The New Forest is one of England’s most distinctive national parks – a largely open, ancient landscape of grazed woodland, heathland and bog that has been managed as a royal hunting forest for close to a thousand years. The free-roaming ponies, cattle and pigs that graze across the forest create a landscape unlike anywhere else in Britain.
For van travellers, the New Forest offers a compact but excellent range of stops. The Forestry England network of campsites within the forest is well-developed – these are large, well-run sites on open forest land with good facilities and a strong sense of being genuinely within the landscape. The sites do not require advance booking for much of the year, which suits the flexible approach of van travel well.
Beyond the campsites, the New Forest road network passes through exceptional scenery – the roads between Lyndhurst, Burley, Brockenhurst and the forest edge are genuinely beautiful, particularly in autumn when the beech woodland is at its best. The coast along the Solent provides an additional dimension, with several coastal stops accessible from the forest itself.
The New Forest posts on this site cover specific stops and experiences from real van trips, with practical information about facilities, access and what makes each spot worth a visit.
Holmsley Campsite sits within the New Forest, just outside Burley, with direct access onto open heathland straight from the entrance. It’s a Forestry England site, and one of the first things you notice is how much it feels part of the wider landscape rather than separated from it. Booking was simple and quick through the … Read more