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I have just returned from a lovely weekend camping trip at this camp site. I took my 2 year old son camping for the first time and he loved it.
I found having a baby changing area fantastic, you just pay £10 deposit and return the key when you leave. The baby changing area is very small and has a shower so it can be a bit tight when family's are having showers.
I found the main toilet and shower block clean and people did use the bucket and mop to clear up after then. Nice change going camping and not having a muddy shower floor to deal with. But I was up early and having a shower at 7am - maybe a bonus for having a child, get in when the showers are nice and clean! I think the camp site was only half full so that might have helped!
They have a lovely kids play area, my little boy spent a lot time in this area.
We had no problems with having the pitches not being set out but I could see it being a problem if the site was busier. Our neighbours decided to take up room of about 5 or 7 pitches with only 3 tents and a lovely kitchen and dinning area they had set up.
The store was OK, only really visited it a few times as we had our own food, the staff where very helpful.
Location is lovely, very close to a heath area where all the horses and cows are, and some great areas to walk. Close to some lovely towns.
We are planning to go back next year as we loved the camp site.
I found all the people on the site very nice and happy to help if you have any questions.
I would recommend this site for people who have children.
My two children and I have just returned from 5 days at this site and had a fab time - for most of it!
The site was large and had plenty of space when we arrived on the 25th. We pitched fairly close to the shop as it meant my children could safely go there on their own without me! We were also very close to a water tap although the toilet block was a bit of a trek.
The staff were friendly and efficient - almost too efficient! The rules of the site were gone through on arrival which I was very impressed with although not always adhered to.
I had no real issue with the toilet blocks and the cleanliness. These are to all intents and purposes 'public toilets' and I think the amount of traffic they had they were kept as clean as one can expect. They could not possibly have someone on hand 24/7 to clean up after everyone. The loo paper dispensers were very annoying though, only a small piece at a time so you just kept pulling more and more. I found the showers slightly irritating though in that every 10 seconds you had to keep pushing the button for water. It just prolonged the time you had to spend in there, hence the queues.
The playground was good although I think for 8 years and under really. Not huge, but it was better than nothing. Perfect site for cycling!
The ground is a huge bugbear of mine. I must have ruined (bent) at least 20 pegs trying to hammer them in. It was such hard work and so frustrating at times. I have since been told this used to be an airfield which would account for the concrete about 6 inches below the surface!
The shop was OK but only sold individual boxes of cereal at 61p each which I thought was a bit steep!
The surrounding area was delightful! Open, green and filled with donkeys, horses and cows. Just beautiful. Even my 11 year old son commented how lovely it was and how he wants to live there when he grows up. Very observant for one so young!
All in all a good holiday. Beach very close, little villages very close, wildlife very close.
Stayed bank holiday weekend, cut short weekend due to conditions of campsite.
Both male / female toilets and showers really dirty and unhygenic! (this is obviously down to the people staying but a shame that the campsite don't keep an eye on it more)
Not enough showers for the size of the site, at least 20-30 minutes wait for ladies showers.
Dishwashing room way too small, had to queue over 30 minutes each meal to wash dishes.
Premier pitches very hit and miss, difficult to find a pitch available with hook up. (was just as well we had a double extension lead as would never have been able to pitch close enough to electric. (we booked to arrive on the Thursday to avoid problems before the bank holiday but this was still an issue)
The campsite changed their rules regarding the distance between tents to fit more in for the bank holiday, shame as you felt a bit too close to your neighbours.
If you aren't fussed about the above the site location was nice, great access to the New Forest.
I appreciate that is was busy at it was bank holiday but have never had these issues at other sites we have stayed at.
Very large site. The staff were very friendly and you can choose your own pitch. We found a nice spot amongst the trees which we had to ourselves for a couple of nights but at the weekend it became very busy and we suddenly had a few close neighbours. It was however quiet after dark.
The toilet blocks were large and well kept. I never needed to wait for a shower or toilet and there was always hot water. The only issue I had with the toilet blocks was that both of them were near the reception so if you'd pitched further away, like us, then it was a fair walk to the loos. Not so good in the middle of the night. At the weekend it was jam-packed around the toilet blocks. I should imagine if you wanted a quiet weekend then avoid pitching there, it was very noisy!
The children's play area was good. Our daughter was only just under one at the time we visited so there wasn't much for her, but it was well equipped.
The shop was the best I've seen on a campsite. They stocked pretty much everything, including lights and camping equipment, Ecover and even ready prepared meals. Lots of fresh bread in the morning, but get there early as it goes. And you will have to queue. They even had a Costa Coffee counter!
