BeWILDerwood, Cheshire – Review & Tips!

Last Updated on 8 July 2024 by Colette

This post features gifted experiences

This week we had our first family day out to an attraction in longer than I can remember – for the last year everything we have done has been low key, low budget, low commitment – but this summer holidays we’re keen to get out adventuring again and mix things up so we were excited to visit the recently opened BeWILDerwood in Cheshire. Although we had pre-booked our tickets, this is no longer necessary and you can just turn up and pay on the gate- of course if you want to guarantee entry, then pre-booking online is advisable!

So let’s start with the answers to some frequently asked questions about BeWILDerwood and then I’ll crack on with letting you know what we thought of it!

What is BeWILDerwood?

BeWILDerwood Cheshire opened in Spring 2021 and is one of two BeWILDerwood parks in England – the original BeWILDerwood opened in Norfolk in 2007. The BeWILDerwood parks are based on magical children’s books written by Tom Blofeld and offer a fantastic day of family fun in a beautiful forest setting. Having visited BeWILDerwood in Cheshire – which is only four months old at the time of writing, we were impressed at how sympathetically the park has been built into existing, mature woodland.

Where is BeWILDerwood Cheshire?

BeWILDerwood Cheshire is about an hour’s drive from Manchester – use postcode SY13 4JF for your satnav. We found Google Maps got us there no problems (though I would say there was limited signage on the roads – BeWILDerwood don’t seem to have made it onto the brown tourist attraction signs in the area yet).

How much does BeWILDerwood cost?

Tickets for BeWILDerwood are priced based on height – the taller you are, the more of the park you can access! (And adults are encouraged to climb and play too!) Once you are over 105cm tall the price is the same for children and adults at £19.50 (so we’re talking the best part of £100 for our family of five). There are concessions for over 65s (£12.50) and guests who are over 20 weeks pregnant can attend free of charge (you did need to show your matb1 form). There’s also free entry for carers. Tickets can be booked online here or you can pay at the gate.

If you’re looking for a BeWILDerwood Cheshire discount check out the BeWILDerwood annual pass

If you are likely to visit BeWILDerwood more than four times in a year then look at buying a WILD WILD WILD pass – this annual pass (priced at £80 for those over 105cm tall) allows as much play as you want for a year from the day it was purchased – and if you upgrade on the day you came to play, then your ticket price will be knocked off. We thought this was really good value if you lived locally as you could easily get the money’s worth out of the annual pass just through the summer holidays!

What do you wear to BeWILDerwood?

Now we slipped up on this and hadn’t really read anything before we visited! BeWILDerwood advise long sleeves and covered legs – and having visited I can see why. Chloe and Amy both wore shorts on our day out and all three children had short sleeved t shirts on – luckily we got away with it but I can imagine on a hot day the slides could be uncomfortable to say the least on bare skin – and of course there’s a risk of friction burns too. Long sleeves and covered legs just gives an extra layer of protection whilst your child is climbing, sliding and zip lining!

Make sure you think carefully about footwear – although it was dry on the day we visited, it had rained heavily for much of the previous week so there was lots of mud and some huge, path-blocking puddles. Dave and I had both chosen to wear our walking boots (hurrah for sensible, waterproof shoes) which meant we were unaffected by the odd puddle, and the kids had old trainers on so I didn’t mind them getting filthy but they did have to dodge around the paths a bit to keep their feet dry. I saw one woman trying to clean her daughter’s pretty trainers with wet wipes in the middle of the day which seemed like a rather pointless task . . .

Essentially dress for a day outdoors in woodland – this isn’t a day out to worry about your white converse or to wear a pretty summer dress. Get grubby and have fun.

What age is BeWILDerwood for?

BeWILDerwood recommend their attraction from children aged 2 to 12 years and I’d have to agree. Whilst Ben certainly enjoyed the day out and had lots of fun clambering, climbing and zipping, he did say that having been once he wouldn’t need to go back as it wouldn’t be as fun now he’d seen it all. For the youngest visitors there’s plenty to do through the park so if you have big age gaps it would be a good option for a day out with a bit of something for everyone.

