Swadlincote

Hotels around Swadlincote are mostly practical rather than plush, which suits its role as a working base for exploring the National Forest. In the town centre and along the A38/A50 corridor you'll find budget and mid-range chain hotels convenient for road access, while a scattering of pubs with rooms in the surrounding villages offer a more local alternative with a meal and a pint downstairs. If you'd rather stay somewhere with a view of trees rather than traffic, the forest lodges at Rosliston Forestry Centre put you right in the heart of the woodland just outside town, with walking and cycling trails leading straight from the door. Wherever you choose to stay, Swadlincote's central position close to the A38, A50 and A511 means you're rarely more than twenty minutes from Conkers, Rosliston, or the nearby towns of Burton upon Trent and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, making it a workable base for a few days in this corner of the East Midlands even if it isn't a conventional holiday destination in its own right.

Swadlincote's attractions reflect its two lives: the pottery and mining town it was, and the National Forest town it has become. Here are the best of both.

• Sharpe's Pottery Museum — Housed beneath a Grade II-listed bottle kiln in the town centre, this museum tells the story of Thomas Sharpe's pottery works, founded in 1821 and famous for inventing the 'wash down' water closet. It's a genuinely local story, remaining on the same site for 200 years, and gives real context to the industry that built the town.
• Conkers — A short drive away at Moira, Conkers was built on a former deep coal mine and is one of the earliest and best-loved attractions in the National Forest. Its 120 acres combine treetop walkways, an assault course, a miniature railway and over 100 indoor interactive exhibits, making it a genuine day out rather than a quick stop.
• Rosliston Forestry Centre — A 140-acre site on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border where 120,000 trees were planted in the 1990s among older woodland. Expect way-marked walks, cycle trails with bike hire, a fishing lake, play areas, and six forest lodges for those who want to stay overnight among the trees.
• Swadlincote Woodlands — Reclaimed colliery land right on the edge of town, now a network of paths and open grassland popular with dog walkers and cyclists. It's a good example of how thoroughly the old industrial landscape has been reworked into everyday green space.
• Maurice Lea Memorial Park and Eureka Park — Two of the town's main public parks, both well kept and useful for a gentle stroll, a picnic, or letting children run off energy between other stops.
• National Forest Way — A long-distance walking trail running the length of the National Forest, with a stretch connecting Moira to Rosliston through the countryside around Swadlincote. Even a short section gives a good sense of how much tree cover has gone in over the past three decades.
• Swadlincote Ski and Snowboard Centre — A dry slope centre offering skiing, snowboarding and tobogganing, useful for a change of pace and popular with local families year-round regardless of the weather outside.

Swadlincote's dining scene is unpretentious and varied. In town, Prezzo offers reliable stone-baked pizza and pasta with a family-friendly menu, while a small Japanese restaurant serves sashimi, sushi and tempura for something different. For a proper pub meal, the Wheel Inn on the A511 at Midway and the Mill Wheel on the edge of Hartshorne are both popular with locals for hearty food in a relaxed setting, and Catchems has a strong local reputation for its Sunday roasts. Further afield in the surrounding villages, the Cricketts Inn and the Black Lion add to a decent spread of traditional pub dining, so you're rarely far from a good meal after a day exploring the forest.

Camping around Swadlincote means making the most of the National Forest that now surrounds the town, but it's worth being clear from the outset: wild camping is illegal in England without the landowner's explicit permission, so any camping trip here needs to be at a recognised site or with permission arranged in advance. The good news is that the National Forest has been built with exactly this kind of visitor in mind, and Rosliston Forestry Centre, on the edge of town, is the obvious starting point, with woodland walks, cycle trails and a fishing lake on the doorstep, plus its own forest lodges if you'd rather not pitch a tent at all.

The terrain here is gentle rather than dramatic: reclaimed colliery and claypit land replanted with woodland over the past three decades, interspersed with lakes, grassland and way-marked trails including a stretch of the National Forest Way. That makes it well suited to family camping, with none of the steep climbs or exposed ground you'd find further north in the Peak District, and plenty of shade from maturing tree cover in summer.

Late spring through early autumn is the best window, when the forest is in full leaf, campsite facilities are fully open, and outdoor attractions like Conkers and the Ski Centre are running at full capacity alongside any camping trip. Summer school holidays are naturally the busiest period, so booking ahead is sensible if you want a pitch near the main attractions. Given the practical, unshowy character of the area, glamping options tend towards simple, well-equipped cabins and pods rather than anything flashier, giving easy access to the forest without needing your own full camping kit, which suits visitors keen to explore the trails and lakes without worrying about the tent itself.