Best Glamping in the New Forest

Glamping Accommodation in the New Forest

The range of glamping accommodation available in the New Forest has grown considerably, and the quality across the board is high. Shepherd’s huts, pods, bell tents and cabins are all available, with many featuring en suite bathrooms and private hot tubs — making New Forest glamping sites perfect for relaxing breaks in nature.

Safari tents are particularly popular for families, offering generous multi-room layouts with proper kitchens, wood burners and private hot tubs alongside direct access to the forest. Shepherd’s huts deliver the most intimate and romantic experience — tucked into farm gardens or orchards, with private outdoor spaces and the particular cosiness that the New Forest’s woodland setting calls for. Bell tents positioned within the national park itself allow you to wake up to forest views from your private picnic area, with the sound of the ponies and the deer as your morning alarm.

Dog-friendly glamping is widely available across the New Forest, which makes perfect sense given that the forest trails, open heathland and quiet country lanes are among the finest dog-walking terrain in the south of England.

Things to Do When Glamping in the New Forest

One of the most enjoyable things about a glamping break in the New Forest is that the landscape itself provides much of the entertainment — you don’t need a packed itinerary to have an outstanding few days here.

Gentle roads make the New Forest perfect for touring cyclists, with lovely stretches such as the two-mile route from Beaulieu to the historic hamlet of Buckler’s Hard, with tranquil river views and a pub waiting at the end. The Wilverley Inclosure circuit offers a 2.6-mile route through wonderful mature woodland on a wide gravel path — ideal for families with younger children or anyone who wants a shorter, relaxed outing.

For walkers, the Lyndhurst heath circular walk is a gentle 3.5-mile saunter along a heathland trail through a colourful carpet of heather, passing through ancient tracks and peaceful lanes. The Beaulieu Heath loop offers an easy 8-mile option with big skies and views across to the Isle of Wight — perfect for a family wander with plenty of bug and bird spotting along the way.

For families with children, Paultons Park — home to Peppa Pig World — and the Beaulieu National Motor Museum are both within a short drive of most New Forest glamping sites, making them easy and popular day-trip additions to any stay. The New Forest Water Park at Fordingbridge is an aqua park and man-made surfing venue offering family-friendly activities and watersports including wakeboarding and a 4,000 sq ft aqua park.

For something a little different, Keyhaven offers a charming 4-mile coastal walk along the Solent Way, taking in marshland and views across to the Isle of Wight — a reminder that the New Forest is closer to the sea than many visitors realise.

Eating and Drinking Around the New Forest

The food and drink scene around the New Forest rewards those who seek it out. Local cask ales and homely food in traditional dark-beamed pub settings are one of the best things about glamping in the New Forest, and the area has a good spread of village pubs within cycling or walking distance of most glamping sites. Exbury Gardens — 200 acres of gorgeous greenery and woodland trails — is a wonderful place to spend a day, and the surrounding villages offer farm shops and local producers well worth exploring.

Glamping in the New Forest: Year Round Appeal

The New Forest is a genuinely year-round destination, and its glamping sites increasingly reflect that. The autumn colour in the ancient woodland is extraordinary, making September and October some of the finest months to visit. Winter glamping in the New Forest — in a well-heated shepherd’s hut or safari tent with a wood burner — has a particular magic, with frost on the heathland and the ponies steaming gently in the cold morning air. Spring brings the landscape back to life in vivid fashion, and summer offers long evenings outdoors in one of the most naturally beautiful settings in the south of England.

Glamping in the New Forest is, for those who discover it, one of the most naturally enjoyable short breaks available in southern England — close enough to London and the major southern cities to make it an easy escape, and distinctive enough in character to feel like a genuine world away from ordinary life.

What Makes the New Forest So Special for Glamping?

The New Forest is one of the largest remaining areas of unenclosed pasture and forest in southern England, covering south west Hampshire and south east Wiltshire — an ancient land of sun-dappled forest and tussocked heathland. It has a character that’s unlike any other national park in Britain. The landscape is open rather than dramatic, intimate rather than grand, and threaded through with a network of quiet lanes, bridle paths and woodland trails that reward exploration at exactly the unhurried pace that a glamping holiday naturally encourages.

The famous New Forest ponies — semi-wild, free-roaming and entirely unbothered by human visitors — are perhaps the park’s most iconic feature, and encountering them on a morning walk or finding one at the fence of your glamping site is one of those simple pleasures that makes a stay here feel genuinely special.

To read further information on the New Forest check out Visit the New Forest