Nature Play at Your Family Holiday Park

Joining in a conversation about family holidays at the school gates, there’s a resounding theme that families looking to holiday in the UK are as keen as ever to stay somewhere they can truly unwind - where the children are playing outdoors, away from their ‘tech’ - and where the whole family can enjoy reconnecting with nature, and with each other, in the great outdoors.

It’s not just at the school gates where this opinion is shared. Reading through the many questions, comments and reviews in threads on community platforms, such as the popular website for parents ‘Mumsnet’, clearly reveals that the British public is as keen as ever to see top quality outdoor activity provisions at holiday destinations across the UK. 

Where nature-play and outdoorsy activities (think nature trails, climbing, bug-hunts, digging or den-constructing) are an integral part of a holiday park’s offering - so the families choose to go.

What is a Natural Play Area?

A natural play area is a space where children can do any activity and gets them being active (physically and/or mentally). The aim of nature play is to help young people build skills independently without parental control.

In recent times, a huge amount of holiday parks have started investing in natural play areas to provide children with a way to engage with nature play. 

Not only do young people enjoy the natural play areas, but the parents love it too as it helps promote a healthy lifestyle to their children and stops them from staying indoors and engaging with technology.

Throughout this article, you'll see the many benefits your holiday park's play area can have on children. By providing these benefits, your park will be able to stand out from the competition and be known as a great holiday location for families and young people.

Children Play to Discover Nature

In 2021 the government published an updated Children’s People and Nature Survey for England. The survey provides key information on how kids and young people experience and think about the natural environment. It found that 85% of children and young people agreed that being in nature made them ‘very happy’ - little wonder then that outdoor activities are at the top of family holiday tick-lists.

Things are very different for children now than they were for the ‘we used to be able to just go off on our bikes and play until tea-time’ generations - social changes, safety fears, more traffic and more technology all playing their part. 

Providing a secure space where families can spend time doing just that, reliving old memories and making new ones together with their children and grandchildren, is a huge part of the appeal of the UK’s favourite holiday parks for all generations.

Play Towers with different floor levels, heights, ladders, climbing walls, bridges, tunnels, slides and Fireperson’s poles work a treat for allowing children to play, explore and be active in different ways in one space.

Structures made from natural materials, like wood, accompanied with subtle touches of green, blue and yellow, that gently accent the space with touches of character, give children something fun to enjoy up close, but - importantly - they merge beautifully with the natural surroundings without compromise to the aesthetic of your Holiday Park. 

How Natural Play Areas Compliment Your Landscape

Chances are it’s the beauty of your surrounding landscape that draws families to holiday in your area of the UK. We’re so very lucky here in Britain, surrounded by stunning coastlines, with mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers and wide green spaces in abundance, and with a rich and varied wildlife waiting to be discovered, none of us have to travel too far to get our slice of nature at its best.

Working in harmony with your surroundings, incorporating local wildlife, local history and folklore, or geographical features within the design of your outdoor play area, can really enhance your holiday park as a stand-out destination for families.

Incorporating a mud box into your outdoor play area can provide children with sensory play, helping them develop a better understanding of the world around them. Climbing frames can get young people using their muscles and improving their physical health, whilst feeling accomplished.

Nature Trails and Woodland Walkways are highly popular attractions among families wanting to walk out together - finding focal points along the way keeps little eyes alert and maintains interest, while climbing apparatus can engage all age groups in the outdoor adventure! 

Add an interactive Bug Hotel to attract local wildlife, natural Sand Play spaces, a water table for water play, an interactive chalkboard to allow young people to tap into their creative play mindset and leave messages for other explorers on their adventure or a Mud Kitchen for kids to dig, discover and play outdoors. 

Creating a nature trail or walkway makes an extra special feature of your Holiday Park’s existing natural landscape for families. Whether a stroll through the woods or ambling across an open field - Trim Trail items can be laid out together to form a designated play area, or placed at intervals en route to create feature crossings and fun physical challenges to find. 

Inviting stepping stones/logs, rope crossings and rickety bridges fit the bill perfectly! Incorporate these ideas with searching for squirrels in the woods, stepping over a stream, looking for lambs on the farm, or finding flora and fauna that’s unique to your holiday park or your part of the country, to bring some wonderfully magical and playful family adventures to your guests. 

Outdoor Play in the Woods

Inspired by some of the UK’s most incredible Forest Landscapes, our magnificent themed Forest Circuits Playframes are guaranteed to create a beacon of delight in your Holiday Park. 

Crafted with beautiful natural timber and reinforced ropes to blend seamlessly with the natural environment, and with dozens of climbing, swinging and crossing points, they’re enticingly exhilarating and will easily entertain large numbers of children of all ages and abilities.

Our portfolio of holiday park playground installations, along with a huge number of our school playground installations across the UK, highlights a wide selection of bespoke design and installation projects where the main focus was to capture the elements of nature. 

Stellar nature-based installations include treehouses built into the woods and outdoor climbing and den-building adventures where harnessing the natural environment was paramount in the customer’s playground design requirement.

Den-building activities remain popular across the generations, and can be enjoyed anywhere with the right tools!

Our range of den-building equipment offers wide-eyed young people and their families the opportunity to make themselves at home in your holiday park in a ready-made fairy-tale secret den, or to have a go at their own den construction activities using the natural resources around them. Which local legend may be hiding out here?!

Loving Your Natural Environment, Boosting Tourism

We understand that consideration for the environment is an important part of retaining a holiday park’s USP for many.

We’re all ever more aware of the impact of our carbon footprint - the Children’s People and Nature Survey highlighted that 80% of kids and young people agreed that looking after the environment was important to them and 83% said they wanted to do more to look after the environment. 

Fun-filled holidays where families get to appreciate and enjoy their local natural environment together, through fun activities, can join some of these dots, and help them to properly understand more of our varied landscapes and how to take care of them - a further incentive for families looking to book an outdoorsy activity break.

The icing on the cake is that great experiences build positive connections to a place - boosting reviews and recommendations and keeping families coming back to visit over the years.

Naturally Sustainable Play Park Investments - Pentagon’s Design and Build Influence

Pentagon’s background in creating outdoor play spaces for children began in the Education sector over 25 years ago. We started developing a range of timber play equipment for schools and nurseries who wanted better and safer facilities for their kids to enjoy meaningful play outdoors, and to learn from these experiences.  

Our focus has always been to promote the benefits of outdoor fun for all children of all abilities, and to provide resources where young people have year-round access to natural play environments. 

We are hugely aware of the importance of sustainability, and using materials and processes that serve to protect the natural environment wherever possible. The gorgeous Redwood and Robinia timber that we use in all of our playground products is sustainably sourced and PEFC/FSC certified. 

Branching out into the Holiday Parks sector is an exciting new step in Pentagon’s journey. Following increased demand, we’re delighted to now be able to bring our expert knowledge and understanding of how children play, our creative ideas and our unique product designs, installations and playground equipment to family holiday parks looking to improve their outdoor activity provision.

Bringing to Life Your Natural Play Area

If you’re thinking about offering more natural outdoor play activities at your holiday park - we’d love to hear from you!  

We offer a free, no-obligation visit to your site, to discuss your requirements and how we can help fulfill your vision. Simply contact us and a member of the team will be in touch to book a date and time that’s suitable for you to meet your local Holiday Park Consultant.

You can download our Holiday Parks and Leisure brochure, view case studies of recent installations, and see what our customers have to say!