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Reviews of Bracelands Campsite
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Bracelands Campsite
Forest Of Dean
Coleford
Gloucestershire (Browse area)
GL16 7NN
Tel: 01594 837258
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Pitches: 400
Open: 01/01/2024 to 31/12/2024
01/01/2025 to 31/12/2025
Rating: 
   
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Photos (27)
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 Show Full Facilities |
| Who's it for |
 Families Welcome |
 Not Members Only |
 Rallies Welcome |
 Not Naturist Site |
 Dogs Welcome |
 No Dogs Allowed |
 Groups Welcome |
 Motorbikers Welcome |
| Facilities |
 Toilet Facilities |
 Hot Showers |
 Washing Up |
 No Bathroom |
 Baby Changing Facilities |
 Laundry On Site |
 Drinking Water |
 Disabled Friendly |
 Chemical Disposal |
 No Battery Charging |
 No Gas Exchange |
 Recycling Facilities |
 No Kitchen Facilities |
 No Freezer / Fridge |
 Motorhome Point |
 Wifi Access |
 Shop On Site |
 Bar <1 mile |
 Restaurant or Cafe or Takeaway <1 mile |
| Activities |
 No Playground |
 No TV Room |
 No Games Room |
 No Evening Ents |
 Fishing <5 miles |
 Wild Swimming <5 miles |
 No Indoor Pool |
 No Outdoor Pool |
 Horse Riding <5 miles |
 Cycle Hire <1 mile |
 Golf <5 miles |
 No Tennis |
 No Beach |
 Watersports <5 miles |
 Boat Launch / Mooring <5 miles |
| Other Features |
 No Sea Views |
 Not Working Farm |
 No Campfires Allowed |
 Open All Year |
 No Waterside Pitches |
 Public Transport <1 mile |
 Offroad Dog Walk On Site or Direct Access |
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Reviews:
136 in total, now showing 71 to 80
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| Date of Visit: August 2010 |
Unit: Trailer Tent |
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| Reviewer: Lanafish |
2 reviews from this member |
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 Just returned from a weekend at Bracelands along with 8 other families, in general a great time was had, good weather was a great bonus, we managed to all pitch together and the children had a ball, the forest was simply an amazing adventure.
The big disappointment was the high price paid to camp, way and above any other fees we have paid to camp elsewhere and the disgusting condition of the toilet/shower facilities, they looked as though they were not cleaned very often or very well, some toilet doors were without locks, taps that constantly ran and ran, presumably they are not on a water meter. Maybe if they are on a meter this relates in the high pitch cost! Showers were adequate but not brilliant. But worst of all was the awful stench in the urinals, next time maybe a face mask should be packed.
We will return next year as the site is in a wonderful location and a great place to spend time with friends, hopefully the facilities will have improved by then. 
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| Date of Visit: July 2010 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Nicki257 |
3 reviews from this member |
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A site set in a really beautiful location but a great shame that the facilities were in need of an overhaul. The costs per night was expensive when you look at the poor condition of the toilet blocks etc. There was never any soap in the dispensers and I did not look as if they had been cleaned!
On the plus side the fact that you could walk straight from the campsite in the forest.
We were lucky where we pitched as we were on a bit of a slope but nobody pitched one side of us. Looking at other areas of the site it looked very overcrowded.
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| Date of Visit: August 2010 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Aldersv |
5 reviews from this member |
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Stayed at Bracelands for a long weekend in August. As others have said the views and forest is lovely - but standard is very poor.
The toilets were horrid not overly clean, taps were burning hot, running all the time or wouldn't switch on, tiles hanging off the wall and all the time we were there we never had any hot showers. The showers also didn't drain so you ended up standing in sometimes dirty cold water - yuk!
Someone had been sick all over in the ladies floor and took someone ages to come and clean it up the next day even with repeated requests from many people.
Washing up facilities very poor 4 sinks to wash up in but no plugs and people left bits of food in the sinks and never wiped down after use. People were using the laundry room sinks becuase of the queue so don't do any laundry in there!
The site is on a slope and you were lucky to find pitches that were even. Bins weren't empty often enough and one morning woke up to see that the rubbish put by the bins had blown all over the site. Cars also drove too fast around the site as children were playing very close.
We went up to the other site which looked pretty much the same with the same problems - took the children to the play ground however many of the things were broken eg broken swing, lots of foot holds missing from the climbing frame. The shop was good though.