Something we noticed, and loved, about the way BeWILDerwood is organised is that near the larger play areas – eg the zip wires or slides, there is always something for the youngest guests to do too – smaller zip wires, a trim trail etc.

When is BeWILDerwood open?

BeWILDerwood Cheshire is open daily from 10am to 5pm with the last park admission at 4pm (food outlets also close at 4pm which is worth remembering if you need to give the kids some tea or a snack before heading home!).

BeWILDerwood Cheshire is a seasonal attraction open from April to the end of October 2021 – through the earlier and later parts of the season the park is only open on weekends and during the half term holidays so do check online to be sure (scroll to the bottom of this page for the BeWILDerwood calendar)

Can dogs go to BeWILDerwood?

This isn’t a day out for dogs – only assistance dogs are allowed at BeWILDerwood.

How accessible is BeWILDerwood?

The pathways through BeWILDerwood are accessible with a pushchair or wheelchair – some are wooden, others are compacted dirt paths (and therefore prone to being muddy or having big puddles in some places). The paths are wide, but often bendy.

There are three sets of disabled toilets at BeWILDerwood Cheshire though I didn’t check these out myself.

BeWILDerwood is a very physical day out with lots of clambering, steps and narrow pathways through climbing frames which may mean it is unsuitable for visitors with mobility difficulties. As a parent, you can (and are actively encouraged to) access all the equipment with your children which would allow you to offer support. I did notice a couple of swings near the Cosy Cabin which had been adapted for disabled visitors.

It is a busy park with lots of excited people but there’s no additional music or flashing lights. There are no staff in costumes.

If you have more information to add to this based on your own experience of attending – let me know and I’ll add it in!

What we thought about our day out at BeWILDerwood Cheshire:

We arrived at BeWILDerwood Cheshire at about 10.20am and were directed to a parking space on a large field near the entrance. We didn’t have to queue long to get in – our pre-booked tickets were scanned and we were given a map, wristbands and a little challenge for the kids to do around the park (essentially just finding letters dotted around the park to exchange for a badge at the end of the day).

Wobbly Wires

Having read the advice of Mini-Travellers before our day at BeWILDerwood, we made a beeline for the zip wires at the back of the park – we explained to the kids that we’d make sure we stopped at everything else later but wanted to head straight to the zipwires to use them whilst they were at their quietest. This turned out to be fantastic advice as the queues for the zipwires were minimal and they were able to ride them over and over again without too much waiting -thanks Karen for that tip! They were much much busier when we went back later in the day.

Slippery Slopes

Once we’d decided to move on from the zip wires we moved around the the Slippery Slopes – now there’s actually two sets of Slippery Slopes at BeWILDerwood – and these, near the Munch Bar, were our favourite. All three slides are accessed through the same wooden platform – which was a relief when several times over our girls lost their bottle over the biggest slide and were able to move over to the slightly smaller one without having to queue all over again. The slides are only to be used by children over 92cm.

There’s a pink box at the bottom of the stairs which contains green bags – you pop your feet in these to go down the slide – which helps you go faster but also keeps the slide nice and clean too!

The biggest slide is very steep and tall – Ben launched himself down it without a second thought but both girls were more anxious and it took them a couple of goes before they were finally brave enough to give it a go – of course they then loved it! I loved the widest slide which was big enough for our three to come down together – we saw lots of children coming down with parents or even just parents on their own. The slides provided lots of entertainment both in watching our own children and other people!

Munch Bar

The Munch Bar is situated right near the Slippery Slopes so it made sense to stop here for lunch. We actually had a picnic so didn’t need to buy any food (though we did pick up extra drinks later in the day). The picnic tables were packed but luckily we’d though ahead and taken our sit mats with us so we were quite happy on the floor.

