The lovely Cat and Alan from Here Come the Hoopers invited us to stay with them for a short break in their family holiday home in Burniston near Scarborough in North Yorkshire. You may remember we stayed last year and enjoyed a treasure trail around Scarborough, lunch at Scarborough Seafood Social and ice cream by the beach (read about that trip here). It's lovely going away with friends with kids of the same age as ours as they all get on well and play nicely together. As they're older we can let them head to the park by the cottage for an hour by themselves when 5 kids all gets a bit too much too.
Saturday at Dalby Forest
After humming and harring about the expensive £9 parking charge at Dalby Forest, we just decided to go with it and spend the day there. The weather was beautiful and sunny and the 40-minute drive from the cottage was very scenic - we passed through quaint little villages and Thornton-le-Dale is definitely one for the list.
The parking system at Dalby Forest is very clever, the barrier opens on arrival, you then head to one of the payment machines dotted around the park, pay your £9 (by cash or card) and enter your reg then the barrier recognises that you've paid on departure and lifts for you. No tokens or tickets required.
We decided to start with the ZOG trail which runs through the forest. You can complete this without an activity pack but we decided to go all out and buy two between us from the visitor centre (£3 each). The one mile (ish) walk through the forest was lovely and the ZOG trail did add a little bit of interest but it was sadly probably the worst Forestry Commission trail I've ever tried. There are no wooden sculptures to find, the route is also used by cyclists riding past so you are constantly on guard asking the kids to move out of the way and watch what they are doing and there were no pencils in our trail packs so we couldn't even complete the activity sheets. Like I say though, it still was a lovely walk and I'd still do it again but for us it's not a patch on the trails at Hamsterley or Kielder. Jack enjoyed collecting the star stickers as he completed various challenges throughout the trail and the girls (and dads) liked using the special viewfinder to reveal hidden animals. The trail is nice and flat and pushchair friendly.
The parking system at Dalby Forest is very clever, the barrier opens on arrival, you then head to one of the payment machines dotted around the park, pay your £9 (by cash or card) and enter your reg then the barrier recognises that you've paid on departure and lifts for you. No tokens or tickets required.
We decided to start with the ZOG trail which runs through the forest. You can complete this without an activity pack but we decided to go all out and buy two between us from the visitor centre (£3 each). The one mile (ish) walk through the forest was lovely and the ZOG trail did add a little bit of interest but it was sadly probably the worst Forestry Commission trail I've ever tried. There are no wooden sculptures to find, the route is also used by cyclists riding past so you are constantly on guard asking the kids to move out of the way and watch what they are doing and there were no pencils in our trail packs so we couldn't even complete the activity sheets. Like I say though, it still was a lovely walk and I'd still do it again but for us it's not a patch on the trails at Hamsterley or Kielder. Jack enjoyed collecting the star stickers as he completed various challenges throughout the trail and the girls (and dads) liked using the special viewfinder to reveal hidden animals. The trail is nice and flat and pushchair friendly.
After the trail we were well in need of a cuppa so popped to the visitor centre cafe for coffees, snacks and drinks. A light lunch and drinks set us back around £30 for the 5 of us which wasn't too bad and as the sun was shining, we were able to enjoy our first al-fresco lunch of the year on the terrace. There are picnic tables and BBQ stands here too and the whole terrace overlooks a fantastic adventure playground and stream which the kids loved playing in as we ordered our second coffee.
Bring a change of clothes and wellies if you think your kids are likely to play in the stream - ours decided to start a dam building competition and ended up travelling home with soggy feet.
We spent around 4-5 hours at Dalby Forest (time flies when you're having fun) and probably only explored 1/10th of it. The forest is HUGE and there are loads of walking trails, bikes to hire, challenging cycle routes, picnic spots, forest drives, zip wires, more play parks, Go Ape and more. If you pick a nice day, you could easily spend a full day here and still not see everything.
Back at the cottage, the kids escaped to the park again and us grown-ups indulged in a couple more mojitos (this time made by Alan whose mojitos were the best of the weekend - sorry Steve). Alan had bought some burgers from Charlotte's Butchery in Gosforth which Steve cooked for us all - OMG they were LUSH! I can't believe I didn't take a photo but I'd highly recommend giving them a try.
We spent around 4-5 hours at Dalby Forest (time flies when you're having fun) and probably only explored 1/10th of it. The forest is HUGE and there are loads of walking trails, bikes to hire, challenging cycle routes, picnic spots, forest drives, zip wires, more play parks, Go Ape and more. If you pick a nice day, you could easily spend a full day here and still not see everything.
Back at the cottage, the kids escaped to the park again and us grown-ups indulged in a couple more mojitos (this time made by Alan whose mojitos were the best of the weekend - sorry Steve). Alan had bought some burgers from Charlotte's Butchery in Gosforth which Steve cooked for us all - OMG they were LUSH! I can't believe I didn't take a photo but I'd highly recommend giving them a try.
Sunday Lunch at The Three Jolly Sailors, Burniston
After a lovely lie in (the beds at Meadowside are super comfortable) and a lazy morning drinking coffee and watching Sunday brunch, we walked over the Three Jolly Sailors in Burniston for Sunday Lunch. As it was Mother's Day, Cat had booked our table well in advance and it's a good job she did as it was fully booked. This pub is a proper Yorkshire pub and we all loved our food here. All homemade with generous portions. Sunday lunch was reasonable at two courses for £14. The service was a little haphazard (a 40 minute wait before our order was taken and having to order drinks at the bar but then wait for table service to order our food).
PLUS the children's options weren't explained very well - there was no children's menu and it said on the Sunday lunch menu that children were half price but when we tried to order most of the dishes they said they weren't available for kids but they could make them chicken nuggets. I asked about Vegetarian options for Heidi and there weren't any available. So in the end we ended up ordering half portions of beef and turkey (which were available) and full sized desserts for the kids. The food was so nice here so if they could get a little more organised, they'd be onto a winner I reckon. I'd still recommend you give the Three Jolly Sailors a try as like I say, they make a lush and reasonable Sunday dinner.
Let me know if you have any plans to go away with your friends this year.
Looking for more ideas for things to do in North Yorkshire? Check out these posts:
Disclosure - as we were staying in the Hoopers' family holiday cottage with them, we did not have to pay for our accommodation. We did pay for everything else. It was more of a 'holiday with friends' than a blog thing and I was definitely not asked to write this post but I love writing about our memories and sharing our recommendations with you all.
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