Rosalind O - 23.09.24 - 10/10
We enjoyed canoeing down the river Wye. Also enjoyed the butterfly park, mini golf and maze.
Really liked how spacious it was, enough space for everyone to sit and eat together. The kids enjoyed the pool table a lot (need to supply chalk for it though as that was missing). We loved the big, very well equipped kitchen. Bedrooms were nice and beds were comfy. The garden was pleasant for a bbq and we enjoyed the hot tub.
Jacqueline K - 30.08.24 - 8/10
Recommends Symonds Yat Rock
Symonds YatLove the seating in the dining room as everyone can see everyone.
Overall it is very good.
Chris C - 30.07.24 - 9/10
Remmends Puzzlewood, Clearwell Caves, Symonds Yat
We liked the layout of the house. Huge kitchen and dining area. The two lounge areas were perfect, great to have a quiet space, as well as the noisier lounge next to the pool table room. Outside space was lovely, plenty of seating for everyone. The Jacuzzi was a big hit also. The bedrooms are spacious and clean. Each having an en-suite was a big plus. Loads of room for parking cars, we had nine cars and not a problem fitting them in.
So negatives from me and cant think of anything that needs to be done to improve the experience, so well done, we had a wonderful weekend.
Hazel M - 02.07.24 - 9/10
Recomends,
Beechenhurst near Coldford is within the Forest of Dean and has lots of our door activities.
Also Mallards Pike which is wheelchair friendly and again has beautiful walks, lake and activity centre.
Lovely area and property we hired was lovely. Particularly the games room with pool table which was extensively used. There were also lots of games for all ages
Heather M - 24.06.24 - 9/10
Great venue in excellent location. We have a large family with ages ranging from 19 months to 91 years - it was great that we all had our own bathrooms and there were family rooms so everyone was accommodated comfortably.
Days Out, Beechenhurst Forest - fun for all the family, plenty of parking and a good cafe.
Sue N -19.06.24 - 10/10
Lots of lovely walks.
Terri K - 04.06.24 - 10/10
We did a day trip to castles and abbies in Wales
We did a day trip to the Cotswolds.
Loved the large forest with sculptures
Loved Puzzlewood
The house is great for large groups. There were 16 of us and there was plenty of room for everyone. The bedrooms and bathrooms are well appointed and comfortable. The kitchen is great for cooking large meals for the group and we loved that we can all fit around the dining table. Loved having two dishwashers and the small back up fridge and freezer in the laundry hall. The washer and dryer worked great. The mud / coat & shoe room was brilliant for easy storage of our coats, packs etc. The gardens are beautiful and the location is perfect for quick walks to town. We even went to the cinema one rainy day.
Our weekend celebration at Forest House
We've just got home from the most wonderful weekend away spent with our family and friends. The house was great! The layout worked really well, giving us plenty of space to spread out and have different areas for the different ages and the rooms were nicely spread out so we didn't feel on top of each other. The kitchen was really well equipped and we were able to cook up some delicious feasts for us all. Everyone went exploring on Saturday booking for some deep caving at Clearwell Caves and Go Ape was thoroughly enjoyed by the children. Thank you for helping make the booking process so easy and we hope to come back one day!
Date of experience: 23 February 2024
Emma T - 27.02.24 - 8/10
Clearwell Caves, Go Ape
Doreen W - 24.02.24 -10/10
We had a lovely long walk in the forest on the sculpture trail, and the children enjoyed the jungle high wires really beautiful place
The house was plenty big enough for our party of 22 , the bedrooms cosy and spotless. Plenty of dinnerware and pots and pans for us all. Location excellent just a short stroll into village. Would definitely recommend this house for large parties it’s excellent. The owner is easy to communicate with too should you need to.
Lynn W - 19.02.24 - 10/0
Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail, a long walk but very enjoyable.
A visit to Symonds Yat is well worth the effort.
Rupert W - 07.02.24 - 8/10
Walking around the Kymin and the River Wye especially around Symonds Yat.
Lucy C -15.01.24 10/10
The house was very clean and well equipped. We had everything we needed and contact before the stay was very efficient. The size of the hot tub is small for the size of the house but it didn’t affect the quality of our stay. Lovely walk around Offas Dyke.
Jonathan W 29.12.23 -10/10
We had a wonderful stay at Forest House, which was a terrific venue and fitted our needs exactly with the large kitchen and dining room, also the two separate lounges (where we used one for the children and one for the adults). Being a former hotel meant that all but one of the bedrooms had ensuite facilities.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our stay for our gathering over the Christmas and found everything ideal for a large group, such as two lounges, a huge dining room, laundry facilities and two dishwashers in the kitchen, very well thought out.
I can strongly recommend this property for a large group stay.
