A Day in Dalby Forest | First Time Visitor’s Guide & Experience

Today we visited Dalby Forest for the first time—and it was absolutely FAB! Nestled in the North York Moors, this peaceful woodland was the perfect place for a relaxed family day out.

What We Did

Short Woodland Trail
We took it slow with one of the shorter walking trails—just enough to soak in the beauty of the forest and let the kids explore at their own pace.

Playground Time
The forest play area was a massive hit! The kids let off steam climbing, sliding, and exploring the natural play equipment in a beautiful setting.

Sweet Treats from the Café
We stopped at the on-site café for some well-earned treats—coffee, cakes, and smiles all around. It was a lovely way to end our adventure.

First Impressions

This was our first ever visit to Dalby Forest, and we’re already planning a return. Whether you’re after a peaceful stroll or just a place to let the kids run free, this place is perfect for families of all ages.

📍 Learn more or plan your visit:
Dalby Forest – Forestry England

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Good morning and welcome back to our channel Raising Kids in Yorkshire. And today uh there’s a lovely day in Yorkshire. Beautiful weather, bit windy, but we are heading to Dalby Forest and we’re going to We have never been to Dalby Forest. If you don’t know, it’s a acres and acres um of lands. There’s trails there, bike trails, walking trails. Uh it’s a paid parking, but overall it’s a free to visit and um it’s about 40 minutes drive from the city York city center. So, it’s about 35 minutes drive from our house on edge of York. And um if you’re new here, check out our videos, subscribe, and stay with us while we check out this trail and show you what it’s like and if it’s really worth doing with kids. Uh kids are uh it’s a weekend here, but next week is off, so if you have a free time with kids, it might be the one to do next week. Um if you’re leaving Yorkshire or visiting [Music] We love those tunnels. Those street tunnels. They’re beautiful. [Music] [Music] And there it is, the great Yorkshire Forest, Derby Forest. We have never been here before, so let’s see what it brings. I’m very excited. Um, there’s no sign of rain yet. Anyway, so we’re here nice and early. It’s about coming up to half 11 now in the morning. Uh kids done their park run this morning at York Racecourse. So then we had a snack, freshened up, pack up a lunch, few bits and off we go. Hopefully, you know, we could do two or three hour um walk, see how the kids feel and yeah, head home for for dinner forest campsite. There’s a campsite. Yeah, there’s a campsite somewhere here if you’re interested to stay. 30 minutes parking is free and then I think it’s about 350 per hour and there it recognizes your registration. Yes. So, there you to come through. I thought we’d have to pick up a ticket. No, you can hire ebikes here. Uh if you want one, very pretty. Look, look, guys. And if you become become a member of National Forestry UK, the parking is free. So something to bear in mind. There are a few forests in the UK. about three of them where if even if you are a member there’s no free parking so just be aware of that. Another important point is no barbecues because obviously we had a very dry season here in UK this year. So some uh places like Stencil Coleman in York uh were recently on fire. So beware, do not bring any barbecues, you’re not allowed to have them here. and um download. There might be no reception in this area, so make sure you download offline maps and um or maybe even print it out if you want. Careful here, please. So, another thing to note, there is a visitor center here um and camping there. There’s few picnic tables from what I could see, but there’s no overnight camping here in Dalby Forest. So you know the van life people the campers no overnight parking here so it’s not permitted. So there is a stickman trail which is only £4 and uh you could buy it from the visitor center where we heading now. [Music] [Music] There you go. There we go. And we’re here. Go before us. Oh, yeah. Here the gate here. There a castle. Look. Hello. [Music] Look at this. Oh, wow. Solar panels. Yeah. Massive solar panels. Ah, this. Ah, here you go. So if you love the forest, [Music] our kids love doing this. It’s a really um good thing to for the forest and it’s really good for them to do. So, anytime we see one of those little pickers and of those bags, we do it because we want to keep the environment safe and clean. [Music] [Music] local. [Music] The local. Honestly, I’ve never seen one of those before. They’ve all got names on and I find the [Music] I want to find my name. Oh, you don’t have your name. You got a pretty rare name. Yeah. Okay. A Well, Elliot’s there. Well, Elliot’s there. But you’re not called Elliot. You’re called Clife. I know. Okay. [Music] I think this is a treetop terrace. Um I think my my if it’s not please tell me because I saw a sign for Treattop terrace but um the kids obviously saw the playground so hence we’re here that’s a really really nice really really nice playground amazing what you get got a cupcake got a lovely banana bread that smells delicious