LEGOLAND Windsor’s new Woodland Village is surprisingly serene
Serenity and LEGOLAND aren’t words you expect to see in the same sentence, but bear with me. I recently spent 24 hours at the theme park’s new Woodland Village and, shock, it was really quite calm and peaceful.
Ok supper in the Clubhouse might have been a bit wild (storytelling, giant pizzas, cascades of Lego bricks, dozens of hyped up kids), but the actual wooden lodges surrounded by grass and trees? Disarmingly countryside.
Recently launched and costing a cool £35 million to create, you’d never guess the 10-acre site is less than a five-minute stroll from the theme park entrance.
So what are the lodges like?
Cute. Chalet-style lodges are situated in curves off the main path (it’s car-free) and have clapboard exteriors, sloping roofs and picket fences (think Duplo meets Alpine), plus there are 20 fun (and cheaper) glamping barrels with shared showers. We stayed in a standard woodland lodge (sleeps four) and my eight-year-old son Sol adored our cosy cabin, particularly his bunk bed room with a TV (showing Lego films, obvs), stars projected on the ceiling and a Lego woodpecker attached to the wall.
The woodland theme was all-pervading, including a Lego nature scene behind my double bed and a Junior Ranger Handbook which Sol used to tick off Lego animals (think squirrels, deer and foxes) he spotted on a nature trail winding through the village. There’s also a fun code to crack before you can open the room’s safe and get your hands on some Lego loot - ours held some acorn flags and pandas to build, much to Sol’s delight.
Best of all are the well-designed play areas outside each cluster of lodges, meaning kids can have a bit of independence and meet new friends but parents are still close by. I sat on our lodge’s veranda and read while Sol played contentedly - not something I was expecting to happen at LEGOLAND. It felt a bit like we were on a French campsite, rather than the edge of a theme park.
And what about food?
The Clubhouse has a large restaurant and bar beneath an eye-catching (Lego) tree canopy, which is used for breakfast and dinner. Sol had an enormous stone-baked margherita pizza (quite pricey at £16m but it was from the adult menu) which he declared delicious, while I opted for a Sunshine Salad (burrata, tender stem broccoli, spinach, rocket and basil dressing), a welcome and unexpectedly healthy dish on a carb-laden menu.
One hitch, the food took over an hour to arrive. Although the village had only recently opened when we stayed and teething problems are bound to happen, waiting more than 70 minutes for a salad and pizza when you have a hungry kid on your hands is not ideal. Luckily, there’s a large central, circular pit styled like a campfire, complete with giant Lego flames and filled with bricks, along with a massive playground just outside the Clubhouse, which all kept him distracted from a rumbling tummy.
Verdict
We’ve stayed at the theme park’s other hotels in the past, a medieval-themed Castle hotel and Legoland Resort Hotel, but we both preferred the Woodland Village because it’s calmer, has more open space and more things to do. Apparently it’s also Merlin Entertainment’s first operationally carbon-neutral accommodation, using LED lighting, sustainable timber, air source heat pumps and low-flush cisterns, so you can feel slightly less conflicted about being immersed in a plastic fantastic Lego world representing nature.
Go there!
From £248 per night in a chalet (sleeps 4), which includes in an overnight stay in the Woodland Village, one-day theme park tickets, in-room Lego gift, free parking, evening entertainment, breakfast in the Clubhouse and free round at the new nine-hold Adventure Golf course.
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