Woodland Escape

There’s no shortage of experience at Woodland Escape, an aptly named glamping site in the heart of Somerset. The team behind this small-scale spot have been in the industry for years. In fact, owner Rob grew up on his family’s holiday park just a few miles across the border in Dorset, setting up his first glamping site within a quiet section of the campsite grounds there. It was always his dream to find a more natural, off-grid location though. And this burgeoning, rural woodland is certainly an idyllic choice. His dream has finally been realised.

Despite the vast amount of space, Rob has curbed the place to seven furnished bell tents and two, beautifully kitted-out yurts plus one Safari Lodge. The result is a wonderfully private woodland with small clearings for each unit but trees nicely dividing them from one another and providing perfect privacy. Campfire smoke wafts up through the leafy canopy and a few solar-powered lamps add some extra light in the evenings. The woodland isn’t particularly dense, so there’s plenty of room for children to chase around and play games, while local footpaths lead out into the open fields with several enjoyable loop walks nearby.

This is a glamping site that wears its quirks on its sleeve. Along with a hidden wood-fired hot tub adults can use and the garden games you can borrow, children are each given a ribbon on arrival that they can tie to the wishing tree in the heart of the woods. A combination of an ash and an oak tree that have intertwined and grown together, the tree is a wonderfully magical looking thing, perhaps possessing some genuine powers. Tie the ribbon, close your eyes and make a wish: “I wish to come back every summer, I wish, I wish, I wish”....