Vicki 04-11-23
Fantastic stay - would highly recommend
We stayed at Forest House as a family of 22 and thoroughly enjoyed it. The house was spacious, clean and tidy. The location was perfect with a short walk into the town and also great for accessing local attractions. We visited Puzzlewood and the Forest of Dean Railway. Fantastic customer service from the team at BHHL from start to finish. Thank you!
Date of experience: 26 October 2023
Bill H - 18.11.23 -10/10
Fantastic house - we really enjoyed the en-suite rooms as this made it seem more luxurious
The price was reasonable ( so places are stupidly priced and out of reach for families )
Could t fault the experience THANK UOU
Bridget H - 14.11.23 10/10
Forest of Dean Parkrun on Saturday morning was a delight.
Lovely walks in the forest and also at Symmonds Yat
Vicki L - 03.11.23 10/10
A lovely stay!
Puzzlewood
Forest of Dean railway
Barbara H - 19.08.23 10/10
Elton Mazes
Trevor H - 19.08.23 10/10
The house has character, is clean and well maintained. It is in a great location for shops and the town and for family days out. We plan to come back.
The hot tub was a hit, though there were occasional comments about it being a bit cool. Any aspiring chefs would be a bit concerned about the sharpness (lack of) of the kitchen knives. We didn't look very hard to see if there was a sharpener so it can't have been that much of a problem.There are many things to do in the vicinity of the house depending on the ages of the members of the group.
There are mines, a jail, a train ride, a sculpture trail, mazes etc. The Activity maze was a big hit.
Richard K 15.07.23 8/10
The evenings we spent in the garden were excellent; the house was large enough that we did not feel cramped. The fridge/freezer was excellent and plenty of crockery/cutlery.
Small improvements: buy some new tea towels!
Puzzlewood, Kingfisher Cruises at Symonds Yat & Clearwell Caves
Margie H 03.06.23 - 8/10
Everyone loved staying in such a big house. The reception rooms size and number were a big plus. There were some issues with the house but we had none with BHHL. Alison was very responsive and patient! Her service was excellent.
Days out: Ed Drewitt (eddrewitt.co.uk) for a bird watching/wildlife tours. We had an excellent evening and saw nightjars and wild boar! Tintern Abbey was an impressive visit. Puzzlewood was enjoyed by all.
Bryony B - 23.05.23 - 8/10
We loved the outdoor space and hot tub. Kitchen was lovely and well stocked. We used the slow cooker. Lots of bedroom space although some parts of the house are a bit dated. Days out: Puzzle wood and Perivale railway
Ellie F - 25/04.23 - 10/10
We loved our stay, the only thing we can suggest is having some plastic cups for younger visitors.
Days out: Beechenhurst Forestry
Anne S - 27.03.23 - 10/10
The house was lovely and very well-equipped. Ideal for dogs and children.
We did find that the heating was too high and had to resort to turning the radiators off to get the temperature down. Hopefully, saving a bit on the fuel bills!Days out: Krazy Golf Lydney
Anita T - 21.03.23 10/10
The house is beautiful, warm and cosy, more than enough room for our party of 22 adults and a baby. Kitchen superb and well equipped. The house was spotless. Lovely front garden, nice to sit out with coffee in a morning. No improvements needed.
Julie W 27.02.23 10/10
Days Out: The Sculpture park, for walking and added interest of finding the sculptures.
Tintern Abbey
Kirsten B 23.02.23 10/10
The house is ideal for a large group such as us and we all liked the location - convenient for shops for extra supplies but close to places for long walks.
Stephen K 03.02.23 8/10
Another oven would make cooking/reheating easier when having multiple dishes cooked by various people for 22 people simultaneously. Days out: Tintern Abbey, Coleford Town
Stephen H 10.12.22 8/10
Thought the house was great, imagine even better in the summer, would definitely stay again
Rachel H 08.12.22 9/10
Lovely bedrooms especially as all on suite. Fab kitchen,very user friendly. Might have been nice to have a tv in the lounge as well as the snug if people want to watch different things.
Days out: The Christmas light switching was charming
Joanna M 22.11.22 9/10
The house was really clean and warm. Great facilities to eat together and a fully stocked games room. Kids lived the hot tub!!! I’ve also sent direct feedback to Alison about a few even better if!
Days out: The kids went to the nearby Go Ape and loved it!
Lou B 02.11.22 8/10
Wonderful house, excellent location. Provision of crockery a bit odd (plenty of gravy boats but no milk jugs or medium sized plates) but ample for our needs. Bedrooms all very comfortable and characterful. We (family party of 18 ranging from 21 to 75 years old) had a great time!
Rosemary R 26.10.22 9/10
I can honestly say the whole family were impressed with the house and had a wonderful weekend - thank you.
