Ms B & I love the New Forest and usually try to visit at least once every two years. This post is about our stay last summer. Sometimes it takes us forever to finish a post. But rest assured, the New Forest hasn’t changed a bit since we first visited 8 years ago. We do double-check each venue and activity provider to make sure they’re still rated the same and up and running. In this case, for example, we are happy to report that The Terrace has hired a new, Michelin-starred head chef, since our visit (links below).
Our apologies that the photos are not aligned with the headlines of this post. This is because we wanted to spread the photos evenly and chronologically, while there are simply way too many animal photos to squeeze in.
The weather forecast for the weekend wasn’t great, which is funny, because during most of our past two visits, we had been violently soaked to the bone nearly non-stop. In the end we were reasonably lucky with just a bit of drizzle every now and then.
Short Train Ride from London
We left work early that Friday night and took the 6:05pm train from London Waterloo to Brockenhurst (1h30m, no interchange). From the station it is 18mins walk to the hotel of our choice: 3-star Forest Park Hotel, which is very basic, but reasonably good value in our view. We were not planning on spending much time in our hotel room anyway.
Taxi Ride, Dinner at The Pig
We had just enough time to drop off our luggage, when our pre-ordered mini-cab picked us up for the short 10min ride to The Pig restaurant (blog post here), where we had a dinner reservation. On a related note: in our view it is a good idea to pre-order cabs in rural regions and to be prepared to pay premium compared with London prices. Otherwise you might have to wait for a long time and won’t be offered a good price. We paid between £14 and £32 for the rides mentioned, £14 for this ride. At The Pig we greatly enjoyed the rustic yet at least in parts also elegant atmosphere. We were pretty impressed with our food. Two hours later another pre-ordered cab took us back to our hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Breakfast at the New Forest Hotel
The next morning we had a tasty no-frills breakfast at our hotel, then off we were to do some hiking and exploring.
Lunch at the Formerly Michelin-Starred Terrace, Beaulieu
At noon we were picked up at our hotel for the 25min ride to Beaulieu, where we had a lunch reservation at the formerly Michelin-starred The Terrace at the Montagu Arms (review here, very disappointing experience). We arrived early, so had half an hour left to walk around town. Like many New Forest towns this time of year, it seemed to have been overrun by horses, ponies, and donkeys. The animals are all owned by farmers. But for many decades they have been allowed to roam freely around the New Forest during part of the year. At other parts of the year it’s pigs who are allowed to roam freely to pick up the acorns they like so much.
Horesback Riding
At 2:30pm we arrived early for our 3pm one-hour horseback riding session at Brockenhurst Riding Stables (blog post here), as requested. They do not allow you to do more than one hour if you’re a beginner. We had done some horseback riding with them before, when they had still been located closer to the New Forest Hotel (they moved recently).
Our group was rather large with several small children, which delayed us a little bit. We weren’t as lucky as last time, when we saw the famous “albino” deer (they’re not albino, just very white). Nonetheless, it was again great fun to ride the horses. Surprisingly good exercise too, especially during cantering and when climbing up and down little ditches and mounds cross-country, crossing little streams, trying, as a horseman or -woman to avoid touching some of the lower tree branches. It’s all very safe though, and you only move faster on open, even-surfaced terrain, and only if you want to.
A bit of Hiking, then Dinner
We spent the rest of the afternoon doing some more hiking and exploring. Considering I had hardly had anything for lunch, I was glad when we arrived at our dinner location at 7:15pm: Beresfords Restaurant, at the Balmer Lawn Hotel & Saltus Spa, 15mins walk from our hotel (review here).
Jetski Ride from Poole
The next morning we got up real early. We skipped breakfast, checked out, and (with all our luggage) took the first train to nearby Poole. It is a 40min train ride with two stops, no interchange. I had booked myself into a 90min jetski session with Jetski Safaris (post here): 60mins on the water, rest safety video, instructions, getting changed, etc. It should be noted that we weren’t able to find any place near the station in Poole that would have allowed us to store our luggage, so we felt very lucky that we had packed relatively lightly.
We walked via a few detours from the station to the jetski place (45mins walk if you walk directly). The safari itself was great fun.
Late Lunch at Rick Stein Sandbanks
At 1:45pm a pre-ordered cab took us on a 5min ride from the jetski place to Rick Stein Sandbanks restaurant, where we enjoyed a lovely late lunch (review here).
Exploring Poole, Train Ride back to London
During the afternoon we explored Sandbanks and Poole a little bit more, watched the dozens of kite surfers go about their quite dangerous but fun business. By dinner time we were safely on our way back from Poole to Waterloo (direct express trains, very convenient, you pass through Brockenhurst once again).
We will definitely visit the New Forest again this year. It’s always so much fun.
If you’re looking for further ideas for weekend trips from London, check out our posts about Norfolk, the Cotswolds, and Canterbury. Our buddy Morag has also written a fabulous post about an extended weekend destination. Check out her article on Donside, Scotland.
For adventure and travel inspiration, try our posts about Porto, Colesdalen, Dubai, self-punting in Cambridge, and our rides on a jetlev, a powerboat, and a helicopter.
For restaurant reviews, feel welcome to have a look at our articles about The Fig, Chipping Campden, The Sheep on Sheep Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, Beso in London, and Il-Horza in Malta, if you like.
