[Closed] Anyone been to Swinley recently?

Was there last Friday and car park was reduced capacity, but maybe not half.

Was very busy, but not unbearable.

Main cafe and toilets closed. Bike Hire open, but with minimal facilities.

Car park was very full first thing, then much, much emptier by 11am, so either be there first or late mid-morning after the early birders have done their rides.

I'd be also interested to know the answer to this, I've a feeling it would get full pretty fast if the weather is half decent. I'm an hour's drive away so it's not worth the risk of turning up mid afternoon to find it full.

I'm not sure i'd risk turning up at anything otehr than early.

It's been filling up quite quickly at weekends (and shuts early in the evening). You can park elsewhere depending on your own moral compass (and whether Sainsburys decide to crackdown on it).

Don't park on Nine Mile Ride, it's gotten so ridiculous that the council has now double yellowed the whole length to make it clear to the idiots that it's definitely not safe.

Was pretty busy on a Friday afternoon a couple of weeks ago - I'd avoid weekends if you can.

Lots of 'new' riders, especially nearer the centre, which was great to see - just be aware that not everyone will be up to speed with regards to 'trail etiquette' (no helmet, cycling the wrong way, stopping on the trail) so extra caution is recommended.

Everytime I've been past recently the verges on Nine Mile Ride were full of parked cars. There were even cars close to the traffic lights on the Bagshot Road.
I'm told a better option is to approach from the Camberley side.

The amount of noobs riding around there with no helmet makes me cringe, especially given the surface is fairly hard, and they are the most likely to contact it! But that's another topic entirely..

Okay thanks guys. That does question whether we'd bother - we're also an hour away so it would be a shame to turn up and not get parked, although we would be looking to arrive at 11:00.

We were at Epping last weekend and it was carnage in the carparks - got lucky with a space as we arrived but yeh, it was pretty crazy. As above, lots of people without helmets. Passed one poor lady who had a washout on one of the downhill bridleways and was on oxygen - looked very nasty.

Thanks

Also depends if you need to park "at" Swinley, in terms of the trail start points. It's a large area of connected wood/heathland - I routinely ride from the in-laws in Sandhurst through Crowthorne and it's pretty much all off-road for about 20 minutes to a point you can join the red trail. So the risk of not being able to park at all seems very low.

If I had small kids with me, I'd want to park closer, though.

Yeah, it's a good point - we don't really know the area terribly well but I might look into that!

Went midweek. Got there early (saw cars queued up so slight panic "its full already?" before realising I had made better time than expected and so got there before 9am).
By time I left about about 1-2ish it didnt seem overly busy. It will be a gamble though so think I would be aiming to turn up early/find where sainsbury is as a plan b.
Was a bit odd. Thought they would be spreading people out through the car park rather than packing everyone in next to each other. Seemed somewhat reduced but not massively so. Especially when most people decided to aim at one of the ticket machines without spotting the nearer queue less one.

We were at Epping last weekend and it was carnage in the carparks – got lucky with a space as we arrived but yeh, it was pretty crazy.

Parking turnover seemed quite high though. We met friends so had 2 cars and we managed to park both twice with only minor faffing [due to my lads friend being unable to cycle at the moment we then changed location so my lad could do some coaching for my mate and his youngest. (Just trying to justify changing parking) ]