Cheddar Woods is a Darwin escapes holiday park just outside Cheddar in Somerset. We recently went for a day there, without any accommodation, just to see what the facilities were like. And we were impressed!
I rang a week in advance to check the rumours were true, and that you could just turn up for a swim or to use the bowling alley, and they confirmed you could. They said to ring in advance as they could get busy (but we didn’t) and that you need to book for lunch on a Sunday, which is always a roast.
We turned up at 9am on the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend, my logic being that anyone going on holiday might not have arrived yet, or people who had travelled late the night before might not have surfaced. We also didn’t want to be limited to a roast on a Sunday.
The Reception staff were lovely and we bought a swim for the 5 of us for £15. They also pointed out there would be a price increase from the 1st June to £16 for a family (2x2) and £1.50 for under 3s. (As we were still in May, I think our under 3 was free.)
The changing rooms were clean (and dry! Always a perk of being the first swimmers) and very practical for a family with just one large changing area full of cubicles. They had hair dryers, cubicles with baby changing tables and nappy bins opposite the showers / nearer the pool end of the changing room, and one of those machines for spinning your wet costumes dry. The only showers we noticed were one big communal area, but everything felt very smart and clean. The only issues I picked up on in the whole 5 hours we were there was a blocked toilet, no soap in the disabled loo/baby change by the restaurant, and a very full nappy bin in one of the family cubicles. And I probably only noticed those things because everything else was spotless and I only mention it because they’re easy to fix if Cheddar Woods ever see this.
The inside pool itself was simple but very nice. My 6yr old was wondering what sort of slides they’d have but I warned her I didn’t think they would have any (and they didn’t). It’s a 15m pool that’s a consistent 1.2m deep with a 0.4m section with some fountains and bubbles - I wouldn’t call it a jacccuzi-style pool, I saw it as more of an entertaining (deep) splash pad for our toddler but I can see you could sit there quite happily if you were using their spa facilities.
An adult swim pass includes use of the sauna and steam room but we had 3 kids with us so didn’t investigate that. I read on a poster that from June - in peak season - you will be given a wrist band when you go along as a General Admission - but the poster didn’t say what else that means.
I did see a poster about their spa days and morning - a day including a 45 minute treatment, lunch and use of the pool, sauna and steam room for £70pp or £130per couple, or a half day option which includes a 30 minute treatment, the same use of the pool and spa, and a hot drink and cake for £50pp / £95p per couple. Other posters showed they do a wide range of facials, massages and manicures/pedicures for prices that seemed quite reasonable.
After about an hour in the pool - some of which we had the pool to ourselves - we got ourselves showered and dried in a leisurely manner as it was nice and quiet.
We then went to the restaurant/bar and found the bowling, arcade, softplay and outside park equipment.
Soft play
The soft play was a very pleasant surprise for our youngest 2… it’s supposed to be for 5 and unders and it’s just the sort with moveable softplay blocks, but as there was no one else around we let our 6 year old in to help the 2 year old.
The arcade was a couple of motorbike racing games, a couple of driving games, a big Minecraft arcade game and an air hockey table. The kids liked sitting on the bikes and in the car seats, as kids do, and we had a couple of games of air hockey.
Eventually we shepherded them to the bowling, which is 2 coin operated alleys. My 10 year old and my husband enjoyed their game and for £1 a person it was an entertaining pastime. For me and the little 2, it was harder work as the balls were smaller than regular balls with no holes for your fingers which somehow made it really hard to help a 2 year old swing and throw the ball with any power. There were also 2 buttons and a joystick that we didn’t know how to use - we just knew some of the barriers weren’t up/were broken so we had a LOT of gutter throws. Also sometimes we seemed to get 2 balls each and sometimes we didn’t - but we weren’t sure if that was us (and a 2yr old treading over the line and perhaps fouling) or the machine. Still, the older players enjoyed their game and the little ones had fun just randomly throwing balls.
It wasn’t quite 11:30am and lunch started at 12, so the 10 year old and I found a hoard of board games whilst the little ones spent their time between the soft play and the arcade, with my husband in tow.
Kids meals
Come lunch time, we ordered and - my goodness, the food was crazy quick. And it was so, so good. It’s not often I particularly think that, but my Brie, bacon and cranberry ciabatta with side salad and coleslaw looked amazing and tasted equally as good as it looked. My husband's chicken ciabatta might not have been as good as mine but it was nice. The 2 year old had a pizza (because some of the rest of us were torn about maybe fancying pizza and he wouldn’t eat it all) which was a thick fluffy base and liked by all. The other 2 kids had a beef burger in a bun with chips and beans - and it was a very large, bbq’d tasting burger in a big floury bap. They would have liked the option of cheese on it, and maybe some salad (the only time they really like salad is in a burger bun), but it was still a very nice burger. The chips were fine and everyone ate them - they weren’t as special as the rest of everything but they were fine. Our meal - with everyone having half a pint of lemonade except for the 2 year old who had milk - came to £52. The pizza was just under £8 - whether you ordered it from the kids menu or the adults, it was the same one - and the kids burgers were £7.50. I’d say the meals they got were very good value for what we paid, but typically you might get a drink and ice cream for that price on a kids menu, the difference being those meals wouldn’t be as nice as what we had. So it meant buying a £2.60 lemonade on top, which is where things get a little more expensive. Buy like I say, the meals seemed good value for money in this crazy expensive day and age.
Outside play park
Next we had a little play in the playground / park outside.
There’s an area with a goal, big enough for a bit of a kick about and then a couple of wooden structures joined by a bridge for climbing with a slide and a tunnel. The kids loved it and there was something for everyone but I can imagine the area could get crazy crowded when there are more people in the restaurant - as there were starting to be when we left.
Next we went for a wander around the cabins - we didn’t go around individual cabins but walked up the main roadway to see the general lay of the land. My husband - who’s quite green fingered - had commented when we arrived that the planting didn’t strike as particularly native, but he later also commented how there had been an awful lot of investment into all the trees and shrubs planted everywhere. Overall the outside (like the inside) does feel very considered, invested in and looked after.
The accommodation is largely brown cabins… the kinda clad static caravan type, but they do look nicer than static caravans and they’re very nicely landscaped into different little green grassed culd-e-sacs. At the top of the hill are some different looking wooden cabins that look a little older / more weathered than the new plastic-clad ones but a little more like a house to arrive to. (They also look like a classroom or visitor centre at a National Trust property - but not in a bad way.)
Finally, we walked back down the hill and bought an ice cream in Reception. We sat on some giant carved wooden chairs outside to eat them and then headed home at about 2pm.
Overall we were very impressed with everything, liked the style of the interiors, and will definitely visit again.
The thoughts and views expressed in this blog post are the author’s own and not that of Activibees.com or it's operators.
