Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
hot tub (or rent a tub for their own campsite). Bring your own caravan, motor home,
or tent, or there are yurts with a stove (accommodating three to eight), camping pods
(insulated wooden mountain huts for four, with electricity), static caravans, and B&B
rooms. Some pitches are in a wildflower meadow or on an isolated hillside, and all
guests have access to much of the surrounding meadows and woodland with its drag-
onflies, woodpeckers, owls, falcons, and more. Bring flashlights—there's little lighting
so that guests can view the night sky in all its glory. There's a kids' play area, plus a
restaurant/pub with a family room.
Buxton Rd., Alsop-en-le-Dale, Derbyshire DE6 1QU. www.rivendalecaravanpark.co.uk.
&
01335/310441.
£11-£23 campsite; £38 yurt for 3, £48 camping pod for 4. MC, V. Free parking.
Amenities:
Restaurant/
pub and cafe with Internet access; shop; shower and toilet building; electrical hook-up (exc. in
meadow); play area.
In room:
TV and CD player (static caravan), hot-tub rental, fire pit loan, BBQ equip-
ment (some), kitchen (some).
YHA National Forest
There are several youth hostels in Derbyshire so appeal-
ing that even those not on a tight budget will be tempted to stay. This newly built
hostel in the Derbyshire section of the National Forest is an especially good (and very
eco-friendly) base for families, handy for Conkers, Rosliston Forestry Centre, and
Snibston (p. 553), and for walking and cycling routes for all ages and abilities. All
rooms are en suite (accommodating two to five guests), and some have double beds.
The well-priced restaurant offers local produce, ales, and organic wines, though you
can cut costs by using the well-equipped communal kitchen (including at breakfast,
which costs £4.50 in the restaurant).
Other good hostels in the area are
Hartington
Hall,
a 17th-century manor near
Buxton, and
Ilam Hall,
a National Trust-owned Victorian Gothic manor in Dovedale.
8 Bath Lane, Moira, Derbyshire DE12 6BD. www.yha.org.uk.
&
0845/371-9672.
23 units. 2-bed room
£43-£53, plus £3pppn for non-YHA members. MC, V. Free parking.
Amenities:
Restaurant; kitchen;
lounge; games room; Wi-Fi (£1 per 20 min.).
14
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
Nottingham: 127 miles N of London; 81 miles SE of Manchester; 280 miles S of Edinburgh
Derbyshire's neighbor
is largely taken up (in terms of historic boundaries if not tree
coverage) by
Sherwood Forest,
remnant of a former royal hunting forest and leg-
endary stamping ground of Robin Hood, but it also lures visitors with a city and a few
towns rich in both folklore and shopping opportunities, whether your tastes run to
designer clothes or antiques. Nottinghamshire is also a good base for exploring the
cathedral city of
Lincoln
over in Lincolnshire.
Essentials
GETTING THERE
Direct trains from London's St. Pancras or King's Cross Sta-
tions to Nottingham take just under 2 hours, costing around £52 for a round-trip,
direct buses (
&
0871/781-8181;
www.nationalexpress.com) 3
1
⁄
4
hours. By car from
London, it's a 127-mile journey of at least 2
1
⁄
2
hours, almost all of it on the M1 motor-
way, which runs a few miles west of Nottingham. For those heading from the north,
Nottingham is 280 miles south of Edinburgh, 81 miles southeast of Manchester. For
Transpeak buses from Manchester to Nottingham via the Peak District, see p. 534.
For those coming from farther afield, Nottingham is 15 miles northeast of
East
Midlands Airport
(p. 534).
Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield
is just
