Center Parcs Sherwood Forest
Center Parcs Sherwood Forest is the original village in the UK network and the largest, around 900 self-catering lodges set through 400 acres of mature woodland near Ollerton in Nottinghamshire. It's reckoned to have the longest activity list of the villages and, at its heart, the Subtropical Swimming Paradise with a Venture Bay zone built for babies and toddlers, all in a car-free forest.
On this page
Is it worth it?
The quick read before the detail: who Sherwood suits, what a break here involves and the facts to skim first.
If you're weighing up which Center Parcs to book with a baby or a toddler, Sherwood Forest is the one that suits the widest range of families. It's the original village and the largest in the network, which means the most established forest and, reputedly, the longest activity list, and the car-free setting is a real change of pace with a crawler or a toddler, since there's no traffic to watch once you've parked. The Subtropical Swimming Paradise, with its separate Venture Bay toddler zone, is the part families come back for. The two caveats are the size and the lodges. Sherwood is spread out, so your lodge's position counts for more than at a smaller village, and the older, unrefurbished lodges still in rotation are behind most of the complaints about condition and value. Going in term time, when prices drop sharply and the village is quieter, takes the sting out of both.
Best for
Families whose youngest is a baby or toddler who want the biggest village, a car-free forest and a warm tropical pool with a real toddler zone.
Maybe not for
Anyone on a tight budget, or you if a long walk from an outlying lodge would be hard work and you'd rather a smaller, more compact village.
Best ages
Babies and toddlers upwards. The activity list and the outdoor play open up from about three.
What stands out
The size and the activity programme, the established woodland, and Venture Bay for the very youngest swimmers.
What to check
Whether your lodge is refurbished and how far it sits from the pool, plus the gap between term-time and school-holiday prices.
Where is it?
Near Rufford and Ollerton in Nottinghamshire, on the edge of Sherwood Forest, with the M1, the A1 and the A614 all close.
Quick facts for families
What the village is like
The forest, the scale and how a family gets around 400 acres without a car.
Sherwood opened in 1987 as the first Center Parcs in the UK, and it's still the largest, with around 900 lodges set through more than 400 acres of ancient mixed woodland. The trees are more established than at the newer villages, and the deciduous woodland gives it a different feel from the pine at Elveden or the hills at Longleat. Once you've parked and unloaded, cars stay put for the week, so children can scoot and cycle the paths with no traffic to watch for.
The ground is flatter than some villages, and it isn't hilly like Longleat, so it's broadly manageable with a pram or a bike trailer. The paths are surfaced and kept up, fine for a buggy in dry weather, though some edges soften after heavy rain. What you can't get away from is the size: 400 acres is a lot of ground, and from an outlying lodge the walk to the pool or the Village Square can be 15 to 25 minutes.
A rolling refurbishment is slowly changing the lodge stock. More than a hundred lodges had their first phase of work finished by spring 2026, with new kitchens, redecoration, blackout curtains and outdoor seating, and the programme is still going. Some older, unrefurbished lodges remain in the mix, which is worth knowing when you book, and there's more on that under the lodges below.
As the flagship, Sherwood also has features the other villages don't. The Treetop Glider, a 180-metre zipline through the canopy, opened in 2025, though it comes with height and ability limits and is one for older children and adults rather than babies and toddlers. There's the paid TAG Challenge Arena in the same bracket. Three new Waterside Lodges, lakeside with a private hot tub and deck, are being built from 2026 and open late 2026 into 2027.
On foot or on wheelsGetting around the village
Because Sherwood is the most spread-out village, your lodge's position relative to the pool and the Village Square matters more here than anywhere else in the network. If you're booking with a baby or toddler and want to keep the daily walks short, it's worth asking about a lodge near the centre.
Bikes are the usual answer to the distances. You can hire a bike with a child seat or a trailer from the 12-week booking window, or bring your own adult bikes, a standard cycle rather than an electric one, and hire only the trailer or seat. The second option works out noticeably cheaper than hiring the bikes as well, because you're only paying for the trailer or seat rather than the full bike hire, and because the saving is per adult, it doubles for two adults over a full break. There's no land train at Sherwood, unlike Longleat, so walking and cycling are how you get around. On the flat, smooth paths, the car-free forest is also an easy place to walk a baby off to sleep in the pram.