The location was good for drives around the New Forest. There were nice walks around the campsite and Bournemouth was about half an hours drive away. For us I think we'd prefer somewhere to stay where we weren't as reliant on the car. It's nice to be able to walk to the nearest town, which you certainly couldn't do here.
A good site for a few nights. I doubt we'd go back as I think we'd prefer to find somewhere else to try in the New Forest but it was very good value and worth trying out.
We arrived on Friday 21st (probably the busiest weekend due to the Bournemouth Air Festival) - our party included 2 families of 4 (2 adults/2 children age ranges from 6 - 13). The two pitches we got together were positioned close to all facilities. It was made clear about the 6 metre rule which was fine apart from another tent pitching up fairly close to ours.
The toilet facilities were modern and had constant hot water, although could have done with being cleaned more often, a bucket of water and a mop was constantly on hand and most campers used this to clean their shower after use. The toilet side could have been with being cleaned more often as there seemed to constantly be toilet paper on the floor. The dishwashing facilities were great although other campers did not leave the sinks in a clean state.
The shop did stock a few bits and pieces and ran an evening takeaway over the weekend.
Noise levels were good and most people did adhere to the 2230 curfew although as previously commented by other reviews the noise levels were high from around 0530 with both the air traffic and smaller children.
All in all a fab holiday and well placed for visiting the beautiful beaches of Bournemouth and Christchurch and the surrounding New Forest.
We chose this site because it has no ponies, making it safe for our children. It is huge: 600-odd pitches, and I think we would have hated 550 of them. However, we arrived lunchtime on the Friday and were able to get a lovely pitch in a little forest glade. We were surrounded by trees yet close to the toilets and children's play area. The pitch was idyllic and we would definitely return if we could have the same sort of location. However, the vast majority of units were on flat, uninteresting ground, squashed together with no privacy.
The showers and toilets would be fine, but unfortunately because of the poorly designed toilet-roll holders there is toilet paper constantly scattered all over the blocks. This makes them look untidy and dirty, even though they are regularly cleaned.
The onsite shop does breakfast, take-out coffee, and bread and pastries baked onsite. It was however a bit short on basic items.
The surrounding area is lovely - lots of cows and horses for the kids to look at, and moorland right outside the campsite for them to run around in. The area is great for kite-flying; there are also bike trails through the woods.
I would strongly recommend arriving as early as possible at this site to get your choice of pitch.
Couldn't agree more with hotsunlover's review - a very large site with great facilities although minor niggles. On arrival the reception staff were friendly, knowledgeable and very helpful. We arrived mid-week and were looking to pitch 3 tents - we found a great space fairly easily although as it got nearer the weekend new arrivals were having much more difficulty. The wardens did appear to be policing the 6m rule which helped.
Shop was well stocked but very busy at opening time (not sure why campers feel the need to queue to buy ready made coffee and bacon rolls - isn't the whole idea of camping to do this yourself?!?!) Condition of toilet /shower block did deteriorate during the day but generally clean and plenty of hot water. Most campers very considerate but there were some early risers. Great area of the Forest near to Burley and Mudeford. Would definitely return but prefer smaller sites with allocated pitches.
This is a very busy site and was full when we visited. There were lots of families and if each of the 700 pitches had 3 people on it then it would be 2100 people! The facility blocks stuggled to cope really: there were already queues for the showers at 7am, and hot water ran out soon after that in my block.
It is a very open site which means that the main body is just a field of tents. Unless you can get a spot out of the way around the edge, your pitch will be lost in the middle of a sea of tents rather like a refugee camp.
Whilst I fully support the idea of reusing water on such a site, very few of the taps have drinking water. To make matters worse, the signage on the non-drinking water is both ambiguous and patchy. I hate to think what made the water undrinkable because lots of campers must have been drinking the non-potable water. (I know we were drinking it for most of our stay.)
On the up side.
1) For such a busy site it was completely silent after 10:30.
2) Just outside of the camp is stunning and varied forest for exploring.
3) Because it's so big and isn't always everyone's first choice, it still had spaces less than a week before we turned up on a busy August weekend.
Just returned from a weekend stay at Holmsley with a large group of friends. We had a lovely time and here is our feedback.
Arrived at various times on Friday afternoon/ evening (14th Aug) and easily had enough space to pitch 8 tents all next to each other.
We were asked to observe the 6m rule and we did leave reasonable space between our tents but to be honest this is fairly impossible to do as pitch spaces are not marked out (apart from us bringing everything bar the kitchen sink we didn't happen to bring a tape measure!) - we were fairly sensible on spacing out - we were asked to move our tents as they were too close together but as the site was full there wasn't really a lot of alternatives - At 8pm with 8 tents, 11 kids incl 2 x10 wk old babies we weren't really prepared to move anywhere! We were going to move them in the morning but so many other tents were pitched closer than ours were that we left them and we were not asked again.
