Trip guide to New Forest

England has so much to offer when it comes to green picturesque landscapes. One such beautiful place is New Forest National Park which is one of the largest remaining unenclosed forests in Southern England. It is spread across 140,000 acres of land and it has so many varieties of trees and some of them are more than 1000 years old. It is a habitat for horses, ponies, deer and cattle. The landscape varies from green meadows, deep forest, clear rivers and shady groves.
New Forest was considered as a Royal Forest in about 1079 by William the Conqueror. Folklore has it that he mainly used this park for deer hunting, however, to turn this forest into a haven of wild beasts for his hunting game, he demolished 36 parish churches with all the houses nearby and with all the belongings, thus leaving all the inhabitants homeless. It is said that 2 of his sons had to bear the punishment of this sin, as both of them were killed in hunting accidents. With the rights to common pasture, it can be used by local inhabitants for their horses and cattle grazing.
New forest comprises multiple towns and villages. It’s advisable to base your stay in any one of the villages. For your trip, my advice would be to stay in Lyndhurst or Brockenhurst. Though Brockenhurst has a railway station however it would be wise to stay in Lyndhurst as it has many food joints and pubs where you can chill with friends and family in the evening.

In this trip guide to New Forest, I have tried to add all the relevant information about this place so that you can easily plan your trip to this beautiful place.

How to reach Lyndhurst from London?

1. By Train – SouthWestern railway operates from London Waterloo to Brockenhurst. It’s almost 1 hour and 45 minutes journey and the ticket prices are about £37 with network Railcard and £51 without it. You also have direct trains from Clapham junction and the ticket prices are £35 with railcard and £47 without. From both the stations, 2 trains run every hour.
   Upon reaching the station, you can either hire a bike from just outside the station or book a cab to Lyndhurst.

Cab from Brockenhurst to Lyndhurst–

• Brockenhurst Taxis (Station Taxis) – 01590 545454
• New Forest Lyndhurst Taxis – 023 8017 033
  Also, you will find taxis just outside the station. It costs around £9.

You can hire bikes at Brockenhurst from cycleexperience and they have a counter right outside the station. They close at 5 pm so it’s best to plan accordingly. More bike hire options in Lyndhurst are provided below.

My suggestion: It’s best if the bikes are booked in advance from Lyndhurst.

2. By Car – It’s almost 90 miles from central London via M3.

Which is the best time to visit the New Forest?

We visited during mid-September and the weather was quite pleasant with temperature going up to 23-degree Celcius during the daytime. New Forest can be visited all year round, but it would be best to visit this place during long days.

Where to stay in Lyndhurst?

Lyndhurst is a beautiful town in New Forest, and it offers various types of accommodation. You can choose to stay in a thatched cottage, a posh hotel, a farmhouse or a bed and breakfast! If you are planning to stay here for a week or more, staying in an Airbnb is definitely wise.
We preferred to stay in Lyndhurst house, a B&B in the heart of Lyndhurst. It was an amazingly relaxing stay and the owner of the B&B made sure we had the best time. The rooms were perfect with a great view and we were served an amazing English breakfast in the morning.
If you would like to book the B&B, here is the link to Lyndhurst house. I can vouch that you will absolutely love your stay in the B&B.
Some great options are also provided on the New forest official website.

What to do in New Forest?

This place is mainly visited for cycling experiences. It has the most amazing cycle trails which takes you through the quaint forest, highways, lakes, grasslands with horses grazing and running free. It was a magical experience for me, and I felt as if I was living my dream!

We stayed at Lyndhurst for 2 nights. The first day we reached around the afternoon and spent the day idling around and exploring the scenic town.
There are some old pubs which are definitely worth the visit-
The Waterloo Arms is a 17th-century pub and it serves delicious Sunday roast. The Fox and Hounds has a rustic-chic look and has a farmhouse Café.