The lodges
The lodge tiers, what comes with one for a baby or toddler, and how you eat for the week.
The lodges are self-catering, with a full kitchen, so cooking for a baby or a fussy toddler is straightforward, and they come in tiers. The entry-level Woodland Lodge steps up through Woodland Premium and Grand Forest, and the three new Waterside Lodges join the top of the range when they open.
| Lodge tier | What it is | Good to know for a family |
|---|---|---|
| Woodland Lodge | The entry-level lodge, mostly single-storey at Sherwood | The standard choice; the older, unrefurbished units are behind most of the condition complaints |
| Woodland Premium | A higher-specified lodge with more finish | More likely to be a refurbished unit, though not guaranteed lodge by lodge |
| Grand Forest | The top standard tier, with more space | Also more likely refurbished; confirm the individual lodge when you book |
| Waterside Lodges | Three new lakeside lodges with a private hot tub and deck | Being built from 2026, opening late 2026 into 2027 |
Most Woodland Lodges at Sherwood are single-storey, chalet-style, which is easier with a crawler and takes the staircase worry away. Two-storey lodges do exist, and they come with standard stairgates rather than premium ones, so if you'd rather avoid stairs altogether, confirm the lodge style when you book.
Condition is the thing to weigh. A refurbished lodge is more likely to be in the Woodland Premium or Grand Forest tier, though the work isn't guaranteed lodge by lodge within a tier, so it's worth filtering for a refurbished unit or asking when you book rather than assuming. Every lodge comes with a travel cot (around 60 by 120 cm, so bring your own fitted sheet), a basic plastic high chair and a bathroom step for toddlers, with bed rails available on request subject to availability. Ask for a second cot or high chair when you book, not on arrival.
There are two things to pack for. There's no washing machine in the lodges, and a baby or toddler gets through a lot of laundry over a four-night stay, so pack well over the clothes you'd normally reckon on. The lodge curtains are thin, too: the forest gets light very early in summer and can wake a toddler around 5am, so a portable blackout blind is the single tip families repeat most.
Cooking in, and eating outEating and the food shop
Because the lodges are self-catering, most families cook the majority of meals in, and the sensible move is to arrive stocked up. A Tesco and a Morrisons near Ollerton and Newark cover a big shop, and an online order collected on the way in avoids the ParcMarket premium, since the on-site shop runs roughly 30 to 50 per cent above supermarket prices.
When you do eat out, Sherwood has its own line-up. The Dozing Duck is a gastropub exclusive to the village, and Hucks American Bar and Grill is the family option, a grill restaurant built around the largest soft-play area in any Center Parcs restaurant, free with a food or drink purchase and quick to book up, dinner slots especially. It's part of the restaurant rather than a stand-alone play area, so a family who isn't eating or drinking there has no separate way in. Eating out isn't cheap here, which is the other reason most families lean on the lodge kitchen.
The Subtropical Swimming Paradise
The tropical pool, the separate Venture Bay toddler zone and the calm sessions worth booking.
The Subtropical Swimming Paradise is the headline of any Center Parcs break, and it's included with every lodge. It's a tropical pool complex kept at 29.5°C all year, with a wave pool at its heart, and families with young children tend to visit it two or three times a day.
For babies and toddlers, the part that matters is Venture Bay, a separate zone from the wave pool with shallow water, spray fountains, water jets, mini slides and tipping buckets. It's the kind of space a two-year-old can happily potter in for an hour. The main pool runs a wave cycle roughly every half hour, and the waves start on their own, which can startle a small child mid-paddle, so the separate toddler zone is the calmer place to be.
Two things make the pool gentler for the very youngest. The Quiet Hour, on Wednesday and Sunday mornings at 9am, runs with no waves, no music and no slides, which suits a young baby or a toddler who finds a busy pool too much. Baby Dolphins is a free, pre-bookable session for nought to threes in the pool before it opens to everyone at 9am, and it goes the moment the 12-week window opens, so grab it early. Free buoyancy aids and float suits are there to borrow throughout, and pushchairs aren't allowed in the pool area, so you leave them in the lobby or back at the lodge.
The outdoor rapids and the Water Piste need a minimum height and ability, so they're not part of a visit with a baby or toddler anyway, and features like these do close now and then for maintenance. The outdoor pool area, the rapids and the Water Piste closed for resurfacing between 1 and 25 June 2026, for example, while the indoor pool and Venture Bay stayed open throughout, so a closure like that needn't touch a family with a baby or toddler. It's still worth a quick check on the village's news page for anything current on your dates.
