Center Parcs Longleat Forest

Longleat Forest opened in 1994, the third UK village after Sherwood in 1987 and Elveden in 1989, across about 400 acres of woodland on the southern Longleat Estate near Warminster. It has fewer lodges than Sherwood or Elveden, which is down to the steep, hilly ground. That ground is also why it looks the way it does: mixed southern English forest with mature trees and hillside views, the most dramatic setting in the network. The standout is a stand of Giant Redwoods planted in the 1850s, fourteen of them, including the tallest tree in the UK at 58 metres. The walk to them is free, car-free and takes about fifteen minutes, and standing at the base looking up lands even with a two-year-old. No other Center Parcs has anything like it.

The scenery comes with a catch, and with a baby or toddler it’s the one that counts. Longleat is the hilliest UK Center Parcs, and the gradients are the defining constraint for families with a pram or a bike trailer. Reviewers describe it as extremely hilly and hard work with a buggy, and the site is large and spread out partly because of the terrain. Getting from the Pine Lodge area to the Plaza, the village square, on foot with a young child takes roughly fifteen to twenty minutes with some hill sections. The zig-zag path down from the Plaza to the sports area is long, about twenty minutes, with play areas dotted along it to break the walk. Steps offer shortcuts in places, but they don’t work with a buggy. If your youngest walks well, none of this is a problem, and the play areas make the climbs part of the fun. If you’re pushing a pram, plan around it.

A few newer additions sit alongside the classics. Adventure Nets, a treetop run of suspended nets, slides and chasing games, is open, and there are two nine-hole Adventure Golf courses, though the second nine climbs the pine-forest slopes and isn’t buggy-friendly. Arcade Bowls, with digital scoring, runs through the warmer months. Lodge refurbishment has been under way since January 2026 and a new Waterside Lodge area is being built, so some parts of the village may have limited parking or building work in view; the Longleat village news page lists what’s affected for a given week.

Getting around the village

Longleat is the only UK Center Parcs with a land train, which is the site’s answer to the terrain. The pirate-themed train runs every twenty minutes from 8am to around 11pm, calling at twelve stops that link the lodge areas to the Plaza and the activities hub. On Monday and Friday changeover days it starts later, from around 7pm, to keep the roads clear for arriving cars. Toddlers of two and three tend to love the ride itself. The practical catch is that a buggy has to be folded to board and kept with you, so it can’t roll on open, and in the school holidays or on a busy afternoon the train fills up and a pram family may wait for the next one. The narrow carriages make it fiddly with a sleeping baby. It also doesn’t remove every hill, since your lodge may sit a walk uphill from the nearest stop.

Cycling is harder here than at any other UK village. Towing a child trailer up the slopes needs real adult fitness, so families with young children lean on walking and the land train rather than the bikes. If you do hire, make sure both adults can manage the inclines. Lodged near the Plaza, you can cover most of the day on foot with a buggy; it’s the outlying areas that need the train or a bike.

Longleat is reached by car, via the A36 and A350, with the A362 from the Frome direction; the postcode for the satnav is BA12 7PU. There’s no direct motorway link, which is the biggest thing to weigh on the journey: the South West, South Wales and the southern Home Counties are within comfortable range, while the Midlands and the North are a cross-country drive. The nearest stations are Warminster, a local stop, and Bath Spa on the mainline, but neither is walking distance to the village, and there’s no resort transfer service. The land train is on-site transport only, not a way in. In practice you drive, park and stay, and use the car for the Safari Park and the towns.

For health, the nearest A&E is the Royal United Hospital in Bath, about 19 miles (30 km) east and roughly thirty minutes’ drive in normal traffic, with a 24-hour emergency department; it’s worth saving the route before you go. Warminster Community Hospital is closer but doesn’t have a full A&E, so it isn’t the place for a genuine emergency. The village runs its own medical centre for first checks and can call an ambulance, and you dial 999 for anything life-threatening.

On timing, the village is open all year, and because the pool and the main activities are indoors the weather matters less than the calendar and the crowds. The warmest, sunniest and busiest weeks are the school summer holidays; term-time breaks are quieter and cheaper. Spring and autumn sit in between, mild enough for the forest and the playgrounds with the pool as the wet-weather backstop.

Weather

Longleat sits inland in Wiltshire, so the climate is typical southern English: mild, changeable and never hot, with rain spread across the year and a little more of it in late autumn and winter. The figures below are long-term seasonal averages for the county. None of it drives the decision much, since the swimming and most of the activities are under cover, but it’s the picture for the forest walks, the playgrounds and the safari.