Celia D 18.10.22 10/10
Things to do: National coal mining museum
Charlotte M 13.10.22 9/10
Very comfortable for a large party with children. Arrangement of the rooms well thought through allowing families to be close to each other. Very well-equipped kitchen. Good selection of games.
Barry D 12.10.22 9/10
We were at Forest House in Coleford which is ideally placed for the Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean. Any small niggles were immediately sorted.The premises were spacious with an extremely well equipped kitchen,and 2 Supermarkets just acroo the road.
Highly Recommended. Things to do -Wye Valley boat trip, Forest of Dean walks, starting at Beechenhurst visiter centre.We found the Sculpture Trail an excellent walk,but the sculptures very disappointing. Symonds Yapp rock,views amazing.
Charlotte B 24.09.22 9/10
It was a fantastic house with a large dining space and kitchen which was great for all of us to fit around. The bedrooms all had an en-suite which was amazing and they were all clean and tidy! The only downside was the small living space with sofas, as we couldn’t all quite fit in here! But it didn’t bother us too much!
Days out -
We went to the family run Krazy golf nearby - they were incredibly accommodating and it was great fun!
We also had Foxtail Gin distillery come to the house for a gin tasting which was so sociable and fun!
Marion CJ 06.09.22 9/10
Kitchen at the property was superbly equipped. A couple of trays would have been helpful for transporting stuff into the dining room. Almost all beds were super comfortable. Shame the wifi only really worked on top floor
Amanda K 19.08.22 9/10
Great spacious house with great quality beds and bedding!
The hot tub could do with more regular deep down attention and that area would benefit from a sprucing up! But we loved every minute of our stay!
Peter M 13.08.22 9/10
house was fantastic. all beds really comfortable.
could do with more than 1 set of keys though.
Johnathan F 27.07.22 10/10
So much space to spread out and even with 22 of us in the house we certainly weren't treading on each others toes. Garden was lovely to BBQ in, the hot tub worked really well, and the owner was very helpful with a query I had during the stay. We would definitely recommend to a large group looking to relax in a quality house that is very well appointed clean and tidy. And surprisingly cosy for such a big place. Lots to do in the area too
janet F 28.06.22 7/10
We had a lovely time and the venue is generally comfortable, central and welcoming. I would recommend Forest House to friends looking for a large house. Thank you.
Kirsten W 16.04.22 9/10
The house was great, it really catered for everyone. We had 21 people and we didn't feel crowded at all, lots of space, loads and loads of kitchen equipment, crockery, cutlery etc.
The games cupboard was great and although we had taken our own we played lots of the ones provided.
Only issue was that some of the door handles are really tricky to open, we used the doorstops to keep them open but they did get kicked out accidentally. I was really worried about one of the children getting locked in, my 8 yr old really struggled to get out of his bedroom. Recycling bins in the kitchen would be good.
I would definitely come back to the house again and I would recommend to others as well as recommend BBHL. We may have gone 2 years late but it was worth the wait and my mother in law enjoyed her 62nd birthday just as much as she would have enjoyed her 60th!
Melanie S - 10.02.22 9/10
We had such a wonderful stay the house was perfect for our family. Extremely well equipt and comfortable. The hot tub was particular with the young members. The only negatives are two bathrooms (incl no 1) need updating as they smell rather damp and the extractor fan wasn't working. Also we couldn't find any instructions about the house and its contents. These would have been very useful! Thanks we had a wonderful time.
Robert B - 31.01.22 10/10
Really spacious, well laid out, clean and well decorated. Pretty much perfect for a big get together. Recycling facility could be better; could do with big bins to separate glass, plastic, cardboard and general waste.
Debbi H 25.01.21 10/10
Sharon G - 21.12.21 10/10
Fabulous house in a great location. Shops and restaurants nearby and even a cinema.
Plenty of space on the house, had everything we needed. Kitchen well stocked. Warm and cosy.
Would definitely come again.
Anne C - 14.12.21 9/10
The house was great for a family weekend with plenty of space for everyone to relax. Really liked everyone being able to eat round a big table in the dining room. Whole place was clean and well set up for a large group - we had a great time. Some suggestions for improvement are light in dining room didn't work and is very big with pointy bits so the room was dark and we had a couple of bashed heads. No dish cloths or tea towels in the kitchen. A better broom would have helped with cleaning. More mugs. Surprised there wasn't an information folder. We will be recommending the place to friends and hope to be back next year
Karen P - 07.12.21 10/10
Lots of support from your team . Gavin was very helpful. Welcome book would have been useful . OTHERWISE A FABULOUS PLACE .
Lidia J - 30.11.21 9/10
the house was everything we hoped for.We had a lovely 3 days break. The rooms were clean and comfortable,
Jenna F- 16.11.21 9/10
Forest House is exceptionally well resourced. Flexible space for dining, sitting and eating. Perfect for our multi generational family party.