The area is lovely but there are much better, nicer, cheaper places to stay - come guys upgrade your facilities - they are not nice! Worst I have ever seen
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| Date of Visit: July 2010 |
Unit: Touring Caravan |
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| Reviewer: Gemma1675 |
46 reviews from this member |
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We stayed for a weekend in July, we booked a standard pitch as we wanted the freedom to pitch wherever we liked rather than being tied to an EHU point, but in practice the site is so sloped that it is very tricky to find a pitch which is practical.
The toilet blocks are really showing their age and I can't help but think that from a campers point of view Forest Holidays would be better off refurbing them than spending all that money on the reception building and shop at the Christchurch site.
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| Date of Visit: July 2010 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Alangsharp |
1 review from this member |
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Site is a bit pricey given range of facilities, but toilets are well cleaned and staff are incredibly friendly and helpful.
I don't understand some comments about wanting pitches clearly marked out - while I can see it may get cramped when busy, I prefer their less regimented approach. We went with a group of 6 other families and it was excellent to be able to pitch our tents in a circle and the kids (and us grown-ups!) have an area in the middle.
You need to be aware that the site is sloping (in the morning we were squashing my youngest up against the side of the tent - so choose your pitch carefully.
The real bonus is the easy access to forest walks and cycling - we ended up all walking down to Symonds Yat and enjoying a nice pint by the water - though the uphill return took us a little longer.
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| Date of Visit: May 2010 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Keith Reeves |
3 reviews from this member |
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A number of the recent reviews were posted by folk presumably staying at the site during a bank holiday. There are several recurring comments. Having visited the site during the Spring bank holiday I have to concur with these.
Although the site is in a great location it's clear that during busy periods the number of tents is hugely in excess of a sensible capacity - not quite up the the festival-like experience indicated in one review but not far off. It reached the stage where we couldn't actually park our car anywhere near our tent.
You can live with this for a day or two but it does make you wonder how anyone trying to fight a fire, or prevent its spread, would cope. There wasn't much sign of the minimum 3m between tents being enforced.
Although it would involve a bit more work for the owners/managers (but given the income they must generate there is no excuse really) it could benefit from having marked, assigned pitches of a range of sizes to cope with the differing requirements of couples, families, large groups etc.
Likewise the income must surely allow for construction of additional facilities, more regular updating of the existing facilities and regular cleaning.
As you can see I can't agree with the reviewer who commented 'Even though the site was very busy, we had plenty of space and everyone adhered to the noise rules, which was quite a surprise for such a large camp site'.
On the latter point, given the number of people present it wasn't surprising that there were the usual late night campers present (alcohol influenced in some cases) oblivious of the impact of their actions on others.
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| Date of Visit: June 2010 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Dhf1970 |
3 reviews from this member |
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I've just spent the last couple of nights at this site with my partner and 2 stepchildren. I've been camping with my partner for the last 5 years and personally I've been camping for the last 35 years so we are very experienced campers and have stayed at lots of sites, both large & small.
So, here we go on the review - I'm sorry to say that this has to be one of the dirtiest and crowded sites I've every stayed on. If you like other campers so close to you that you can hear them pass wind then this is definitely the site for you (I kid you not).
We were pleasantly surprised when we were told on checking in that we could pitch 'anywhere we wanted to as long as it was 6 metres from others'. We drove down the long pretty wooded drive to the campsite and hit the 1st speed bump rather harder than planned (10mph) as it has no visible painting on it and in the shade it blended in to the road (a quick lick of white paint would sort this a treat). We liked the fact that there was a keypad on the gate (great security).
We found a lovely area with a few other tents up the top and started to put the tent up and thought how lovely and pretty the site was although quite busy. Whilst sat having a cuppa I noticed a member of staff asking a caravanner to move his caravan (he'd literally just arrived) as he was too close to the next one and we commented how good that was. That was until we went out for the day on the Saturday and came back about 7pm to find our tent surrounded by 4 other tents - 2 of which were together and were approx. 2 metres from ours. We were not impressed but figured as we were going home the next day not much point in complaining.
Less than 20 minutes before putting our kids to bed the baby next door kicked off crying, which I appreciate wasn't the site's responsibility but didn't help that they were so close it sounded like they were inside our tent. Apart from anything else I was under the impression that the distance between tents was for fire safety, but that rule doesn't seem to be adhered to here for some reason.
Now to the facilities - oh my goodness. Even after being cleaned they weren't very clean. 2 of the toilets I used during our stay took about 4 attempts to flush and 1 wouldn't flush at all so the kids struggled with this. The shower I had had plenty of hot water however the control is a flat panel that you touch your finger to - mine was faulty. Sometimes you touched it and it came straight on, sometimes you stood there pressing it and nothing happened. Great fun when you are covered in shampoo & shower gel and trying to rinse off.