Sky Maze

Although you are encouraged to climb and play on all the equipment – our kids are old enough that they really don’t need (or necessarily want) us to do that so whilst they launched themselves onto the Sky Maze we took the opportunity to have a sit down on the benches tucked inside the middle of this enormous climbing frame. At first Amy was a little nervous as some of the pathways are rope or planks that she could see through but she soon gained confidence with the help of Ben and Chloe. They seemed to be charging about for ages hunting down coloured feathers. It was quite busy on the Sky Maze so they were slowed down a little by other, smaller guests – however this is a good lesson in being aware and respectful of other people!

Mish Mash Maze

I don’t know about you but I’m not a fan of a maze and could have happily give this one a miss. Being “stuck” inside somewhere doesn’t appeal to the claustrophobic in me, however we couldn’t quite work out where the exit to the maze was so I felt I needed to go in with them in case they came out in a completely different part of the park – they didn’t. The exit was just a little further back along the main path so I could have easily waited outside and they’d have found me. My maze-hating aside the kids loved it – chasing on ahead (causing me to panic that I’d lose them), finding dead ends and scoping alternative routes. They were all thoroughly chuffed with themselves when we managed to escape (as I was I!)

Broken Bridge

This vast climbing frame seemed to have a variety of entry and exit points – there’s rope nets to scramble up, a wobbly bridge, a slide and all sorts of different path ways to take (and a lot of steps). This was another structure that kept our gang occupied for quite a long time – and one I didn’t have the energy for so found myself a nearby tree stump! (Something BeWILDerwood is perhaps lacking is seating around the park – outside of the eating areas you will find very few benches – I assume because they want to encourage adults to play and have fun as much as possible but I definitely would have appreciated more opportunities to park my bum occasionally!).

Telescope Tower

The Telescope Tower is a tall structure with a telescope at the top giving wide-ranging views across the BeWILDerwood park – our kids weren’t massively impressed by it and quickly moved onto something else!

Bizarre Bazaar

I can’t tell you how pleased I was that, whilst there is a gift shop at the exit of BeWILDerwood Cheshire – you don’t actually have to go through it to be able to leave. If you are stronger willed than me, it is perfectly possibly to get out of the gates without setting foot inside the Bizarre Bazaar – however I was tired and they wanted a nose. . . (we did manage not to spend anything though!)

And what else?

There’s plenty at BeWILDerwood that we didn’t access – the den making, hat making, story telling to name but a few. Mostly as these were things my gang either were too big for, weren’t that fussed about or that I felt we could do elsewhere / at home rather than them taking up our time on the zip wires or slides.

We spent around five hours at BeWILDerwood Cheshire and felt we’d covered pretty much everything we had wanted to – the kids would have stayed longer but Dave and I were both conscious of the potential traffic around the M60 as we made our way home (we were right to be!).

BeWILDerwood – our tips and tricks for making the most of your day

• Wear sturdy waterproof shoes (even if it’s dry on the day you visit!) The paths can be quite muddy in places and on the day we visited, puddles stretched the width of the path in some areas.
• Dress to get filthy this is outdoor play at it’s best and you don’t want to spend the day worrying about getting dirty. Covered legs and long sleeves are preferable
• Take a picnic – and something to sit on as the picnic tables are in high demand.
• Work backwards around the park – head to zip wires and slides first before they get busy
• Teach your kids to keep their arms in on the slides – we saw quite a few children trying to slow themselves down and hurting their fingers or arms. Holding tight to their sack will help!
• Use the toilets when you spot them they might not be that easy to get back to
• Get there early to make most of the quietest time
• Eat early or late to avoid having to wait for a table or to be served
• Consult your map – essentially the park is in a bit of a loop but it isn’t always clear – keeping an eye on the map you get given on entry will help you to make sure you don’t miss out on anything! The map is also colour coded to help you work out which areas are best for which age range / height.
• Be brave & ready to try things! You are actively encouraged to get on the equipment to play and explore with your children
• Be ready for cuts and grazes with some plasters and wound cleaning spray or wipes
• Don’t forget the suncream (though being in the woodland means you do benefit from lots of tree cover and shaded spots
• Dose up on antihistamine if tree pollen is your nemesis! (I also found sunglasses helped!)
• Consider a quick spritz of insect repellent too!

Why not watch our vlog from BeWILDerwood Cheshire next

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