Thank you for stopping by and hopefully see you again very soon.
31 Comments
I can’t get over the fact the donkeys are just roaming around town! Love that…. also that jetski safari looks ace… that’s Durdle Door in the background right?
Cheers, buddy. That weekend was so much fun we repeated it a couple of months ago and will do so again. Durdle Door is not far, roughly 30km further west, this is Old Harry Rocks. Stefan
New forest sounds like a nice place but I can’t stop laughing at all the horse and donkey photos!! It’s a shame about your disappointing lunch. but other than that, it sounds like you had a great trip, and keep going back!
Yes, Lannie, the donkeys and horses and ponies are really making every visit to the New Forest very special. 🙂
At first I thought you were making an ass of us with the free roaming Donkeys, but there you go. I’d love this, they are such friendly animals. You really packed that weekend didn’t you.
I spotted the pun, haha..!! Thank you for the comment, John, yes, quite a busy weekend, but so much fun. And you’re right, they’re quite friendly, as long as you don’t cross them. 🙂 🙂
I love the New Forest and Poole. We visited on our last trip back to the UK. We saw lots of the New Forest ponies but no donkeys!
Oh no, Wendy, you missed out on the donkeys!! Glad to hear you’ve visited the New Forest, though, it’s such a magical place, isn’t it. 🙂
Looks like the donkeys like a beer or 2! Sounds like you had a great weekend. Jetskiing and delicious food! What’s not to like?
Thank you, Ross. Yes, very fun weekend and you’re right, those donkeys have got one thing on their mind: party, they rarely stop at two pints haha..
Love the New Forest its been many years since I was there. And we weren’t on a jetski thats for sure. Love the usual adventure from you guys horse riding and the jetskis sound amazing.
Food looks fabulous and can’t belive New Forest is only 1 hrs 30 mins from London.
Yes, Richard, it’s really close to London. The mainline from London to Bournemouth has a stop right in Brockenhurst, where we usually stay, it literally couldn’t be any more convenient.. 🙂
Anywhere that you can go horseback riding and jet ski is gonna be a fun destination! I love how cute and random it is to see so many donkeys and/or pigs roaming the town! The donkeys look like they are enjoying wandering the town too! I’ve never been a huge fan of horses (fear and a few bad experiences) but this riding tour looks calm with beautiful scenery so I’d give it a try! Were those crab legs sticking out from that dinner dish? Looks good, what is it?
Yes, you’re right, Vanessa, the donkeys appear very randomly and they’re certainly cute if you don’t cross them. Sorry to hear about your bad experience with horses. You’re not the only person I know that is scared of them. I think horse-riding accidents happen quite frequently and are usually not pretty. On the other hand you’re 100% right to say you’d try our riding tour. It’s really super-safe and we only move very slowly. And yes, those are crab legs sticking out of that dressed crab. I think it’s much more common here in England than pretty much anywhere else I’ve been. 🙂
New Forest sounds like such a wonderful place to explore with something for everyone. Food, horses and jet skis – a prefect blend for a get away. Proof of a great time, is when you have too many photos. THXS for posting.
We really had the most marvellous time, Steve, yes. 🙂
I hate to break it to you, but the wandering horses, donkeys and ponies were the stars of this blog post. I’ve never seen anything like it! Are they well-behaved?( I mean as well-behaved as an animal can be.)
It appears that you both enjoyed your stay and that there was plenty to do. The horseback riding lesson sounds like fun.
Thank you, Alecia. Yes, I know, can’t beat those cute creatures, right? 🙂
I love how the donkeys and horses roam around town! You captured some very unique photos. New FOrest looks very quaint with a splash of nature thrown in. Iwould defintiely escape the city to check it out.
Thank you, Tiffany, it was so much fun, and yes, those donkeys and horese roaming around town are really making all the difference, aren’t they.
What a cool place where donkeys and ponies and pigs roam free! I would love to horseback ride (they’re so pretty) and jetski…such a fun weekend trip to the New Forest & Poole area.
Thank you, KMF. We love the New Forest. 🙂
Looks like you had a nice time. Love how the horses roam about town and in traffic. I’m not sure what we would have done without somewhere to secure our luggage though.
Yes, Tom, those horses and donkeys roaming about town are making all the difference. I’m sure you’d enjoy it just as much as we did. 🙂
A mule or a donkey, a horse or a pony, these four-legged creatures look so majestic. I got on a horse before when I was a kid and I think it taught me two good lessons about saddle and impulsiveness. I wonder how long will it take to reach New Forest on a horse ride?
Good question, Jan. I guess typically you’d do about 40km per day on a horse, so it would take four days. 🙂
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with horses as a kid. I know that horses can be quite dangerous and lots of accidents happen all the time. The good thing with these horse riding schools is that it’s very secure and you never go faster than walking speed.
I love the idea of a town full of wandering donkeys. The food looks decent and the jet ski sounds like the perfect end to a random weekend.
Cheers, yeah.. those donkeys are a whole lot of fun. They know full well that no one is going to run them over, so they are totally comfortable blocking the roads for hours haha… 🙂
Thanks for sharing, this is a fantastic blog article Great
Thank you very much, Joanna.