I got a scone and look at that cheese plow and sandwich or home breast. I’m so glad we came here. The weather is fantastic. I’m still walking around with this bag. Of course, the kids pick it up and then I end up walking around with it while they, you know, go to playground to eat and drink. But here we are. Gorgeous day for Dalby Forest. That right there is a terrace. I found out by looking up. always helps. We’re just looking and choosing a trail now. I got my white hat on, a brand new one because I didn’t have one, but I really struggled with the sun sometimes on our walks. So, look. Go on. Right. There’s no kind of I suppose it’s up to your ability, but I think this is the shortest one. And um yeah, we’re going to try and hit this one. So if you want to do the Grooler trail, you want to be going to park at Nissen Hut. Mhm. And the Griffo trail is in this area here. So each bit’s got a good big area. So, you know, you can head across there, but there are other parking areas around here. It’s a longer. So, if you want to go park here, then it’s a longer trail to Grufolo. If you got small kids, probably you want to be at the Nissan Hut. Our kids have done long walks. So, there are six and a half and eight now. Almost eight. Club’s turning eight next week. So, very exciting. and they’ve done obviously park runs and all sorts. So, we think they could do a longer trail, but we’re going to start with a shorter trail, go on a playground, and then see how we get on. We’re not in a major rush anywhere. So, we’re going to plan and spend most of the day here cuz it is a long drive for us, 40 minutes. So, we want to um make the most of it. So, let’s go. No. Who brought the bag? Who want to do the truss? It’s always the same. Always the same. Yep. So, that’s pretty easy. So, on the sign post, you’ve got uh the little arrows which correspond to the arrows colors of the map. So, we’re going to take the white arrow. Let’s go. Let’s go. Go, go, go. And the reward at the end is you could go on a playground. Maybe daddy gets ice cream. [Music] That’s a brilliant idea. Look, somebody brought like a little well a big tent actually. But I definitely think, you know, it’s a brilliant um forest for cycling. So, I definitely plan to bring the bikes next time. And uh maybe me and Darren can rent ebikes cuz the rack we have we have quite small car so we wouldn’t put four bikes onto one car. We all have bikes, but we um you know, if we were coming here, we’ll probably just rent the ebikes. I have never driven a ebike, so it’ be nice to try for starters. And the kids could just go on their bikes. So, I think it’ll be nice now that we’ve been here and we know what it’s like. And you can also plan your journey. If you do have bikes, bring them. But, you know, just know you can also rent them. [Music] for right there. This area is go ape. So you know what go ape is for bit probably a bit older children. You know I’m not scared of heights. You’re not scared of kites and you’re a good climber. You’ll be all right there. I might not be all right with you going there, but you’ll be all right. You glitter things. A is really big. Mhm. Look at that. Yeah, it’s all the trail zip line. One day you’ll try it, Clive. I’m not just confident that you can do it because you’re not great with heights. Yeah, Violet definitely be able to do that. Me too. Yeah, you need to send me a like like that, but we’re not and then like Mhm. Mhm. It’s really windy, but nice. If you are doing park runs, the adult ones, there’s one happening here every Saturday. So, check it out. I’ll put a link below. One, two, So sad. It looks like a big caterpillar, doesn’t it? To film this. Why stop shouting onto the sunny part of the path? Leaving that part behind and uh it’s quite hard to know the what the weather. It’s really warm now and I’ve got a really thick jacket on, one of those teddy jackets. I like it because it’s got the pockets for my phone and tissues and everything else you need to bring when you have kids, but uh it’s it’s really warm now and it’s nice and cool in that part where it’s quite shaded, but I’m in the sun now and I’m finding it a bit warm. So, but we keep going. Absolutely stunning here. I can’t believe we lived in Yorkshire for so long and never came here. We always thought of coming, but we had no idea it was so big and uh had all these trails, but now we know we’ll definitely be coming here a lot a lot more. Mhm. Okay, that’s good. Never take anything and never bring anything. That’s what they say about the woods. We’ll take the rubbish away, I suppose. If there are any. It’s pretty clean here. It is pretty clean. So, we haven’t seen one piece of rubbish here. No, we have Well, I’m lying. Not in the woods, but in the cafe, there was one piece. But there’s absolutely no rubbish. They’re pretty clean, I must say. Found one. Yay. We’ve been on this trail for And you found one little piece. Two. Two. Look how windy it is. Okay, we got it in. Trash busters. So we have completed all of that. So we are nearly at the junction. Where should we go? Left or right? We are going left. I wonder if they have a Alice in Wonderland trail. That’d be really cool. No. I’m going to remember