Sandy Balls Holiday Village - Fordingbridge

L G.

Lovely nature walks and a calm and welcoming environment.
We spontaneously booked a week away to get some head space and this really was a good call. It has lovely views, lots of beautiful long walks, activities and restaurants. Everything is reasonably priced and the accommodation is clean and up to date.

Only reason for this not being a full 5 star for me, the soft play has no heating so in February when we visited it was freezing in there, also the main indoor pool was quite cold, in comparison to the 2 splash pools which were very warm so transferring from one to the other was risky.

Collette D.

Great get away, our lodge was warm and welcoming. The Team on site were fantastic. Sophie ( I think that was her name) had so much passion and energy when engaging with parents and children. Food was great, and the drinks were cold and kept on coming. On site shop was well stocked and had a great Starbucks. Great week away.

Gina_C2808

I was a little apprehensive about our accommodation after booking and then seeing reviews, however we were pleasantly surprised.|We booked the “luxury woodland lodge” which was perfect for our Christmas get away. It was clean, cosy and had everything we needed. It looks as if there is a degree of tidying up that has been done in these lodges. The fridge could do with updating as it had a broken freezer door and looked rather tired but everything else was clean, modern and in good working order. The electric fire gave a lovely cosy glow, tv worked well and all in all it was great. We maybe got lucky with our location, other areas seemed to be a bit more densely populated and noisier but ours was pretty quiet which suited us well.|The festive craft activities were ok. Some of them felt a bit rushed and a bit of a free for all. It wouldn’t have taken much to extend the time a bit and to put more effort into the experience of it for the children. |Pool was ok but could do with a good clean. Festive lights were lovely. |Staff were all very friendly. All in all a really lovely Christmas break away,

RoRho83

Stayed at Sandy balls for a new year family break. We booked a vista lodge. The lodge itself was really lovely. Clean, nicely decorated with wooden floors. Decent sized tv with free view. Our lodge had WiFi (thank god! As I’d heard that many lodges do not!). Bed was just a double in the master bedroom (hubby decided 3 nights on the sofa bed was preferable) which was disapointing for us.|Lots of different accommodations at Sandy Balls (quite cramped together!) all around the main village area. |The village has a ‘lights trail’ at Xmas which was in essence just a very nicely decorated village area rather than a trail. They had put effort in and it looked festive. The village shop is very nice, all wooden and barn like inside. Well stocked and some lovely products. There is also a small patisserie with Starbucks coffee. |We ate at Aubrey’s Forrest kitchen. The restaurant is very pretty but unfortunately the food wasn’t great. Pizzas were fine but the kids meals had about 10 chips on each plate and a teaspoonful of beans! The Nutella dough balls were literally just savoury dough balls with a plastic packet of Nutella provided. Laughable really!! They really need to remove this item from the menu. |Also ate at the pub, which was fine. What you’d expect really.|The kids entertainment team are really excellent. Very professional from what I saw and super engaging with the kids! The entertainment area gets absolutely packed and the tables are taken very quickly. We had to stand at the bar one night which wasn’t ideal. |Swimming pool is dying for an upgrade. Very dated and no slides or anything interesting for the kids. It was however lovely and warm! Bike hire was good (if expensive). We Didn’t do any kids activities but I did have a nice chat with a young lady who was very helpful and extremely personable.|The alpaca walk was great fun. The guy running it (James?) was brilliant at his job. Great banter, knowledgeable. |My biggest complaint about our trip though was regarding the NYE event. We wanted to go into the bar for drinks on New Year’s Eve. I tried unsuccessfully to book tickets online. I rang guest services (twice!) in the weeks before and was told someone would call me back. No one seemed to know anything about the booking system and seemed to want to pass it on to someone else! Eventually I gave up until the day we checked in, even then guest services couldn’t help. I was eventually told (at Aubrey’s) that they were sold out! |All in all, it was a nice trip but I think for us, paying the extra to go to Center parcs is probably the better option.

Daniel L.

We recently came here as a big family of over 10 for 3 nights and 2 nights

Great place to relax and spend time with friends and family.

Entertainment was great on the evenings for kids and adults.

Arcade was good but a little bit dated only one pool table.

The food wasn't great unfortunately in both restaurants.

I still would recommend staying here

Stephen R.

Really enjoyed our stay, only reason for a lower score on the service 2 was related to the food service in the restraunt. Everything came at once or almost all at once, starters and mains. Next day we we thought we would learn from the day before and as for the starters to come as starters. They did but 20 minutes after finishing the starters. Still no mains. They forgot about them and when they did arrive, they were all overcooked. Most probably a change in staff or overall, two poor meals and service in two days. And it's not cheap. It's the only thing putting us off another visit, eating out is part of the experience.

Jennifer J.

We stayed in Knightwood 5 overall had a fabulous stay! Staff were all extremely friendly and helpful check in was easy and felt very welcomed. The lodge needs a new rug and log tables slightly on small side. Comfy bed and overall had relaxing stay. Woodside inn was nice breakfast and dinners were tasty. Lovely walks nearby and extremley dog friendly.