If you fancy an afternoon tea, please don’t forget to visit The Lyndhurst tea house and the Mad Hatter tea rooms.

The second day we started our biking trip.

My suggestion: Book the bikes in advance as there is always a lot of rush and you might not be able to secure yourself a bike for your trip.

The 2 options available are-

1.Woods cyclery – You can pre-hire the bikes by clicking the link provided or by calling them at 02380 282028. They have a very wide range of bikes available.

2. Trax bike hire – They do not have any physical offices, so you need to send them an email using the form and mention the number of days for which you would need the bike. They do not have a wide variety of bikes, however, I would prefer Trax over woodscyclery because they have a cheaper rate (£15 per day per bike) and they deliver the bike at the designated spot/hotel and also take it back on their own. You just need to ensure that you drop off the bike by 5 pm on the day of your bike return. They also provide you with all the tools just in case it is required.

My suggestion: Carry an extra bike seat covering as the road can be filled with gravel and be quite bumpy. 🙂

We were a group of 4 people and though we knew bike riding, we definitely had no experience riding on the highway. The first day we planned to visit Burley which is the longest cycling route in New Forest (around 25miles), so we were definitely a little ambitious there :). We started our journey around 11 am and we aimed to reach Burley in around 1.30 hours. However, 2 hours into our journey and we were nowhere close to Burley! We were amazed by the beautiful path, which was covered with big green trees, the fresh cool air brushing against our face and the horses and ponies running around free that we lost track of time. We stopped multiple times to absorb all the beauty as we did not want to rush our journey. So finally, instead of reaching Burley, we stopped at the deer sanctuary at Bolderwood.

You can plan your cycle trip based on your taste and expertise from various routes provided on the New Forest website. Also sharing this map which you might want to download for later use.
Irrespective of the route you select please do not forget to visit the Rhinefield Ornamental Woodland as it houses some of the oldest trees in the new forest.

The third day we made a trip to the beautiful village of Beaulieu which is about 10 miles from Lyndhurst by bike. It takes you through vast empty heathlands, gravel roads and is a beautiful journey. On your route to Beaulieu, you will also come across the remains of the World war 2 bomb storage sites, and WWII airfield. It took us around 2 hours to reach this beautiful village.

This place has some lovely little cottages, a palace house, a world-famous national motor museum and the Beaulieu River. It is a very picturesque little village. We spent an hour visiting the place and chilling by the riverside. We had our lunch at a beautiful pub named The Royal Oak at hilltop Beaulieu, dating back to 1848. This décor of this place takes you back in time.
On our way back to Lyndhurst instead of taking the same route back, we got a little adventurous and explored a path that was referred to by google maps as the shortest path. This route took us through grasslands, forests and some sceptical routes. We thoroughly enjoyed the ride, but since it was getting dark we were a little scared at the end and was eagerly waiting to meet the highway.  Well, it might have been the quickest route, but not the easiest one.
Finally, we reached Lyndhurst around 6.30 pm, dropped our bikes at our hotel, picked our bags and after a little snack started our return journey back to London.

Where to dine at Lyndhurst?

Some of the pub and tearoom options are already mentioned earlier.
For breakfast, you can sit at the roadside Peggy May’s café and enjoy your food with some daily dose of sunshine. The location is good but I felt it was on a pricier side.
There are several food joints worth trying. We definitely enjoyed our dinner from The Thai forest (food was yumm!!) and the Prezzo Italian.
If you fancy a proper Italian dinner with some amazing wine, then don’t forget to visit La Pergola. If you love Indian food then you can try Indian Fusion or Passage to India.

Final thoughts!

If you love nature and animals, for sure you will love this place as New Forest has a lot to offer. Each of the biking routes has a different journey and I would love to experience all of them. Also, pack an outdoor mat and a book during your bike trip so that you can take a break in one of the roadside garden and soak some sun rays. I will definitely go back to visit this place during autumn and you should plan your trip soon!

Keep Travelling,
Rubela