After reading a review about this place and then looking at the website I decided it was a place that my family would enjoy. There was no family club, pub or entertainment so it would I thought be a nice place to chill.

Griffon Forest has 55 natural oak holiday lodges all with private hot tubs. There are six types of lodges.
********************* Gardeners Lodge ********************

This is a one bedroom lodge that sleeps 2 people, it has a 4 poster king size bed and a spa bath. Upon arrival you get complimentary chocolates and a bottle of wine.
******************** Poachers Lodge ***********************

This lodge has one bedroom and is an open plan lodge. It has a kingsize four poster bed and a six foot circular jacuzzi bath and upon arrival you get complimentary chocolates and a bottle of wine.
****************** Poachers Premium Lodge ****************

This is the one they say for a romantic break. It has one bedroom with a kingsize four poster bed and is open plan. It has a six foot circular jacuzzi bath and a large walk in shower. In this lodge you get complimentary champagne (probably cava - oh I must be jealous), chocolates and red roses.
**************** Gardeners Premium Lodge **********************

This has two double bedrooms and each has a kingsize four poster bed with ensuite, with jacuzzi spa bath and walk in shower. Compimentary wine and chocolates.
*************** Keepers Lodge ***************

2 bedroom lodge one with a double oak canopy bed and one with twin beds. Bathroom with bath and separate walk in shower.
**************** Woodmans Lodge ***************

Spacious lodge with one double bedroom with oak canopy bed and ensuite shower. One twin room and one single room. It has a family bathroom.
Each lodge has a sunken outdoor hot tub, dvd and cd player, kitchen including microwave and dishwasher, central heating, beds made up for arrival and towels. All except poachers has a utility room and some have bathrobes.

I booked a midweek break (Monday - Friday) in a keepers lodge 11th April - 15th April, as I booked it last year I paid the reduced price of £442. I originally thought this quite expensive but as there are 4 of us; staying in a B&B would cost about this. So as we had a hot tub and could come and go as we please it was probably quite reasonable.
I booked through Hoseasons and was informed check in was from 4pm. I always think this is a little late and feel a bit let down when check in is this late. I read a few more reviews before we went and found out if you got there earlier and left your mobile number with them, they would phone you when the lodge was ready. We arrived about 2ish and then drove past the entrance to see if anything was nearby - a pub; that was it which was fine. We then drove back and drove up the very long lane to the reception. We got at reception around 2.15 - 2.30pm and was allowed in our lodge. - great stuff.

The lodges are quite spaced out which means you are not overlooked by another lodge whilst in the hot tub which is a plus.
One of the reasons I booked here was because of what the website said about the wildlife. It said you could watch the wildlife on a channel on the television as they had cameras around the forest. They did have two channels dedicated to the forest but we never saw a single animal on either channel which was a huge disappointment as I expected to see badgers. deer and foxes and the girls were really looking forward to that.
Not far from the site (and you could walk through the forest to get there) was Tykes restaurant which people staying at Griffon could get a 10% discount throughout their stay. We never visited here as I checked the menu before we went and there was lots of meat and fish but not a lot for people who don't eat this ; it also seemed a bit over the top to take a three year old. There was also a sports bar here which closed when the golf had finished being played and served bar meals.

As we first opened the door to the lodge we noticed a door opposite, upon opening we found it was the utility room with a washer dryer in, the boiler (there was a sign saying not to touch or alter it) which was always on and you just set the thermastat to a temperature and all the heating was was controlled by that. Also in there was an iron and ironing board, along with a big torch that was charged by plugging it in.
As we came out of here and opened another door we found this was to the main part of the lodge; which was open plan kitchen diner. It was quite spacious and the living area had 2 two seater couches and a flatscreen TV with DVD and freeview and ....................... we were told it had sky sports and movies. Cool, Man U were playing whilst we were there. We got a big upset there; utd were playing on sky sports 2 which they advertised as having ............... but they were having problems with that channel and it still wasn't sorted so we never got to watch it live.
To the back of the living area was a table with 4 chairs.

The kitchen area was bigger than ours at home and had everything you would want except baking trays so we had to use the grill pan as one. It had more than enough plates, glasses and cutlery etc.
Our bedroom had a bed (oak canopy as stated) a wardrobe chest of drawers and two bedside cabinets with lamps on. The girls room had 2 single beds one wardrobe with shelves and one bedside cabinet inbetween the beds with a lamp on.
We had to rearrange this room by moving the bedside cabinet and pushing the beds together so the youngest wouldn't fall out.

