Recommended by Rachel Saunders with children age 3 on Thu Oct 22 2020

Large pine woods. Lots of different place spaces including structured parks/climbing equipment but also wooden structures, dens etc. Home to Go Ape and often hosts the forestry commission trails... Zog, gruffalo etc. Great for family walks, lots of well built paths that are suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs. Some off-road parts that would are less accessible. Fantastic for bike riding and attracts a lot of cyclists. Onsite cafe, toilets including baby changing and disabled toilet but not currently a changing places venue. Pay on exit parking by cash or card. All day parking £6. Picnic and bbq friendly. Bike hire and visitor information centre.

Recommended by Emma with children ages 2 and 4 on Fri Nov 01 2019

Shaun The Sheep Movie : Farmageddon Glow Trail. Sherwood Pines is a great place to get outdoors and explore, take your own or hire bikes, go for a walk, the Gruffalo orienteering course, the trenches trail, play areas, Go Ape or just picnic and play with friends. Their new glow trail is for the release of the new Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmaggedon! We havent seen the film but that definitely didn't stop us enjoying the trail! We purchased the little bag of activities that goes with the trail from the information centre which is a must, the pack includes stickers, activity sheet and the all important UV torch. How they love a pack of goodies and once we had established we had to share the torch.... we were off! We have completed most of the trails here (we usually combine a bike ride with a trail for a day out) and this trail is great as it is different to previous ones we have done. You download the app on your phone which makes it more interactive and exciting for the children. You can complete the trail without the app by using the activity sheets in the pack. The app has two sections, the challenges and activities. You have to complete the puzzles/challenges where you have to rearrange the shapes to enable you to complete the final activity - the photo with the film's characters. Along the way there are physical challenges which were great fun, we all joined in! These don't have to be completed to reach the end but the physical activities are all about getting families active. They include activities such as touch as many trees as you can in 20 seconds, collect as many leaves as you can and the most difficult - pat your head and rub your tummy! We didn't care if we looked daft we did all the activities which added to the trail and the family fun! (we saw others not taking part which seemed a shame really) The trail was a good walk round and as always in a different part of the forest to previous trails which is great so you are not always covering the same area. If you have little ones a pushchair or carrier might be a sensible option as the teraain is suitable and it is a fair walk. At the end using the app trickery you can have your photo taken with characters from the film! A bit fiddly for Mummy to work out how to get the real and the digital people in the photo but we got there! And once it is taken that is it so make sure you save a good one! The pack also includes stickers-which we were all awarded by the boss (the 5 year old) for doing well! And actvities which you can take home and complete too. If you haven’t been to Sherwood Pines there are so many options of great outdoor things to do. biking There is a cafe serving good hot food, but it is pretty small so time your visit right on cold days! There are loads of picnic benches for the warmer weather. You pay for parking so just pay before you leave and it works by number plate recognition. Another great Forestry England Trail, it is different with the use of the UV pen and app and the physical challenges on the way round-loved it!

Recommended by Sophie Marie Hopkin with children ages 3 and 4 on Sat Aug 10 2019

Highly recommend Sherwood Pines! Great outdoors space with little mushroom shaped houses to okay in and out off. They run trails such as the Gruffolo and Zog where you can access and purchase the information pack from the information centre for £4 which includes 3D lenses glasses and activity sheets to follow on the trail. Highly recommended place if you want to take your children’s bikes or scooters out for the day. Sherwood Pines is built within a woods so it’s a great outdoors place to visit even if the weather begins to rain as you’re reasonably well sheltered from the rain due to the vast amount of trees.