Frensham Great Pond — Attraction in Waverley

Lovely place unfortunatelly run by gang of gansters under cover as National trust. 1st we went to Little pond and kids wanted some fastfood from kiosk. But after long wait in que I was told at that no more hot food is served after 3pm Saturday. We've walked back to car and moved over to Great pond. Arrived about 4pm and had to pay £4 for car entry, athoug I've insisted we want to just buy some food! After 5 mins in que I have ordered hot "fastfood" and waited over 20mins for it. When I came back to kiosk to ask where is my food (all others who came after us were long eating) they've replied "its coming" and started to cook our food (3x burgers with chips). Finally after 25mins we've got to eat. No apology from staff, just dismissive atitude. By that time the car park atendant was gone by 4:30pm and no more charges for incoming cars. Alll together wit icecreams, food for 2 adults and 2 todlers + parking fee it has cost me £50. I've felt robbed and angry about spoiled afternoon trip with familly. PS: pond has relatively clean shallow water great for small kids. There is large sandy beech with fine deep sand again great fun for kids. Unfortunatelly the sand also contains lots of humen rubbish, cigaret buts and dog feeces. Wost of all though is the large amount of black dust in sand and chidren will get instantly all dirty and black from it ... and there is no facility where one could wash kids off. Only one cold outside tap for dogs and couple of small basins in smelly dirty toilets. (While I was there at mens, some desperate lady has run in looking for some loo paper ... non at either toilets available. Final conclusion: this could have been superb location for families on hot summer days, if National Trust would actually look after for that money they are charging...

Went this week for a ‘beach day’ with the kids and sadly experienced many issues: cafe is overpriced (unbranded ice lollies minimum £2.50) and they refused to refill a water bottle so nowhere to fill bottles external water tap not working (not sure if it’s supposed to be drinking water or just for washing feet, no signs) toilets were absolutely disgusting; dirty, smelly, soapy water soaking the floor in the ladies’ toilets the sand leaves you so dirty, I’ve had to throw away 2 pairs of kids shorts and a t shirt as they were black, and it took ages to scrub off the kids too can’t bathe in the water due to dangerous high levels of blue/green algae (which is bad for skin and health and toxic for dogs; dogs not allowed on that part of the beach luckily) yet the warning signs were tiny and very easy to miss and lots of people were still bathing clearly a wasps nest underground towards the cafe/kiosk as there were tonnes of wasps going into little holes around the same spot

Only good point was there was plenty of parking and it was free for National Trust members, although the pair of parking machines are not in the car park but by the kiosk so you have to walk all the way back to the car and then back again.

The day was only saved by the good company we had. Would not recommend for a...

Frensham Great Pond and Common is a Green Flag Award winning site, situated between Farnham and Hindhead on either side of the A287.  The nearest postcode is GU10 2QB.

Frensham Great Pond is very popular in nice weather. The car park is usually full by 10am so please arrive early to avoid disappointment. On hot days, please do not visit as the site will be too crowded. Please note that payment is via RingGo and card payment only. Please download the app and ensure it is working before visiting the site.

Please note no BBQs or bonfires are allowed on site.  There is a high risk of wildfires due to the heathland nature of the site.

It covers roughly 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of attractive countryside and is owned by the National Trust. We manage most...