Woodhall Spa

Woodhall Spa makes an appealing hotel base for exploring the Lincolnshire Wolds, whether you're here for the golf, the history or simply a quiet countryside break. The town's centrepiece is the Petwood Hotel, a former Edwardian private house and wartime Officers' Mess for the Dambusters' 617 Squadron, now a country-house hotel with landscaped gardens, log fires and a bar lined with original RAF memorabilia — a genuinely atmospheric choice for anyone interested in the town's aviation history. Beyond the Petwood, Woodhall Spa has a good spread of smaller hotels, guesthouses and bed and breakfasts, many geared towards golfers visiting the National Golf Centre's Hotchkin and Bracken courses, offering early breakfasts, secure storage for clubs and easy access to the course. Self-catering cottages and holiday lets are plentiful in the surrounding villages, useful for families or longer stays, while the flat, accessible town centre means most accommodation is within easy walking distance of the shops, the Kinema in the Woods and the Cottage Museum. Booking ahead is worth doing during the summer golf season and around major tournament weeks, when rooms in the town itself can fill quickly. Whatever your budget, staying in Woodhall Spa itself puts you closer to the pine woodland, the Spa Trail and the town's understated Edwardian charm than a base in nearby Horncastle or Lincoln, and makes it easy to fit in an evening at the Kinema's retro screenings after a day on the fairways or exploring Tattershall Castle nearby.

Woodhall Spa's attractions are compact and mostly walkable, making it an easy base for a short break as well as a day-trip destination.

• The National Golf Centre — home to the Hotchkin and Bracken courses, widely regarded among the finest heathland golf in the world; the Hotchkin in particular is consistently ranked among the top courses on the planet and draws golfers from across the globe.
• Kinema in the Woods — a cinema housed in a converted 1920s cricket pavilion, and the last in Britain to use back projection, throwing the film from behind the screen rather than the front; it retains its original organ, which is still played during intervals.
• Petwood Hotel — built in 1905 as an Edwardian private house, later requisitioned as the Officers' Mess of RAF 617 Squadron, the Dambusters, during the Second World War; the Squadron Bar still displays original memorabilia and the gardens are open to visitors.
• Dambusters Memorial, Royal Square — a memorial in the town centre commemorating 617 Squadron's time based at nearby RAF Woodhall Spa and the raid on the Ruhr dams.
• The Cottage Museum — a thatched former smithy that now serves as the town's tourist information point and a small local history museum covering the spa era and wartime years.
• Jubilee Park — a traditional municipal park with an open-air swimming pool, paddling pool, tennis courts and a play area, popular with families in summer.
• The Spa Trail — a former railway line converted into a walking and cycling path linking Woodhall Spa to Horncastle through quiet countryside.
• Tattershall Castle — a striking 15th-century red-brick tower house maintained by the National Trust, a short drive away and one of the most recognisable medieval buildings in the county.

The Petwood Hotel's Squadron Bar and restaurant remain a focal point, serving meals beneath original Dambusters memorabilia. The Blue Bell Inn, a characterful old pub in the town centre, is popular with golfers and walkers alike and has its own collection of RAF signatures and memorabilia on its walls. The town centre also has a scattering of independent cafes, tea rooms and a handful of restaurants along the main street, geared towards the steady flow of golfing and day-trip visitors, plus the usual mix of village pubs in the surrounding countryside.

The wooded, sandy heathland around Woodhall Spa gives this part of Lincolnshire a distinctive feel for campers, with pine plantations and gently rolling terrain that contrast with the flat fen country further east. As in the rest of England, wild camping without the landowner's permission is against the law, so pitching up needs to be on a licensed campsite, caravan park or with an explicit invitation from whoever owns the land — Lincolnshire's network of established sites makes this an easy rule to follow. Several campsites and caravan parks sit within a short drive of the town, taking advantage of the sheltered pine woodland and the flat, easy walking and cycling of the old Spa Trail railway path. The terrain here is gentler than the county's coastal dunes or the Wolds' steeper hills further north, making it a comfortable choice for families and those newer to camping, while the woodland pitches offer welcome shade and shelter from the wind that can sweep across the open Lincolnshire countryside. The best months to camp are from late spring to early autumn, when the pine woods are dry underfoot, Jubilee Park's open-air pool is open for a post-walk dip, and long evenings suit a stroll along the Spa Trail or a pint at the Blue Bell Inn. Early autumn can also be a rewarding time, with golden woodland colour and quieter sites once the summer school-holiday crowds have gone, though evenings turn cool enough to want a good sleeping bag. For those who prefer their countryside stay with a few more comforts, glamping options in the area — from safari tents to shepherd's huts — offer proper beds and often a wood-burner or fire pit, without losing the sense of being tucked away among the pines. Given Woodhall Spa's golfing pedigree, camping here also suits golfing trips well, with several sites close enough to the National Golf Centre for an early tee time, while still leaving evenings free to explore the town's Dambusters history and unusual back-projection cinema. As with any woodland site, it's worth checking individual campsites' policies on campfires and dogs before booking, since pine woodland brings a higher fire risk in dry spells than open grassland pitches.