Darwin Forest — Local services in Derbyshire Dales

This has to be one of mine, my Mum and Dad and my dog’s favourite holiday destinations in England. You stay in a living Pine forest. I sat on the decking in the hot tub, listening to the wildlife, watching the squirrels climbing the trees one metre away from me. I have Autism, I love nature and it helped me to contemplate my life. I went with my Assistance Dog, which, did refund me for the ‘dog clean’ part of the charge. I also went with my parents. I went to one of their ‘two person, one bedroom’ dog luxury lodges in Coppice One. On entry was a utility room, with a ‘dog wash,’ I had him in there every time we came in to wash his paws, and dry them with their provided dog towel. Coat hooks, washing machine, iron and ironing board, hoover, bucket, mop and bucket, brush and dustpan, airer in the cupboard. The Wi Fi is amazing speeds. The mobile phone network doesn’t reach up there, so you have to use ‘wi fi calling’ facility on your mobile phone. Spacious kitchen, gas hob, electric oven, built in microwave, Dolce Gusto coffee machine, dishwasher, and all the utensils and cooking equipment you would find in your home, like scissors, metal oven tray and pizza tray, mixing bowl, glass cooking dish. Dishwasher, wine cooler, wide fridge with a freezer compartment. The decking is wrapped around 2/3 of the lodge with a gate to stop dog escaping. The hot tubs are checked twice per day. They provided (plastic) stem glasses for use in the hot tub which were large that I filled with my wine. They did rule you weren’t allowed in the hot tub after 11pm, and they patrolled the camp to ensure that was adhered to. They had privacy screens around the hot tub. The lodge I went in with my parents (Spinney 4) had a canopy over the hot tub. My dog lodge was open to the stars, and the clarity of the heavens was amazing at night. They provided toweling bath robes (two of) for guests to use, slippers, towels, and extra towels for the sauna. Huge bath for two adults, a shower, they provided small bottles of shower gel, cream, bar of soap, shampoo and conditioner. There was a lovely swimming pool on camp, which I did go to with my Mum. Free for guests they just wanted to see your door key to prove that you were there. My dog and I really enjoyed walking the forest which was a long walk. We met people who lived in the area and they told us their stories. After our walk, we went to the Forrester’s pub, and I enjoyed a Guinness. My dog enjoyed lapping water up out of a pub glass! The food there, was very nice. The Lodge I went in with my parents, Spinney, was two bedrooms. Same high quality as Coppice 1 (Dog Lodge) but it wasn’t for dogs, had two bedrooms and no sauna. The hot tub was bigger as they are installed for the size of the occupancy of the Lodge. You did get a television in every bedroom. The one in the lounge in the bigger lodge had a games console. My Dog Lodge didn’t but it was meant for a ‘couple’s escape.’ Coppice was an exclusive dog only area. All the lounge televisions had Google Cast on them, so you could use the streaming apps on your phone, like Netflix, and stream them to the big television. There were cheaper lodges in the more central area, for dogs and people, without hot tubs. The staff were very friendly, very accommodating. Anything you needed, you could have. I stayed for a week, and they changed my towels (on request) half way through my stay. The shop on campus was very well stocked. I didn’t have enough eggs, and they were lovely. They have DVD’s you can ‘borrow’ to watch in your lodge. There is also a board game in your lodge you can ‘swap’ with the ones in the shop for free. There is a coin operated laundrette for those who haven’t a washing machine in their lodge. Highly recommended and well...

My partner and i booked a holiday for our little infant as we just wanted to be here in the UK. Our expectations were high as the reviews were good and the lodges looked very nice from the photos. I really was looking forward to it as every time we chosen a place we never been to always had faults and it ruined our experience and especially for my daughter i wanted her to enjoy it. We arrived a few hours early because we wanted to see if we could check in sooner so we could relax but unfortunately we had to wait for an email. My partner got his email only 30 minutes early. I liked the lodge but there was no shelves to put our toiletries and no extractor fan. I found that we had no hot water when i was going to bathe my infant! I had to do several trips to and from the kitchen to boil some water and mix with the cold water so that my infant can have a bath. I wasn't impressed. I noticed my feet was covered in dirt and dust! So the cleaners didn't do a good job so why did we wait to check in.....? They obviously werent working and just doing light work and probably not doing everything that needed cleaning hence why the floors were so dusty! We had to wait until the next day for our hot water to be fixed but on Thursday afternoon we didnt have any hot water again. The radiator near the boiler wasnt turning on at all. I reported it to the receptionist but it never got resolved. Also the tv was very very slow and it took over 25 seconds to change a channel. The remote control was taped and glued together which i found very cheap because no one can afford a replacement!!. The only thing i liked was the activity den, small games room and forest trails. I didn't like that the cafe was joined to the soft play and was very small, didnt open until 10am, the food wasnt very good either. There's no bakery which would've been very popular and when I spoken to a few ladies they agreed the cafe was small and they struggled to get access in as they were elderly.