The sinks were disgusting pretty much every time I went in there and 1 was blocked and backed up. I appreciate some of that is down to the other campers / visitors but not all of it. In fact Sunday morning I poured some cold water into a bowl and had a cold wash in the tent and we all had showers when we got home instead.
To say the toilet blocks are dated are an understatement and considering the pitch prices I would say overpriced in comparison to every other site we've stayed on.
This has the potential to be an amazing site, it's location alone sees to that, but unfortunately the lack of organisation and the fact that they cram them in spoils things in our opinion. If you go when the kids are at school and don't stay over the weekend during the summer it will probably be idyllic. Any other time I couldn't recommend it.
Also, there was no children's play area which we thought was peculiar and you're not allowed to fly kites so not overly kid friendly. I do totally understand about kites when by other units but they could easily cordon off a small area for the kids which would not compromise the site.
It's a shame! It could be an absolute joy to stay here but just not until they update their facilities and policies on pitches and stop crying to cram them in.
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| Date of Visit: June 2010 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: _-_strawb_-_ |
3 reviews from this member |
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We've been using this site for many years along with the nearby site Christchurch. It's a lovely area, lots to do, the activities available (eg. Cycling & canoeing) suit both our teenage son and 8 year old daughter, beautiful scenery, good walks, shops nearby in Coleford and less than an hour away from home for us.
I never tire of going to Symonds Yat, and a walk through the forest to the Rock is wonderful on a lovely sunny day.
Bracelands can get busy so we tend to avoid weekends and bank holidays and use it for short breaks mid week.
The site itself is sloping but this has never been a big problem for us as we tend to go at quieter times, so are able to find fairly flat pitches. Facilities are a bit old and shabby, could do with an update especially considering the price you pay for a basic pitch. I've never noticed a shortage in hot water though and the facilities seem to be cleaned regularly. Also there are lots of cold water taps placed across the site which is really useful.
Booking online is straightforward and when booking by telephone I've always found the call center staff helpful, only wish I could say the same about the staff on site. Over the years I've found booking in on site to be an lengthy process, usually complicated by computer problems, card payment problems etc etc, these issues are obviously out of the control of the staff but generally I've observed the staff to be quite abrupt and rude on times, not just to me but to other campers, so much so it's even starting to put me off using the site.
The old shop and booking office are in the process of being demolished and the booking office is currently housed in a temporary portable cabin, but the poor attitude to customer service has been a long standing problem, maybe Forest Holidays could invest a bit more time on staff training along with the new holiday cabins and ready tents.
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| Date of Visit: May 2010 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Katie phillips |
4 reviews from this member |
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Present were 3 families with children ranging from 6 – 10. We went to Christchurch site last year and had a lovely time however we thought the shower block was a little dated, and booked this one by mistake. How glad we were.
The top toilet block was a lot smarter than the middle one, this could do with a little TLC. It was regularly cleaned though and I only had to queue one morning for the showers even though the site was full as it was bank holiday weekend.
However we had to queue to do the washing up most evenings, so I feel they need to provide extra washing up space.
We found the rangers, firm but very helpful. We were pitching our gazebo and one came over and very politely asked if we could move it back a little. Also our children got a small kite out to play with, and again we were asked very politely not to and explained why. The rules are there on site for everyone’s safety and this was handled very well. I imagine this to be a very difficult job that they all did very well.
Even though the site was very busy, we had plenty of space and everyone adhered to the noise rules, which was quite a surprise for such a large camp site.
We took our bikes and did the cycle path through the forest from the pedalbikeaway Cycle Centre which was lovely, would recommend that.
Also had a take away from Hong Kong House Chinese. Very good.
Would recommend this site and would definitely go back ourselves.
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| Date of Visit: June 2010 |
Unit: Touring Caravan |
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| Reviewer: Superted |
2 reviews from this member |
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The campsite is surrounded by natural forest and beauty. We visited bank holiday weekend and it was overstretched/overfull. (After the bank holiday the site became quieter and calmer). Our pitch was booked and paid but we still queued for half hour plus because the staff were so very slow and seemed to blame the campers for the nuisance.
The shop was situated on Christchurch half mile away (all up hill) people were driving cars just to get a pint of milk etc causing congestion at the gate. However this could have been overcome with the use of a small delivery van selling milk, bread, eggs etc. (Shop was very expensive & didn't cater for the numbers on site).
The toilet facilities were very dated, flush mechanism didn't always work, and cleanliness left a lot to be desired, they closed for an hour for cleaning, (I went straight in after and there were plasters and tissue left on the floor) The site is very badly managed (the manager informed us he had no control as it was Forestry Commission run). If run properly with new or better trained staff it would be an excellent venue with great potential.
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