Babies and toddlers
The crèche and the baby sessions worth booking, and what fills a day with a toddler.
The activity booking window opens 12 weeks before you arrive, and the popular baby and toddler sessions fill fast, so it's worth logging in the morning it opens.
The crèche takes children from 3 to 23 months, in small groups with DBS-checked staff, over sessions of around three hours, if you'd like a couple of hours to yourselves. It's charged, and the cost is easy to check when you book. Alongside it, Sherwood runs the same programme of little-ones' sessions as the rest of the network, and the ones worth a look for this age are Sensory Play for Babies from around two months, the Baby Balance Bike Buddy from ten months, Fun Pots With Tots pottery from one month up to five years, Baby Owls from a year and Mini Musical Movers from eighteen months up to five years. The Football Fun Factory gets a particular mention from parents of three-year-olds at Sherwood.
For the very youngest, though, children this young get more out of the pool and the forest than any class, so there's no need to fill the days with paid sessions.
On and around the villageThings to do
A lot of what fills a day with little ones costs nothing once you're on site. The forest paths are made for pram walks and balance-bike loops, there are outdoor adventure playgrounds dotted around (mostly suited to age three and up, so check the village map for the ones nearest you), and the woodland is full of wildlife: deer, squirrels, rabbits and ducks that children love feeding, so pack some bird seed or monkey nuts.
For a wet or cold afternoon, the indoor soft play is the fallback. The Sports Bar has a free soft-play area, though it's a little dated and gets crowded at peak times, and Hucks has the big one, free with a meal or a drink. In summer, the Forest Summer Social runs from May to August and is exclusive to Sherwood, an outdoor evening of cinema, street food and interactive experiences that a pram-age toddler can enjoy without it costing anything.
A few paid sessions come up again and again as poor value with a baby or toddler: Teddy Bear Making, the electric boats (the life jackets tend to frustrate a toddler more than entertain one) and anything with a minimum height. It's the kind of thing families flag so you can spend the budget elsewhere. The village's headline paid activities, the Treetop Glider zipline and the TAG Challenge Arena, are for older children and adults. Aqua Sana, the spa, including the UK's first Treetop Sauna, is adults-only and needs childcare cover, so it's a treat for an evening or a session off rather than part of the family day.
Loves and gripes
What guests consistently rate, what they flag, and how Sherwood sits against the other UK villages.
Sherwood holds a rating of around 4.0 out of 5 across roughly 15,500 TripAdvisor reviews as of mid-2026, and the picture in them is fairly settled.
- The car-free forest is the most repeated positive, described again and again as a real weight off with young children.
- The Subtropical Swimming Paradise draws near-universal praise, the warm water and Venture Bay especially.
- Staff friendliness comes up constantly, as does the mature woodland setting and the range of activities for families with a spread of ages.
- Lodge condition is the most common complaint, aimed at the older, unrefurbished stock, and it grates more against school-holiday prices.
- Cost and the extra charges for food and activities are a steady grumble, along with crowding at peak times and some disruption from the ongoing lodge building.
- Maintenance closures draw complaints when the timing is unlucky, though the indoor pool and Venture Bay tend to stay open through them.
One score to read carefully is Trustpilot, where Center Parcs sits around 2.2 to 2.3 out of 5. That figure is for the brand's central reservations, not Sherwood, and it draws the kind of reviews people leave after a billing or cancellation problem, so it says more about the booking service than a stay at the village. Set against the TripAdvisor picture and a network running close to full occupancy, it reflects the booking admin rather than the holiday. Sherwood is sold direct through centerparcs.co.uk rather than as a bookable hotel on Expedia or Booking.com, so there's no meaningful guest score on those sites to compare.
Against the other villagesHow it compares
Within the network, Sherwood is the all-rounder: the most central for much of England, the most established woodland and, by most accounts, the biggest activity list, at the cost of being the most spread out. On price it sits in the middle, cheaper than Woburn or Longleat and a little more than Whinfell.
| UK village | What sets it apart for families |
|---|---|
| Sherwood Forest | The original and largest village, the most central to drive to and generally rated the biggest for activities; also the most spread out, so where your lodge sits matters most here |
| Woburn Forest | A smaller, more compact village, and a little pricier than Sherwood |
| Longleat Forest | Hillier than Sherwood, and the one village with a land train to help with the gradients |
| Whinfell Forest | Usually a little cheaper than Sherwood |
For most families the nearest village is the sensible pick, and our Center Parcs guide sets all of them side by side in more detail.