What I liked when I first started looking round the lodge was that they had left some tea, coffee sugar and a small milk in the fridge. Also there was a packet of chocolate biscuits which immediately got opened by the girls. On the table was a vase of fresh flowers.
I hadn't expected towels either but there was a tea towel 4 hand towels and 4 bath towels.

When we had been in the lodge about 10 minutes a guy came to show us how to use the hot tub and to tell us to read the instrutions before we used it. We didn't read the instructions as we had used a hot tub before, but even if we hadn't I don't think I would have read them as from what the guy said it seemed easy enough.
The outdoor furniture was in a definate need of a refurb, there was 2 sunloungers (which you could put some covers on that had been provided) a table and 4 chairs (all wooden of course). We didn't sit on any of them as they just looked dirty and old.

The hot tub was great although a little smaller than I had expected as the lodge was for 4 people. My youngest was the first in the hot tub, she loves water so we had to make sure we programmed the temperature for lower than the average which was 39. When we knew she would be going in we put it to about 37 and she would always say "I like it really hot is it the hottest". When the bubbles are on they are quite noisy.
When in the hot tub we got to see squirrels, they would come on the decking but run off if anyone (well my youngest) shouted. There was also a lot of different birds that we got to see. I love the outdoors so this was a perfect way to relax, only I was more tired hardly doing anything than when we normally go away and end up doing mega long walks.

Surrounding the lodges are lots of really tall trees that are throughout the forest. We went for a walk going off the path and into the forest to see if we could see any animals, we only saw squirrels and some rabbits. We looked for some sticks to walk with (well I didn't but the others did) and the youngest found the best one it had pine cones along the stick but it is her acorn stick! We couldn't really walk too much in the forest and had to follow a path of sorts and it only took about 10 minutes to walk round. Although they do advertise walks and when you sign in they give you a map of the walks but they were too complicated to follow.
At the same place as reception is a shop that seemed to have most of what you would need, although I didn't check too much as we took our food and drink with us. I can imagine it being quite expensive as I decided I wanted to drink fizzy wine in the hot tub (even though you weren't suppossed to) so my husband went to the shop to buy some (if I had gone I would have come back with none at the price). He came back with a bottle that I stuck in the freezer part of the fridge and asked how much - it was £10.50 but to be honest when I tasted it it was good and for the quality it probably wouldn't have been much cheaper in a supermarket. A can of Fosters cost £1.20, so you can decide for yourself if you think it would be expensive to shop there.
Although the shop didn't sell papers you could order one for any day and they would get it for you.

There was also dog kennels here, some lodges allowed dogs so I can only think the kennels were incase you wanted to go out for the day without your dog.
This site is in Flaxton near York and was found easily, we got the directions from the internet and only went wrong once; but that was because the turning was upon us before we noticed and it was too late to turn.

This was one of the better lodges (or even chalets) that we have stayed, the little extras made it nice and they wouldn't have been to difficult to do. The tea, coffee etc, the iron and ironing board, torch and towels.
It was also good that they had freeview and some sky channels although the fact that it said it had sky 2 and they were having a problem with it wasn't that good.
The fact that they had the extras did make me notice the things I thought they should also have, baking trays and a normal tray, some place mats and coasters. The outdoor furniture needed sorting and maybe some candles. This was only because they had the extra touch that it left me wanting more.
The area was great , York is about 10 miles from here so if you want a couple of days out it isn't far to go and York has lots of interesting places and things to do.

If you have children you might think this would be a bit boring for them but mine loved the hot tub and we took books games and the wii so we could do things together. The wii was played on about twice and my eldest read quite a bit at night (but she is a bookworm) and the youngest did jigsaws if she wasn't in the hot tub or someone playing a game or reading to her. I found it was a lot more chilled than being at home and we did things other than watch television. It was quite funny on the last night I decided to watch coronation street so my hubby decided to go in the hot tub the eldest was reading and the youngest was eating chocolate that had been bought and in her pyjamas. He knew if he was seen going in the youngest would be there like a shot so I mouthed to him to climb out of the bedroom window to go in, he didn't think this was a good idea but I assured him it was the only way he was going to be able to go in on his own. So he did and he crawled along whilst he was pulling the hot tub lid back and then ................... ded ded dar ....................... he was caught and the clothes came off and the swimsuit on all before he even managed to get in. So I had the peace for half an hour!
If you want peace and quiet this is the place to go the only disappointment was not seeing any badgers.
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