To the owner, the booking wasnt under my name! Hence why i said ny partner and I. The hot weather is irrelevant to your staff. A job is a job and if theyre not committed to doing it then thats why i posted this review. We didnt go to reception to explain every fault as thats why we used the feedback form plus the reception lady just said ' oh im sorry about that ' no assistance to say anything about getting it resolved. The TV is very slow and the remote was taped over, very tacky. The TV isnt very good. Needs replacement. So if we found all of these faults then why isnt the lodge up to the expectations of when we stayed?? The staff didn't clean our lodge! I have photos of mouldy shower head and the corner of the bath all black. Its irrelevant also you had over 90 lodges to clean, obviously you havent employed enough staff. We paid for a holiday that wasnt up to our expectations and you think the excuses are going to blind me but they're NOT!. Yes we received a voucher from the warden which he went the extra mile unlike the tv, remote wasn't replaced and floor wasnt cleaned. Just because the remote was missed doesnt mean its an excuse. These weren't checked hence why we mentioned this in the form. I am disappointed in your response and think that your staff are cleaning these lodges but theyre not. I'm very disappointed and suprised by your response. The cafe is again irrelevant to how many staff or tables are available. The food wasnt very nice and I dont want to spend loads of money in the store to buy food when the cafe shoild provide fresh, baked foods or even home...

We stayed at Landal Forest Holidays over the recent October Half-Term Holidays in Lodge 14.

Our experiences were mixed. We all know there's a pandemic, but i think like a lot of businesses it being made a excellent excuse for a lot of facilities being unavailable or degraded, which is disappointing.

Pros:

Landal Forest is in a lovely location which is a quick drive to Matlock, Bakewell and Buxton which has lots of good restaurants - which is just as well (see below).

The staff there are excellent and attentive. The Hot Tub cleaners attend once/twice a day and really look after the tubs.

There's plenty for kids to do - depending on the weather.

Cons:

Unfortunately there were more Cons than Pros.

For the cost of a week c.£1200 (expensive) the activities were limited, booked up and priecy. I know there's a pandemic going on, but you would think that facilities and activities would be relative - failing that that a rebate or discount would be given.

If you didn't know about booking system for activities beforehand and that it was MANDATORY, you would really struggle with doing anything, like we did.

The swimming pool was totally booked up. We managed to get 3 sessions, but they were at less desirable times and limited to 40 minutes.

Activities were also booked up by the time we had checked in and things such as Archery were £60 for an hour for up to 6 people. If you had a family of 4, you would still pay £60. If there was no pandemic, its £10 per person seemingly, so you pay a premium for having a smaller family.

The restaurant was a j.o.k.e. There were NO slots available for the entire week - yet despite this on passing frequently there were LOADS of spare table. We all get 'social distancing' but i'm talking 5 metres between empty tables and some sections totally empty - at 6pm at night - at half term. Massive lost revenue for Pinewoods as we spent all our money at other restaurants and self catering - as i'm sure 95% of the park did too.

Equally the 'takeaway' restaurant facility was also seemingly never open. It was always 'temporarily closed' on the app - in the end we just gave up.

Staff in the cafe said there was a walk up system, but when i queried this with the restaurant, they basically said this was rubbish and blamed 'staff shortages'.

The lodge was nice, but tired. The carpet needed replacing really as it was hammered with dust and i assume muck trailed in from the decking over time. We paid extra for a hot tub, but as it rained most of the week it was mostly unusable. You would expect there to be an awning or gazebo covering it (from either direct sun or rain) but there wasn't which meant you had a hot rub in the rain. The sofa covers could do with being washed too.

The bedrooms were good. Plentiful hot water and the rooms were nice and cosy on a cold week. There was a lot of black mold around the window frames in the bedrooms though :(

Would i go back to Landal Forest? - No, i don't think so - certainly not at the price we paid. Pinewoods could do worse than providing a discount for customers that stayed over these periods to put money into the UK holiday industry, as despite paying list price, the facilities were badly affected. It wasn't worth the money we paid - which is a real shame as we all needed a break and hoped that by not cancelling or moving our booking it would be OK - sadly it failed to meet our...