that. Go left, go right. [Music] Daddy, why are you so big, Violet? Hey, why you lots of families here today. And there you go. quickest route back to the I must say this route was relatively okay for first time you know and for kids that are a bit younger you know maybe five plus 5 to 7 5 to 8 category was really okay I think the longer route would need to be doing on bikes because the kids would just get bored and a lot of people are doing that they’re just on their bikes doing different longer trails here. But as far and it’s really really windy today. The weather’s been hot, cold, windy, very windy, and um but dry, very, very dry. So, I’ve enjoyed this and I definitely come back and do it again. Um we’re going to head to the playground because that’s the reward for the kids. I mean, in all fairness, they’ve done park run today already, and they’ve done this trail. How many kilometers or miles it is? We don’t have a dog, but I think this trail is aimed for the people with dogs, maybe particularly small dogs, cuz it’s all like about dogs. Get your dog to sit down and this. So, the kids were one of them was a dog and the other one was the dog owner. It’s funny. But uh the you know one of the times we might do the group trail definitely and we will come back here with bikes. It’s really really busy here today because it’s obviously a bank holiday weekend. It’s a Sunday. So if you want a peaceful walk probably don’t come here on Sunday. Come here on Saturday, Friday, maybe Monday bank holiday. It looks like it’s been infested by termites at some stage. See lots all these little holes. Termites are insects fighted. Little holes everywhere. Why is it all infested? See? Oh. Oh, daddy. Uh, daddy. Yeah. Hey. So, must have jinxed it because it’s been really dry, but we just had a shower and um it lasted about 5 6 minutes and thank god we’re fairly dry. So, you had your rain jacket and Violet does Violet and me don’t have rain coats but we’re okay. It’s okay. We came sort of prepared. We knew it was windy. We knew it was sunny and everything else was kind of like we needed a shower anyway because it’s been so dry. All the plants, the fields, you know, they need to be watered. So, I don’t mind a shower if it’s a short one. if we’re dressed right. And also if the if it’s sunny and um we’re not really going anywhere. We’re just out for a walk and we’re going home. So it doesn’t really matter if we get wet or anything. We can just come home and have a shower. So we’re still walking anyway. It’s quite a long trail, especially when you were two kids who like picking everything up. It’s also good because they’re investigating, aren’t they? We just saw trees that have been fell. So, we can show them the rings on the inside the tree which designate how old the tree is. It’s educational. Yeah. Educational journey. Well, what else have we seen? Pine cones. Pine cones. Lots of pine cones. Cuz there’s lots of pine trees. And there’s lots. And you’re seeing buttercups and daisies. Thank you. That’s a fern blowing some grass. Blowing dandelions. So blowing dandelion trying to make sounds with a blade of grass. Uhhuh. The kids didn’t manage it. I did it with also the flowers. Me too. Hold this. Hold this. Hey. Let’s show Let’s show everybody what we mean about taking a blade of grass. So you take a nice piece of blade of grass, pop it between your thumbs, and then blow. Make a parrot noise. And the the kids were trying to do this and they were getting frustrated. Started to do different sounds, didn’t they? Make a parrot noise. Make a parrot noise. A parrot noise. I’ll try. Hang on. Well, doesn’t always work all the time, especially cuz the grass just moves around. Oh, look at [Music] this. See, disasters happen. You know, there you go. So loud. Oh, there you go. What do you do on your walks to entertain kids and keep them out and screen free? Cuz that’s the idea fresh air you know keeping them screen free and also educating them while here because not all education happens in a classroom right if you agree to a comment. So I’m glad we picked this trail. I probably said it, but it’s it’s quite long and it’s taking us, not gonna lie. Uh, so it’s taking us 2 hours. 2 hours to get back to the cafe and the playground. So, the other trails are probably even longer. They’re like 3 or 4 hours. So, if I was on my own, I probably done this trail in an hour. But obviously with kids, it’s double that cuz they decide to play football or pick up something or have a snack or how many cones have we got now? Oh, this is the one that I just All right, let’s play football. This one just There you go. Kids film. Been mixed day. Mixed day. But definitely coming back here again. Well, it started to rain again. We’re at the end where we started at the Go Ape place right there. It did say that there’s a chance to see a deer, but we’ve not seen any deers. No, we’ve not seen any deers. Bit tired. Monkeys be tired here. So, the kids are enjoying the playground after the 2-hour walk. had a snack and uh we’re just here enjoying Costa. Lovely Costa Ra, whatever rocks your boat. Thanks for watching, guys. If you’re new here, hit subscribe and um like, comment, help us grow. [Music]