing landscape and scenery, some day. Today, though, proved to me that if you are a city or town person who doesn't do well with mud, don't even bother. I actually thought the trails would at least be paved. I thought wrong. Oh, lawd, it was all muddy, and the worst part is the horse dung and dog poos litering the trails. I should have taken photos but I was too grossed out. Heaven knows these things make me cringe. Some dog owners are simply put, irresponsible, and anti-social. If we overlook all these negatives, it's actually a nice place to go on a nature walk by yourself or with friends. Great views and nice sculpted trees. There is parking as well. Apparently there is a Cafe 20 minutes down down the trail somewhere but I didn't even get that far. The sightings of mud and poo wouldn't let me. Had to turn back. At least now I can say I've been there and cross it...