Haldon Forest Park - Forestry England — Attraction in Teignbridge

First went to Haldon forest for a work group mountain bike session and absolutely fell in love with it and bought a bike shortly after.

The bikes at the shop are a little expensive to hire- 16 pounds no insurance or 18 pounds with insurance. As I was new to mountain biking at the time I picked the insurance option however if I were to go there again without a bike I would pick the non insurance option as they are fully taped up and as a novice I didn't want to push it hard so I didn't drop it anyway.

I saw two guys there during Easter bank holiday on red who had hired a bike each but for some reason decided they were too cool for helmets and were not wearing any... On the red trail! Please get a helmet they're included with the price of the rental!

The red trail is amazing fun with fantastic views throughout. There is effectively two parts to the red trail. The first part is from the car park across the road (which leads to the car park), down a straight pathway and on the left. It then goes into a short wooded area followed by some fun little berms and a great view point (sadly I always forget to take a picture as I'm more focused on the little jump ahead of me), followed by more berms which lead to the forest.

Once out of the first forest section go to the first bend and turn right, I have stupidly missed it before and gone to the raptor trail and had to start again! Next bit is great fun with some nice rock gardens, jumps, puddles and a lovely cool breeze pushing through the trees. Nearing the end beware of joggers! The end of what I call part 1 is where the road is, just after passing by great place for a rest for novice riders and groups of riders.

Part 2 of red is my favourite of all the trails currently open as the final descent is as me and my friend say "f###### awesome" and fist pump each other at the bottom. Beware of potentially slow riders and give them a big head start or go first. I can't describe it well as I'm always going so fast all I'm thinking is "woooopeeeeeee".

Big fire track after the descent however the incline is not as bad as it seems and the trails on the other side are pretty fun. I actually look forward to going up the fire track because of the trails on the other side.

After the trails you will come across a road follow it over and ride right and will come across two paths, left goes to blue trail and right goes back to the car park. I personally pick right and do red again however left puts you through a wooded trail similar to caan woods in plym bridge called Blair Witch (I think!) however I personally think Haldon's is way more fun!

I've only ever done blue fully once and that was my first time which I found great fun however my second time I got half way and flipped my bike with nothing around to actually hit which is in my pictures and cannot describe it in detail so this is where I will end my review.

P.S. the cake in the cafe is pretty good!

Note: the car park is pretty expensive however it goes towards a...

Absolutely amazing place! Perfect for everyone, families, dog walkers, mountain bikers, literally everyone no matter what age you are. It was misty when we went this morning but that made it so magical, it was like some sort of mythical land as you can see from the pictures.

I think it's one of those places that whenever you go you will always have a lovely time, obviously rainy days maybe not so much 🙂

There are lots of trails to explore which are very clearly marked, you cannot go wrong. The signs make it clear if its a bike, running, walking trail or a mix. Apologies the photo of the trail map isn't the clearest but gives you an idea.

The birds of prey area looks like it would be brilliant on a clear day as you can see from the pics ( image 3) not today sadly.

There were also two special trails a Stickman trail and a Gromit trail. We chose the latter as it was for dogs but anyone could have fun finding the markers, after all it is Wallace and Gromit!

Despite everything around us pooch was more interested in any water and mud he could find as usual!

We saw a couple of people with off road wheelchairs and pushchairs so there maybe suitable trails, certainly as you can see from the pics some of the trails are wide and smooth.

The facilities as well are absolutely top notch for somewhere that is isolated. They seem to have thought of literally everything anyone would need, even a bike maintenance part with a pump and all sorts as well as food and drinks of course.

Parking is easy and plenty of it, I can imagine at peak times it would be busy. Paying was also easy, you can do contactless or app ( RingGo). We didn't bother with the app for the usual reason with most rural car parks - poor signal but not an issue at all as contactless...

Had a pretty bad morning out here, as we did the outing solely to do the pumptrack. First shows out the lowest ability pump track was closed (and even Googling I can't find any info about this). Second I was told off by a random stranger that me and my younger children weren't welcome in the other skills pumptrack (to avoid complete disappointment and a waste of money and trip, I thought I'd let my child have a 5 min go in there, as it was relatively empty), because "obviously this is only for 'advanced cyclists'" - not that I myself think this is a particularly advanced track, but I guess that is beside the point - I'm used to cycling in the mountains after all. Naively I thought the track was for everyone and all abilities. @HaldonForest, can you clarify this with a SIGN (as I haven't seen any, if there are any perhaps maybe one more visible would be useful), which defines at which age a child is allowed in the skills pumptrack? (And for the other matter this means that not everyone who has paid full fare to visit your park are allowed equally on all parts of your land) Also can you add that it is okay for a random stranger to tell me that if they run over my child on your pumptrack, it is on me? Waste of money and effort, I'm unlikely to come back in the near future. Kind regards

Revision: I called and spoke to park management, who were very nice and told me I was absolutely fine to go on this skills track with my children. I feel sorry that we have to deal with rude selfish people around us, who think they are more privileged and have the right to bully/discriminate other people, especially children, just because they think this track is one of their private practice venues. Sharing and caring goes so...