Moors Valley Country Park is well worth a visit during your trip to the New Forest.The park is free to get in but you do have to pay to park your car. This is a maximum of £8.00 but is well worth it when you consider that a whole day can easily be spent here. Other attractions in the park also carry a further cost.
After parking your car in the spacious well hidden woodland car park and you enter further into Moors Valley you can breathe in the beauty of this country park – it really is lovely. The visitors centre is on approach to the park and this is a well blended 18th century barn that includes a restaurant and gift shop.
Well situated, not far from the Visitors Centre, is an excellent play area for children, part of which most suited for the really young and part for some of the older kids. A sandy area for really small children. Behind the centre is the Steam Railway and further beyond a lake. Lots of open space and picnic tables for lunch.
The steam railway just behind the Visitors Centre is one of the best in the country. The ride takes about 20 minutes and during this ride you take in a number of tunnels and pass by the central lake. A complete joy for all of the family.
An energetic way to get around Moors Valley if it something that suits you and your family is to hire a bike. Often you wish you had one of those bike carriers on your car – well here at this park you can hire one from the many available in the hire store. There are miles and miles of well mapped cycling paths here and it’s a great way to see the beauty of the park.
A great experience for the over 12’s and fairly fit is the ‘Go Ape’ experience. Go Ape is an experience of truly high wire acts in the tree tops and lasts for about 2 hours. This is great fun, truly energetic, a bit scary and a marvellous experience. Definitely not for the unfit and pre-booking is essential as very popular.
The play trail is an absolute must for the children. There is some marvellous wooden play equipment spread throughout the whole trail and this in itself can take a couple of hours and the children have little realisation of how far they are going around the park because they are having so much fun on all the play features.
After a day out at Moors Valley Country Park you can be sure that the entire family will have lots of fun. You can return to your New Forest holiday accommodation after having a fun filled, energetic, packed day and knowing that all will sleep extremely well that night.
If you fancy a rest the next down the city of Southampton is also only a short drive away and you can find information on the Southampton website