The area and days out
The towns and hospital nearby, and when in the year to go with young children.
Sherwood sits near Rufford in Nottinghamshire, with Ollerton the nearest town at about 3 miles (5 km), Mansfield around 12 miles (19 km) and Newark roughly 12 miles (19 km); the last two are where the full retail and hospital services are. Most people reach it off the A614, with the M1 (junctions 26 to 29) close for the south and west and the A1 for the north, which makes it one of the more central villages to drive to from the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire and the North West. The sat-nav postcode is NG22 9DN.
For health, the nearest A&E is at King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield (NG17 4JL), which has a 24-hour emergency department roughly 8 miles away and about 15 minutes by car, though it's worth checking a live map before you set off in a real emergency. Newark also has an urgent treatment centre, open 8am to 10.30pm for non-life-threatening problems, and the village runs its own medical centre for first checks and can call an ambulance. Dial 999 for anything serious.
When to goWhen to go and what to check
The village is open all year, so the main decision is term time against the school holidays. The gap is large: a midweek break in term time costs a fraction of the same lodge in the holidays, and it's quieter with it, so families with pre-school children are much better off going in term time where they can. There's no beach or sea here to time, and being a forest park it works in any season, though high summer brings the earliest sunrises, which is when a blackout blind is most worth packing.
A couple of things are worth a quick check before you book. The Waterside Lodges are being built through 2026 into spring 2027, so there can be occasional works traffic and the odd temporary path closure near the lake, and the rolling lodge refurbishment can mean limited parking in some areas at times. None of that tends to affect a trip built around the pool, the forest and a toddler.
Questions
The things families ask most, the official pages worth a bookmark and when this guide was last refreshed.
When does activity booking open, and what should we book first?
The window opens twelve weeks before you arrive, so set a reminder for that morning. Baby Dolphins and the crèche have the fewest places, so book those in the first few minutes, then a Hucks dinner and any bike hire. The pool, the playgrounds and the forest paths need no booking, so a missed slot only costs you the paid extras.
Do under-2s count towards the lodge occupancy?
Center Parcs UK hasn't published an under-2s occupancy or pricing rule, so don't assume one. The “children under 2 don't count” policy you might read about is Center Parcs Europe, a separate company, so check the UK booking flow at centerparcs.co.uk before you count on a free place.
Will the early summer sunrise wake a toddler?
In high summer, yes. It's light in the forest by around 5am and the lodge curtains won't hold it back, so a portable blackout blind is well worth packing. Outside the longest weeks it's much less of an issue, so this is mainly a June to August thing to plan for.
Is there anywhere to wash clothes?
Not in the lodge, which has no washing machine, so most families just pack extra for a short break. ParcMarket has laundry facilities if you need them, though it's worth confirming they're running when you arrive rather than relying on it.
Where is the nearest hospital if a child gets ill or hurt?
The village has its own medical centre on site for first checks and minor scrapes, which covers most of what comes up with little ones. For anything needing an emergency department, King’s Mill Hospital at Sutton-in-Ashfield is roughly fifteen minutes away by car. Save the route before you travel, and dial 999 for anything serious.
Where do you leave the buggy at the pool?
Pushchairs are not allowed in the pool area, so they stay in the lobby or back at the lodge. One reviewer found parking for them limited at a busy time, so if that would worry you, a compact fold or arriving a little early are easy precautions.
See more Center Parcs Sherwood Forest photos
Open the Center Parcs Sherwood Forest photo gallery →Useful links
- Center Parcs Sherwood Forest: the village's own page for lodges, the pool and directions.
- Sherwood village news: what's new, what's open and any current closures.
- Subtropical Swimming Paradise: the pool zones, Baby Dolphins and the Quiet Hour.
- MoneySavingExpert Center Parcs guide: timing and money-saving tactics.
Last updated 13 July 2026. Lodges, prices, activities and what's open change, so the village is the place to confirm the detail before you book.
