Sherwood Forest Holiday Park — Hotel in Newark and Sherwood

So here goes the review on visiting Sherwood Forest Holiday Park yesterday... Unfortunately due to work commitments our group arrived slightly late, the park were accommodating with this which was a plus point and actually fairly impressive... However after being driven around to show us our pitch the very truth of what this place really is unfolded. The easiest way to describe the greeting to our pitch was almost an X Factor competition between family groups of whom could make the biggest din and racket with children whining, complaining and generally making the whole field suffer considerable child noise pollution (To say I hate other people's whining little brat children is an understatement). Within seconds my heart dropped and excitement of getting out away from the hustle and bustle of work with work friends and my partner was ruined. I really do not wish to spend my weekend after a busy week at work in such an environment when the website shows pictures of tranquility. The added complication that the other families with younger children whom didn't understand moderate consideration for their vocal abilities and their parents joining in with what could be described as the most annoying woman impression of what I think was a train. If you have ever opened up a pack of sardines then this would be the easiest way to describe how this park operates their pitches and as we all know canvas of tents offers little privacy or sound reduction. If your stuck next to the family who's kids whine, cry, scream, shout and unfortunately still manage to breathe your in for a hard, unrelaxed and may wish to invest in a decent set of noise cancelling headphones or ear defenders. Though I'm 25 and this place may well stereotype a group of young business professionals with being lumbered with the groups of families whom evening entertainment is to p**s off everyone around them within a mile radius, I myself very much agree with the saying of 'Children should be seen and not heard' and wish to enjoy my younger years without children for as long as possible. Seeing such high levels of modern day parenting was enough to put children even further off the agenda, this place really isn't good for couples wishing a quiet camping retreat.

The general "facility" to pitch a tent at the 'Hawthorn' field are what I could describe as truly bog standard centre of the field Portaloos with no lighting (workmen on the M1 get more luxury) and I couldn't see why these couldn't have been located to the edge of the field out of the way along with the luxury trash cans. Though it were almost pitch black I couldn't help but notice the rather butt ugly high voltage national grid pylons directly above our tent and then realised though this site boasts I think 52 acres of land our field was located directly next to the main entrance road in and out of the site additionally to the pylons... The plus side I imagine being near touching distance to it all of this, if it got too much I could try and hoist a tent pole up onto a high voltage line or jump in front of an RV to end the torture of this hell hole! Surely with the boasted 52 acres you could actually make a decent park and possibly if the site made more attention to keep eyes and ears on everything they would see the same as we experienced. I honestly think they knew exactly the place to stick the noise and they should provide significant warning of such an issue.

So all in all my visit lasted 2 hours and I explained to our group that I was not in a million years ever going to stay in such a place (if it was constant noise till and partly after 10:30 PM I dread to imagine the daytime with the little bratty sprogs fully energised). If I could have left earlier I would have, waiting for transport to get away from 'hell on earth' couldn't have come sooner. Unfortunately if your a couple, want any form of peace and tranquility look else where you won't regret it. Rant over, won't return and wouldn't recommend this place in a...

The site is beautiful, the park is perfect and we were in the perfect location for the kids to play on the park and we could still be able to see them. We were shown to our pitch and shown where the facilities were. We were very impressed. Had a lovely first 2 days. It started raining on the third day of our stay which was no big deal, we had a game day with the kids who were bitting and bobbing in and out between the breaks in the weather to play on their bikes. The problem came when the rain got very heavy and constant and the river running along the back of out caravan started rising. We kept an eye on it in the late afternoon to early evening and it was fine until about 8pm, I noticed the river was rising fast. By 9pm we made the decision to take down the awning, throw everything in the van and move as the water was about to break the bank. By 10pm we were wading through 4-5 inches of water trying to get the awning down so we could move and we finally caught a break and the rain let up a bit. Finally at around 10:45pm someone came round to check if everyone was ok and to suggest moving. We was not impressed by this point. Nearly 2 hours after the water broke its bank someone came to check on everyone. Bare in mind this man wasnt even in duty either. The people who were meant to be on call were nowhere to be seen and nobody could get hold of them either. We were also told at this point these pitches were known for flooding, hence the reason he came to check! Finally we moved to another large pitch on the other side of the park where we could literally just drop the legs, hook up the electric and go to sleep so we could pack up properly in the morning since everything had been thrown in the back of our car dripping wet just to stop it from floating away down the river. If we hadn't taken it upon ourselves to decide to move the van, god knows what we would have lost or how much would have been damaged. If we had waited until the man came round to check on everyone we would have been paddling around at gone midnight trying to get everything moved, with 5 kids(youngest being just 10 weeks old) and 2 dogs I'll add. It was bad enough doing it at 9-11 at night. Both cars are now soaked inside, the caravan carpet is soaked I am soaked and cold. I understand they cant control the river or the rain, but the fact that it's a known area for flooding and nobody bothered to come and check on the people sited next to it until 2 hours after just isn't good enough, and that he wasnt even meant to be working in the first place. Where the hell were the people who were meant to be looking after the site overnight?? We started the holiday so well,so impressed. But they say you never know how good a place is until you have a problem they have to deal with. That's where these fell...

We've always cherished our stays at Sherwood Park, and this year, we were thrilled to secure a riverside pitch, something we've long wished for. However, upon our arrival, we were disheartened by the number of people riding bikes and scooters along the riverbank right beside our pitch. It was quite chaotic, with people almost knocking us over as we set up our outdoor furniture. This activity persisted throughout the day, even as we tried to enjoy a peaceful cup of tea. People weaved in and out of our legs, around our dog, and it felt rather inconsiderate. While we understand that everyone wants to enjoy the river, we believe there should be some camping etiquette to prevent such disruptions.||We spoke with the wardens about this issue and were initially told that we could ask people to go around our pitch. However, this only seemed to encourage more argumentative campers who barged through and even picked arguments with us as they passed. Later, we were informed by different wardens that we couldn't ask people to walk around our pitch. This inconsistency was frustrating, and for the remainder of our stay, we had to embrace the constant stream of passersby, even enduring kids fishing right beside our pitch and aggravating our dog.|The park was extremely busy due to the bank holiday, the food stalls were very handy to have on site and I even bought myself a little treat from a craft stall.||The site itself remains beautiful, although we missed the stunning peacocks that used to roam freely. We understand that youngsters are being introduced soon, which is something to look forward to. However, we found the toilet facilities to be in need of attention. They appeared tired and were often dirty and unkempt, with some locks not working, making the toilets unusable. Additionally, the lack of accessible toilet near the Cedar, Riverside, and Laurels areas was disappointing.||Despite these issues, we had an overall enjoyable stay. The weather was beautiful, and we met many friendly seasonal campers with whom we enjoyed chatting. We can't wait to visit Sherwood Park again and hope that some of these concerns can be addressed to enhance the experience for...