National Memorial Arboretum Review

If you have never been to this amazing place, you should really make the time.

Amazing place definitely worth a visit a nice day out and support a place that honours our fallen heroes

This is an excellent place for all ages to visit. Centrally located in the heart of England and creating a place to remember those who have sacrificed many things (some including their lives) for our Country.

Very well organised .and implemented .always plenty of helpful staff on hand ,to help out.laid out beautifully . To get the best out of the grounds .pick a sunny day

It could have been better. I am an electric wheelchair user, not a buggy and the main car park was showing full. We were directed to the overflow parking via signage. This car park is gravel based and it quickly started to drain my battery coping with it. When we eventually reached the main car park, we found many dozens of empty spaces and a set down area which we could have used. Not a great start to a day out.
If you have specific dietary requirements such as gluten free, I would suggest bringing your own food( thankfully we did). We could find no gluten free sandwiches, only mass produced cakes. If you want a hot meal you should be fine though.
The men's toilets are poorly sign posted in the main building, as when you stand in front of the signage, the men's are then behind you. Consequently many men were using the disabled toilets in desperation. Not ideal for waiting wheelchair users.

As a forces family, the NMA always has particular poignancy for us, but this is a place for everyone. The breadth of memorials is fascinating. So much to see that one visit is never enough. The military aspect is hard to ignore, but even if you have no military connection, there is so much to catch the eye as each memorial is different. The site itself is huge, but a land train is available with guides to help cover the distance as well as golf cart type buggies, but take the time to stroll through beautiful gardens and admire the memorials as artwork.

We visited with children and it is lovely that the focus is shifting from a place of sombre reflection to one of celebration and remembrance. It is important to engage this generation to ensure that remembrance continues and the balance is being struck just right. As it was the summer holidays, there were planned activities for children with a stickman trail for the younger ones and a spy trail for older children with an entertaining prop bag. We had fun learning about the importance of special ops during wwII and finished off with costumed interpreters who set a challenge to help the resistance! Their enthusiasm and knowledge was a great bonus.

The cafe is clean with a good range of food/drinks and seems reasonably priced.

Visiting the National Memorial Arboretum should be mandatory for everyone. We are already looking forward to our next visit,

Fantastic place to visit it's a must place to go very very interesting lots of things to do there the train ride is a must it tells you all about the monerments yes one of the most in joys day out

You have to visit to understand what a special place it is

A lovely place to visit, it covers quite a large area with lots to take in - very heart warming. Staff are friendly and helpful.

There's always something to see, so many memorials even ones I didn't know exist, the most moving was the shot at dawn. Such a peaceful place too no matter how many people are there, well worth a visit

Amazing memorial to so many who gave their lives for our freedom. Friendly and helpful staff guide you through the different memorials and help you with anything you need.

Lovely place with great weather. Same there's no drinks facilities half way round with toilets. It can be a long trek back to the loos

Well worth a visit. Wonderful staff very informative and very helpful

First visit, beautifully laid out, easy access and free parking, disabled facilities are brilliant. They have thought of everything to make your visit a pleasant experience, emotional and peaceful and so enlightening. Thank you to all the volunteers who give a wonderful service and insight into our history which must never be forgotten.

Fantastic place. I never thought it would provoke such emotion and pride. Every school should have a visit as part of the curriculum.

Beautiful, poignant place, remembering our brave veterans. The river had flooded the south side on the day we visited, so even with tall wellies, we couldn't see it all.

I just wish this important site could have found a more fitting location in the same way Washington DC hosts the US National Memorials.

There is a dog walk around the perimeter, but keep dogs quiet and on leads at all time. Take what you need to clean up after your dog.

It's a must visit. Wonderful moving place very well thought out and kept. There are fabulous washroom facilities and a lovely restaurant. The staff are very helpful and friendly.

A very special place, please go and visit and understand.

A wonderful place so peacfull dispite the number of people.

Extremely interesting place to visit, and thought provoking for those that served our country, also RTTW normally held first weekend in October when Bikers from all over the U.K and Europe pay respects.

A fantastic place staff most helpful and the food in dining area was top notch...will be going back and spending more time 3 hours was insufficient....

A lovely place to visit and remember the fallen. The sands garden is heart rending.

An amazing place to walk around and is very peacefull and humbling. You can easily spend a day walking round

Large open site. Highly recommend the guided tour, Mike was really informative and helped us understand the background to many of the memorials.

Ride to the Wall, fantastic day, my fifth year this year. Would recommend visiting.

An incredibly moving and thoroughly respectful memorial to the fallen.

Very helpful and friendly staff.

Lots to see for all ages.
A play area outside.
Cafe and restaurant.
There is lots to learn
Gift shop

Brilliant day out, lots to see and do. Friendly and informative staff. Stick man trail and the land train were the kids highlight. Pushchair friendly for a good 80% of the monuments and memorials, some would be dependant on weather due to being grassy areas. Have organised social distancing and cleanliness extremely well.