John L.

This was our second “Twixmas” stay at Sandy Balls. This time, as there were more of us (five adults and one child) we booked an Exclusive Lodge in the Brambles area of the park.||After a nightmare five-and-a-half-hour journey from Essex round the M25 and M3, we finally arrived late afternoon (we had intended to be there by 2.30). On arrival, we were greeted by the friendly check-in staff who guided us to our accommodation, which by now was rather dark.||On entering our lodge (Brambles 13), we simply had our breath taken away! It was simply stunning with a massive open-plan kitchen and lounge, which came with all the latest appliances and tech – dishwasher, built-in double oven, microwave plus the usual utensils. There was a giant television mounted on the wall, but sadly not a “smart” TV. The lounge also had its own Wi-Fi. There were loads of storage places. ||The furniture included a pull-out sofa bed which my son used. They even included an illuminated Christmas tree in the lounge!||The lodge also came with a laundry room with washing machine and sink, with more cupboards. The main bathroom was very spacious with a shower over the bath.||The three bedrooms were very spacious. The main bedroom came with an ensuite shower and a large walk-in wardrobe, plus another television. All bedrooms had plenty of storage space. Towels were also supplied, as were hairdryers.|But here comes the first negative. As bespoke and stunning as the lodge was, we couldn’t believe how uncomfortable the beds were. The lodge itself looked very new, but the mattresses must have come from some old caravans, you could feel all the springs. We called customer services and they sent some extra thick duvets which we used as mattress toppers. This did improve the comfort a little bit.||The lodge also came with a very large decking area with outside seating, but obviously we didn’t use this at this time of year.||The lodge rear windows had a nice view overlooking the Alpaca compound.||In the main Acorn Place as usual, it was beautifully decorated like a Winter Wonderland with many of the trees illuminated plus festive figurines and Christmas trees all lit up. ||We used the Woodside Inn and Suite on our first evening. My son and I were looking forward to having a few beers and watch the World Championship Darts on Sky, but here comes the second negative – NO SKY Television! This was very very disappointing, as I told my son they had Sky TV the last time we stayed there so we could watch the darts and the football (our team was playing on the 29th). I asked the bar staff what happened to Sky TV, they said Away Resorts and/or Sandy Balls got rid of it some months ago. I can’t believe after all the money this place takes, they can’t afford Sky Television.||We only used the Woodside suite once on our first night as it was very packed. This entertainment area is nowhere near big enough for the amount of accommodation there is on site. If you want a table, you had better get in there by 6pm.|We did use the Woodside Inn for an evening meal. The food was very nice, but was rather pricey.||My wife and daughter had treatments booked at the Retreat (these were booked back in October as Christmas treats), but on arrival at the spa reception on Saturday morning, they were told their treatments had been cancelled. Apparently, the therapist had phoned in sick. However, this did have a happy ending as they were both given new appointments for the Monday by a different therapist. Their therapist, Louise was a lovely lass and they both enjoyed their treatments.||We also used the swimming pool and spa, which was nice. But here’s the third negative, although the sauna was fine, the jacuzzi was out of action and had been for some time and by all accounts which was a tad disappointing, as my wife loves the jacuzzi. Generally, you are allowed one hour in the pool, but as it was quiet, they let us stay in as long as we liked. ||We took some provisions as I knew there was an on-site store. We did need some eggs but couldn’t find any in the shop. And here comes the fourth negative, I asked the young lass if they had any more eggs only to be told they were sold out and won’t be getting any until the new year!! The Sandy Balls website quotes “Our well-stocked shop has everything you need plus so much more”. Hmmm, no it doesn’t! So this meant a trip into Fordingbridge and give Tesco and the Co-op a visit. On the upside, at least these stores were somewhat cheaper than the on-site shop.||One other activity we booked was the Walking with Alpacas, which my granddaughter did the last time we stayed here. There were three Alpacas, but only two were booked, so my daughter got a “freebie”. The walk lasts around thirty minutes and costs £25. James, who looks after the animals, was very knowledgeable and informative and a very nice guy. The walk takes you to the Good Friday Hill look-out point, which is an elevated area overlooking the surrounding countryside and the River Avon. ||As for the darts and football, we found a wonderful, friendly pub in Fordingbridge. The Crown Inn had numerous large TV screens around the pub and drinks at very reasonable prices (I’ll do a separate review). And just along the road, you have the excellent Peking Chinese take-away, which goes down a treat after a few beers in the Crown. ||One other activity my son and I did was visit the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu on the Sunday, which was a great day out. My son is a bit of a petrol (or I should say, a diesel turbo) head.||In summing up, despite a few negatives, we still had a wonderful relaxing chill-out holiday. Our exclusive lodge was unbelievable (except for the beds) and we would certainly stay here again.|| Note to management, just bring Sky TV back to the Woodside Inn.