On Saturday morning the toilets were clean and showers clean and warm, however by Sunday the showers were freezing and messy. The mens facilities were pretty disgusting which was disappointing as its not the cheapest campsite to stay om.
Quiet rule requestfully - enforced at 1030pm and most people observed this - although we were allowed to chat / drink outside our tents as long as you kept the noise down. No loud music at all - just a chorus of snoring!
Great sight for kids - 100s of them running around and a good little play area
No disturbance from Horses on sight but be careful driving inbetween Burley and the campsite as many horses just linger in the middle of the road and are not fussed about moving anywhere quickly!
Went for a long walk (too long for small children though 3 miles) to Burley - Burley Inn pub - average pub food, good service.
Overall we enjoyed our stay, we were able to all stay close by to each other - the only thing that was annoying was the cold showers.
Arrived home from our 4 night camping trip yesterday. Overall, had a fantastic experience (we had only camped for weekends prior to this trip). Having 3 children (2,6 and 9) we found the site to be safe, plenty of toilet and shower facilities and child friendly. We had gone with 2 other families - were only able to pitch directly next to one of them due to the free pitching (it would have been nice to have had 3 pitches ready and waiting for us though). Hired bikes for a day - my husband took his bike, and we hired a tag along for the 6 year old to attach to this, a bike for the 9 year old and another bike and child seat. We used the company TREX who were brilliant - £29 for the day - the lady delivered them to the site within 10 mins of the telephone call and collected them at 6.30pm! Excellent service and value for money. If I visited the site again, I would def try and take the boys bikes as there were so many children cycling around the site. Highlights for the children were strawberry picking locally, the bike ride, beach at Sandbanks and the nightwalk we did with them (the rangers activity was fully booked!). Don't let the ladies on reception put you off . They were quite abrupt and miserable on arrival! Also, we did have trouble pitching our tent as the ground was so hard - knocking the pegs in at an angle did it for us!
Arrived on a Friday (31st July) site was filling up, eventually (3rd time lucky) found a good site near the fence and quite quiet. The toilet blocks were OK but due to mud looked dirty at times. Due to weather I think they should be a little proactive by filling the large puddle areas near the washing blocks. Beautiful location with lots to do. Our daughter made friends with our neighbours while playing cricket (in fact deperate to get in touch with George or Katie so if you see this plse drop Sophia a line 108 SE18 5JL)
On the whole a good campsite, great pubs and places to eat in Burley.
We came way from this campsite with some mixed feelings. We loved the area and the fact that you could choose your pitches, being able to see the horses but not having your tent ransacked by them was brilliant. We however, were disappointed by the facilities. The showers and toilets were rarely clean and being cleaned once a day did not seem adequate to us during surely, the busiest time of the year. It also seemed that people could pretty much do as they wanted, putting up many windbreaks (they state only one windbreak when you book in) and not pitching the regulation 6 metres away from the neighbouring tent.
It is a busy site and much larger than we normally would visit, we are sure this probably accounts for the niggles we had. The 10.30pm curfew did work well during our stay, but often we and other campers were woken at 5.00am by aircraft noise.
We had a great time but I think we have learnt that smaller campsites suit our needs!
We were a group of 9 in 3 tents. We booked and paid for 3 electric hook ups 3 months previous to our visit. When we arrived we could only find 2 hook ups together. We were informed by staff that somewhere on the site was an empty hook up as they had 121 hook ups and 121 booked, (fat lot of good one of the tents being across the other side of the site)one of our group cycled round the site and could not find the one hook up that was supposedly ours. Also after we arrived there were several more arrivals also looking for a hook up. Basically we were told that was the way it was. The 6 metre from other units is a good idea but hard to do in practice. We pitched our 3 tents as best we could to try and adhere to this .But failed, so we did the best we could. 2 hours later as the final pegs were being put in, a member of staff came over and informed us we had to move 2 of the tents as they were a little close to other units. At this point, any sane people would have packed up and left. We managed to get another hook up the next day when the people behind us left.
They also have a rule of quiet after 10.30pm, bit early really. They should also have a rule for the little darlings that were screaming and shouting at 5.45am and woke us all up.
Showers/toilets were ok, cleaned daily. Shop had small selection but not everyday foods.
Found an excellent pub on the Christchurch road (Toby Cavery) the food was fantastic and the staff very pleasant and friendly.