Frequent visitor. Memorials set in a beautiful area of woodlands. Access is easy for anyone. Wheelchair friendly but electric buggies for hire too. Guided tours on foot or on little carts. Also train tracks through main memorials.Excellent food. Always find something new.

Great place to visit, really well maintained with excellent staff and volunteers

Great place to visit ,helpful staff ,excellent refreshments and very interesting .

This was my first visit, it is a beautiful, peaceful place. Did not see it all, but I shall be back next year. Thank you for all the hard work put into having somewhere to remember everyone who fought and died to make out world a better place to live. God Bless

Excellent visitor attraction, sobering experiences as one walks along... well stocked shop and good cafe

We spent a very sobering and enjoyable few hours here. It s incredible to think that this place has only been here for a couple of years. A place to reflect and give thoughts for the brave fallen over the years. I can t believe that we, as a country, haven t had a place like this before. Quite a few uniformed guys and girls from various units here today. I don t know if this is the norm, but great to see.
I d strongly recommend this place if you have a connection with the forces, if you don t it s still an amazing experience.

Such a beautiful and well maintained place. They have things for children aswell so they can play while learning.

Simply beautiful. Not easily accessible by public transport but if you can go do it as it's stunning. Coffee shops and restaurants available bit expensive but its quality.

To silently say thank you to all those who have sacrificed their lives.

We attended the rememberence service on Sunday 11th to commemorate the 100 years since the end of WW1. Well organised in every way apart from one big (huge) oversight. Half the people attending did so in silence, the PA system was shocking and the speakers miss placed with the wind carrying the sound away from the crowd. This spoiled what should have been a great day.

Wonderful place to share memories. Lovely staff & volunteers who make your visit very special. Wish I lived nearer to visit more often

Very interesting place. If you have any relatives who have been involved ask the staff and they will direct you to the correct memorial.

National memorial arboretum is NOT the place to go with your dog. They claim on their website to have a dog-friendly cafe, yet when we attempted to get to it via the marked "dog-friendly" walk on their published map, we were accosted by an over-zealous official who basically called us liars and claimed that we were not allowed on the path we were on, or into the courtyard to get to the coffee shop, even after we mentioned the website details.

Won't be coming here again, they need to make their minds up what their policy is towards dogs.

Best part of it is, when I walked up into the courtyard (without the dog), there's a dog bowl sat outside with water in it?!?

Besides, if you bring your dog, they limit you to the outer path of the site, thus meaning you can't actually get to see most of the memorials anyway. This is probably also only due to the fact this path is part of a public right of way, else I suspect they'd put a total ban on the site...

Always enjoy coming here. Plenty of knowledgeable, friendly volunteers to help. So peaceful to wander around.

A wonderful memorial to the fallen, found the name of a boy I taught many years ago. Sad.

Well worth a visit. Spent 3.5hrs here today. Exhibition worth a visit. The memorial gardens are very interesting.

A beautiful and peaceful place to pay tribute to all those who gave their yesterdays so that we can have our today's.

A thought-provoking peaceful space that will take several visits to take in fully.

Fitting memorial to all those who gave their lives. Helped that the weather was glorious. We only had 2 hours before it closed, reckon need a good 4 or 5 hours to fully explore and appreciate this excellent place

Lovely to see scouts and Children also visiting this remarkable place. A National Memorial for Lots more organisations than we expected

A well set out memorial site dedicated to those from around the world who "gave their today for our tomorrow".
It's just a pity that those from the 1st WW and before are not given a place.
The staff were very pleasant and helpful.

An excellent National Memorial for all serving and non serving ( past) service men and women.wonderful grounds with many exhibitions for all services.

Great day out. This is a nice place to visit if you like history. I found it to be quite humbling.

Very sobering and thought provoking experience. Makes you realise how many have lost there lives on active service on our behalf.

Didn't know what to expect but was so impressed with the site. There is so much to explore. We took advantage of the small train to have an overview of the site and would like to return to see the various memorials in more detail. Our visit coincided with the celebrations to mark 100 years since women were part of the armed forces. Despite so many people being there the Arboretum and its facilities coped with everyone.

Fitting memorials for those who served and the wider community

Need more than one visit to see it all. Very emotional.

A fantastic place, steeped in history and memorials. An utter joy to visit.

Amazing, thought provoking, peaceful, helpful friendly voluntary staff, beautiful place.

Wonderful Place. Well worth a detour on the way home. A fitting place to remember.

An interesting place to spend time outdoors. recommend

Absolutely wonderful place only the flood waters spoilt it couldn't get to all the memorials

What a beautiful, humbling place to visit!
Didn't expect to feel so emotional and will definitely visit again.