If you are looking to trade screen time for tree time, BeWILDerwood may already be on the list of places you would like to visit! With two boys, BeWILDerwood had been on my list for a while, and a recent trip to Great Yarmouth provided a good base to go and check it out. It was an absolute scorcher of a day, and the shade from the canopy of trees was a lifesaver. I do love something that has sustainability in mind, and one of the things I loved about it here was that there was no gaudy plastic in sight. Just beautiful giant wooden structures that looked straight out a storybook.
If you are heading there during the school holidays (especially when they have a BOGOF offer), you may need to pack your patience as well as your sunscreen. We hit some hefty queues waiting to get in and for the boat ride. My boys are 9 and 11, and I feel they were at the upper limit of the magic of BeWILDerwood although they did love running around in there. Tickets are generally around £25 each for those over 105cm. In some of the school holidays they offer buy one get one free on tickets which made it more of an affordable day out for us. For younger children I do think the £25 ticket fee is worth it as you can definitely spend the whole day there, but for slightly older children I’m not sure BeWILDerwood was worth the money for us.
Let the magic begin
We decided to arrive at the park for 10am when it opened, hoping to beat the queues. It may have been because it was one of the hottest days of the year, but it was already pretty busy. We queued for around 25 minutes to get in despite having booked our tickets in advance. Having said that, parts of the queue offered shade so the kids didn’t complain TOO much.
As you walk in under the BeWILDerwood signs, the sense of magic is there. Once you get into the park, you immediately feel in nature, and as you walk along the boardwalk the magic begins to build. Little tree houses are dotted around as you walk in, and trees and the sound of nature surround you. One of the first things you see as you go in, is the queue for the boat ride around scaaaary lake. The queue for this never seems any shorter, so I can’t say there seems a best time to go on there. However, if you haven’t read the storybooks the boat trip does provide some context to the characters you will encounter around the park.
What’s actually at BeWILDerwood?
The good news (or bad – depending on how you look at it!) is that parents are encouraged to climb too! There’s plenty of large tree houses, rope bridges to cross and large slides to whizz down. Not to mention, the zip wires and boat ride. There’s a crafting tent, where activities are free to enjoy. The website mentions free face painting but we didn’t see that happening on our visit. There’s also an area for interactive story time, which looks great for the younger kids. Plus meet and greet sessions with some of the BeWILDerwood characters. As if that wasn’t enough, there is a den building area and dedicated toddler zone.
What age range is BeWILDerwood for?
I feel the perfect age to visit is age 3-8. A large part of the park’s charm relies on the immersive storybook world created by local author Tom Blofeld. The woods are scattered with minature Twiggle houses amongst the trees and Boggle houses among the marshland. These are all bought to life by the story time and meet and greet sessions.
For toddlers and primary age children I can imagine the atmosphere is pure magic. They will enjoy spending the whole day there. For my 2 they ran out of interest after a few hours, although this probably wasn’t helped by the heat! They did have a fab time crossing the rope bridges and running wild. It felt safe enough to give them some freedom, but it feels huge so I wouldn’t let them out of sight. To be honest although they had a good time, they were definitely at the upper age limit of what BeWILDerwood has to offer.
Can I take a picnic to BeWILDerwood?
Don’t worry, even though you are in the middle of the forest, you aren’t expected to be a survival expert. Picnics are welcomed at BeWILDerwood. They have lots of picnic tables to be able to enjoy your home packed lunch. We did take a packed lunch with us to try and keep costs down, and also because I have fussy eaters! With it being a blazing hot day it would have been appreciated if there had been water bottle filling stations around the park. I appreciate they are focusing on being environmentally friendly, so it would make sense to offer this rather than having to buy plastic bottles of water. After I returned home and looked online, people did say staff members were more than happy to fill up water bottles at the food vendors. Which we didn’t think to do!
If you fancy eating out, then there are options to buy food there. Although the menu isn’t large, I really love that they use local suppliers. Including the local Ronaldo’s dairy ice cream – which we had to sample of course. However at £3.60 for each tiny tub, it did seem a little expensive. That’s the magic of bringing a packed lunch though, it leaves more pennies for ice creams!
Can I take a pushchair to BeWILDerwood?
If you are taking young children, a pushchair might be a must for those tired little legs. Bear in mind the park is in a natural wooded area, and as such it can be bumpy and hilly. We saw one gent tumble over a tree root while we were there. In wetter weather it is also likely to get quite muddy, which may make it more difficult to get around.
With this in mind, wheelchairs may also struggle to get around certain parts or at certain points of the year. The boat ride didn’t seem to be wheelchair accessible either. While talking about accessibility, I should mention there are not any changing places facilities available. If your child struggles with being in a queue due to having additional needs or neurodiversity, speak to the team before you visit to support with queues.
So is it worth the money?
There’s no avoiding it, a family day out at BeWILDerwood can seem like a lot of money. Some people are surprised by the ticket pricing as it is based on height rather than age. That’s because longer legs are needed for the bigger zip wires. Those over 105cm need to pay full price, meaning you are paying full price for most of the family. This also means, you totally need to join in to ensure you get your money’s worth! So bring your climbing shoes.
For families with toddlers and pre-school children, I would definitely say it is worth the money. The sheer feeling of being immersed in the story, with the vast amount of play areas means little ones will be kept busy all day. For my two, it was a mixed bag. Although they loved being outside and climbing and running, they got bored quickly and we covered the park more quickly than expected. We were only there for a few hours.
Overall, I am glad we swapped screen time for tree time though. It is different to anywhere we have visited before, so well worth a visit.
Any tips for visiting BeWILDerwood?
- Although set in the great outdoors, scooters and bikes are not permitted in the park so best leave those at home.
- Look out for special offers. When we visited the BOGOF promotion made it a much better value day out.
- Wear sensible shoes, the Crocs won’t rock it here. You may also want to put on clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
- Wear longer shorts or trousers if possible. For many of the slides you need to wear a shoe cover to ensure maximum speed and they do advise longer clothes. We saw a girl go down in a playsuit, which rode up as she went down causing her to have a bumpy ride and a sore bottom!
Have you visited BeWILDerwood before? What did you think, was it worth the money? Would you go again?