The only issues were dodgy flashing light in the dining room and the very bright out side uplight that comes on at 11 and goes off just after 5am. Makes the front bedrooms very light!
Jesse L - 10.11.21 9/10
Nice rooms on the whole with good facilities and good space for parking. Sky TV was appreciated from sports fans! Ovens rather small as we did all our own catering and the second fridge would have been better in the kitchen rather than in the corridor some way away. Given that there were a number of small children in our party, plastic mugs, plates and bowls would have been helpful. Didn't see an information book and a shame there wasn't a recycling bin for plastic, glass, cardboard etc
Abi M 02.11.21 9/10
Claire T - 22.11.21 8/10
There was no guest information pack in the property, so no details about the house or instructions for the use of washing machines, dish washers etc, where to put rubbish and recycling. I did telephone the owner on the Saturday and left a voice mail to enquire about the rubbish disposal but had no response. Also no information or map about the local area or places to visit.
However, although a guest handbook would have been useful, the house was ideal for our needs. The new kitchen is great, with everything we needed, plenty of seating in the dining room so we could all eat together, the separate lounge with the TV ideal for the kids to chill out. Having en-suites for every bedroom is also very good, and the hot-tub was a great success with the younger guests. The location of the house in the town is so handy for shops and cafes etc and there were sufficient parking spaces for everyone. We really enjoyed our stay and hope to return.
Steve C - 04.10.21 10/10
House was spot less, maybe a book on things to do places to visit some walks along public footpath with areas of places to visit on the walk,eg old church's, nice/famous buildings,good views. Lots of footpaths that would make a great base for any walkers. Nice small village that has everything great bakers, and cafes
Kerry C - 04.10.21 10/10
Beautiful house, lots of space for 16 of us so we didn't feel like we were ontop of each other all weekend. Can't wait to book again soon. Days out - Tintern Abbey
Marion C - 04.10.21
The property was just right for our family of 16 - plenty of room for all of us. We would certainly consider staying again.
The kitchen was well equipped but there were several dirty or worn out things in the kitchen - the three woks in particular need replacing. Fortunately we didn’t plan on using them so it didn’t matter. There were four gravy boats but only two chopping boards so a few more would be appreciated for when we had a production line doing food prep!
A small point but a side gate would be a good thing to have both for security and also from our point of view so as to enclose the garden as a family member had brought their dog.
Rachel LJ - 28.09.21
Forest House was lovely; clean, tidy, spacious and well equipped for the number of people, especially the kitchen. The Dining Room where we could all sit together was great and having a separate games lounge was great for the kids! There was plenty of seating inside and out and it is a perfect holiday home for large family gatherings and there are two or three supermarkets within a few minutes walk if you've forgotten anything. We parked 9 cars on the drive comfortably.
There was a remote for the TV in one of the rooms missing and it would have been useful to have bins in all the rooms and bathrooms but these are really minor things.
A welcome pack of useful information about the house would have been really useful (information about rubbish disposal, hot tub use, etc).
Unfortunately, we didn't have any hot water for the first 12 hours or so but this was dealt with swiftly with the owner who even sent the plumber round to check that everything was resolved and we were happy.
Andrew G - 13.09.21
Loads of space and areas to sit, great for very large families like ours. Lots to do locally with children, adults again plenty to do especially if you like long walks
Sarah H - 09.08.21
The property has been newly refurbished and is beautiful. Especially the kitchen! However there were a few small issues such as no hot water in the downstairs bathrooms & some of the doors on the rooms don’t close properly. We had a great weekend & the property is brilliant but there’s few bits probably need to just be checked over! Days out - canoeing the River Wye
Anne W - 02.08.21
our family group enjoyed a fabulous stay in this property: very comfortable, spotless accommodation ideal for large groups. lovely private garden with good outdoor seating
very well equipped kitchen. Bedrooms really comfortable and all with lovely private bathroom facilities. good parking facilities on site. ideal location for town and local activities. Would have been useful to have a house information booklet. Days out - Canoeing the river Wye, Pedalbikeaway cycle hire in the Forest, Walking/cycling/running trails in the Forest
Adrain C - 24.07.21
We didn’t find a welcome book - didn’t look very hard to be honest but a guide of local restaurants and where to pick up trails to Forest from Coleford would have helped. We discovered the one by the railway by accident. Became a go to once discovered. Days out - We did Gorge walking at Abergavenny and a 3/4 day canoe at Kerne Bridge to Symmonds Yat plus a full days cycle from the cycle centre we also played golf at Forest Hills all of the are highly recommeded as would be a day swimming at Symmonds Yat West by the campsite