If you are happy to book a non electric pitch should be fine.But if you want electric be prepared to hunt one down. (Good luck)
We arrived on a Friday and found a spot for three tents in the big field with no problem. We set up in very heavy rain but as soon as the day closed in and the rain cleared the campsite became very full, I think if you were arriving on a Saturday you might struggle to find a decent pitch.
The site has a cattle grid so the forest ponies and cattle cannot pester you when you are having your breakfast.
The facilities on the site are good, the toilet and shower blocks look recently refurbished and were very nice and clean. Some of the people staying at the site did not have any respect for the facilities or the other people who would be using them, and occasionally over our stay the facilities were messy/dirty.
There is a lovely well stocked shop and take-away for hot drinks and food.
The campsite is in a lovely location, surrounded by nice walks.
Although we were given a sheet with the campsite rules (with a quiet policy after 10:30) the site was very lively at night. I woke up at 03:30 on the saturday morning and there were still people talking loudly and music playing.
This is a nice campsite, very dog friendly and lovely jolly staff, we would go back but only mid week.
This was our first camping trip, and to be honest not the site we really wanted to go to as it was full (Sandy Balls). We (mum, dad (me), 6-year old son) went with my sister and her 4 children (12 years old down to 6 months old).
Arrived on Monday at Midday, and easily booked in. You find your own pitch, and as long as you are 6m away from another unit, you are free to camp anywhere (some people were camped directly behind the loos, but each to their own!), as long as you don't go in the EHU areas if you didn't book EHU. We found a nice spot in the furthest area form the entrance, and began to pitch. As soon as we had the first tent up and pegged down, it thundered, and absolutely poured down. Doesn't sound like a great start, but it did us a favour, as two huge puddles appeared under the tent as we stood inside the tent waiting for the rain to stop! When it did, we were able to move the tent a few feet to an area that had stayed dry. Had another thunderstorm whilst pitching ours, but we kept everything dry (including the kids).
Site was pretty busy, but everyone kept the noise down and most people drove round pretty sensibly. Toilets and showers were OK (the block nearest us closed between 4 & 6pm for cleaning) and we ever had to queue. As others have written, hot water in the showers is a bit too hot, particularly for the youngsters. Dish washing room also had loads of hot water and plentry of space.
Didn't buy anything from the shop, other than some Anadin (£2.70!) but it looked fine. Ponies can't get on the site itself, but loads to ooh and aah at nearby. Great base for exploring the New Forest / Bournemouth area.
We would definitely go there again - an excellent site and a great time. Turned my wife from a (very) reluctant camper to a seasoned pro in four nights :-)
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Common Questions
Is Holmsley Camping In The New Forest child friendly? YES, it accepts children & has a playground View all facilities
Where is the nearest shop to Holmsley Camping In The New Forest? There is a shop on site View all facilities
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
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The facilities shown on this website are a guide only, and you should check with the campsite direct before making any booking. The UKCampsite.co.uk will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions
Tent Pitches 
Caravan Pitches 
Motorhome Pitches 
Small Campervans 
Glamping Units 
No Statics for Hire 
No Statics for Sale 
Seasonal Pitches 
Electric Hookups 
Hardstanding Pitches 
No Fully Serviced Pitches 
Families Welcome 
Not Members Only 
Rallies Welcome 
Not Naturist Site 
Dogs Welcome 
No Dogs Allowed 
Groups Welcome 
Motorbikers Welcome 
Toilet Facilities 
Hot Showers 
Washing Up 
No Bathroom 
No Baby Changing 
Laundry On Site 
Drinking Water 
Disabled Friendly 
Chemical Disposal 
Battery Charging 
No Gas Exchange 
Recycling Facilities 
No Kitchen Facilities 
No Freezer / Fridge 
Motorhome Point 
Wifi Access 
Shop On Site 
Bar <5 miles 
Restaurant or Cafe or Takeaway <5 miles 
Kids Playground 
No TV Room 
No Games Room 
No Evening Ents 
No Fishing 
No Wild Swimming 
No Indoor Pool 
No Outdoor Pool 
Horse Riding <5 miles 
Cycle Hire On Site 
Golf <5 miles 
No Tennis 
Beach <10 miles 
Watersports <10 miles 
No Boat Launch 
No Sea Views 
Not Working Farm 
No Campfires Allowed 
No Waterside Pitches 
Public Transport <5 miles
Offroad Dog Walk On Site or Direct Access 
Electric Car Charging Point
I have just returned from a lovely weekend camping trip at this camp site. I took my 2 year old son camping for the first time and he loved it.
