Looking for a bit of life on the wild side? Head out on safari with a tour of the New Forest.
The New Forest Tour offers a hop-on-hop-off bus service over three connecting tours, covering the National Park. Passengers get a bird’s-eye view of the landscape from the top deck of the open-top buss, which offers a better chance of spotting fauna such as deer, rare birds, cattle and of course the famous ponies.
The three tour routes are:
Red: Lyndhurst – Burley – Ringwood – Fordingbridge – Sandy Balls – Ashurst – New Forest Wildlife Park – Lyndhurst
Green: Lyndhurst – Brockenhurst – Lymington – Beaulieu – Exbury Gardens – Hythe Ferry – Lyndhurst
Blue: Lymington – Brockenhurst – Burley – New Milton – Barton-on-Sea – Milford-on-Sea – Keyhaven – Lymington
All three routes now run eight times a day and tours operate daily until September 14th.
New additions for this year include:
* Brand new commentaries telling stories about the people and places of the New Forest, with characters, sounds and music.
* New stops on the Red Route at Longdown Activity Farm and the New Forest Wildlife Park
* The Green Route has been extended from Lymington and Beaulieu to Hythe, where it links with a ferry service from Southampton.
The New Forest Tour is a key part of the National Park Authority’s three-year drive to encourage 370,000 people out of their cars and to use greener transport by the end of March 2016.
Tickets cost from £14 per adult and £7 for a child aged between 5 and 15. Under 5s travel free. Tickets are valid on all three routes. There is a 10% booking discount for those booking online. Bikes are carried free.