Is the Forest of Dean a good holiday destination for vegans?

 



My partner and I recently went on a weekend away to a Forest Holidays cabin in the Forest of Dean, which is self catered but we had a few opportunities to get food from local places! I wanted to write a review so any other vegans planning a holiday there have an idea of what to expect, so here we go! 

* ( This isn’t sponsored or an ad - just an honest review of our experience 😊 )



  We travelled to the cabin by bus, which meant we had time to pop to Asda in Gloucester on the way in to get most of the food we would need for the trip. The shop on site is in the same area as the reception and the cafe, so I had a chance to look around at what they had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised to see oat milk, almond milk AND soya milk available to buy in the shop! They also had some sweet treats that were vegan friendly including a cherry loaf cake, as well as some vegan chocolate and other snacks. 



One really cool thing about Forest Holidays is that you can get food delivered to your cabin, and we ended up doing that twice when we were there! They had a few vegan options but I ended up getting the vegan margarita pizza both times - the first time they rang to say they didn’t have any vegan cheese, so we asked for it without any cheese, and then it turned up late but did have vegan cheese on it, so it was all good in the end! The second time it came fine with no issue. We also ordered fries which were labelled SFV which were also great.



During our stay, we did the linear walk (1.25 hours each way) to Symond’s Yat, and we were so happy to find that the cafe at the view point does oat milk and even a vegan brownie! 



We had breakfast in our cabin most of the time, but on our last day we decided to get it in the restaurant. The cafe is advertised as opening at 8:30, but they don’t open the kitchen until 9 (which is fine, but unfortunately we needed to get a bus early so we ended up not trying the pancakes as we planned), but we did have a decent breakfast of jam on toast and an oat latte to prepare us for the journey home. 


The entire Forest Holidays menu for this site can be found here, but for clarity here is a list of their vegan options:

Breakfast (served until 11:30)

  • The vegan: Two sausages, beans, flat mushroom, hash brown, half avocado, beef tomato and a bloomer toast slice, £10 S, G
  • Stacked sandwich: triple vegan sausage, £6 S, G
  • Bananas and berries American-style pancakes, £7 
  • Half avocado on toast (ask for without eggs), £10 G, SE (Their GF bread contains eggs so can’t be edited 😣)
  • Toast and jam, £2.50 (I can’t see this on their menu but we ordered it no problem!) S, G

Lunch (Served after 12)
  • Soup of the day (Remove butter), £6
  • Jacket potato with vegan cheese and beans, £7

Mains (Served after 12)
  • Rainbow vegan curry rice bowl, £11 SE, may contain nuts and soya
  • Vegan margherita pizza, £13 G, SU, may contain milk
  • Plant burger, £13.50 G, S,  The menu labels this vegan but the allergen menu says this contains eggs (not a may contain), so please check before ordering this!!
Sides
  • Skin on fries, £3.75 (no allergens listed but check how this is cooked)
  • Sweet potato wedges, £3.75 (no allergens listed but check how this is cooked)
  • Panko-breaded onion rings, £3.75 G, may contain soya and mustards
Kids
  • Mini breakfast (specify vegan), £6.50 S, G
  • Stacked sandwiches: Vegan sausage with ketchup, £5 S, G
  • Beans on toast, £2.50 S, G
  • Banana and berry waffles, £5 G
  • Vegan Margherita pizza, £8 G, SU
  • Vegan nuggets, chips and beans, £7 M, S
  • Baked potato with beans, £4

They also have free (!!) milk alternatives for tea and coffee.

Legend: S=Soya, G=Gluten, SE=Sesame, SU=Sulphites M=Mustard
For more clarification please see their allergen menu.


Overall, we really enjoyed our stay here and were surprised at how many vegan options there are. I managed to avoid soya for most meals (I didn’t react to the toast so I believe that was soya lethicins which might be useful if you’re intolerant rather than allergic!) but I think you might struggle with vegan and gluten free - I think your best bet would be to have a chat with the people working there and see what they can do. We also appreciated the accessibility of the food delivery and that they had vegan food in their on site shop! I would definitely recommend Forest Holidays to vegans and to anyone who just wants an amazing holiday, we had a really good time and can’t wait to go back 😊


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