Winter parking at Queen Elizabeth Country Park is £2 an hour or £7 a day from October, the cafe closes at 4pm, and Halloween Hollow and the grotto need booking.
Queen Elizabeth Country Park is Hampshire’s largest country park, 2,000 acres of beech woodland and chalk downland off the A3 south of Petersfield, with Butser Hill on the other side of the road. From 1 October the parking tariff drops to its winter rate, the Beechwood Kitchen closes an hour earlier, and the county council’s programme turns to Halloween, wreath making and Father Christmas. Everything below is from Hampshire County Council’s own pages for the park, checked on 25 September 2026.
The quick answer
- Winter parking, October to March: £2 for an hour, £4 for two, £5.50 for four, £7 all day. Blue Badge holders pay the standard rate. An annual pass is £85.
- Beechwood Kitchen in winter: 9:30am to 4pm on weekdays, 9am to 4pm at weekends, hot food until 3:30pm.
- Halloween Hollow is 30 and 31 October and Christmas at the Park runs on seven dates from 12 to 23 December, both booked by session.
Parking
The park has eight car parks and one tariff. From October to March it is £2 for up to an hour, £4 for two hours, £5.50 for four and £7 for a full day; from April to September the same bands cost £2.50, £5, £8 and £9.50. Motorbikes are free, coaches with 15 or more seats pay £20, and overnight parking is not allowed. An annual pass is £85, or £65 for Blue Badge holders, and a cross-park pass for five Hampshire country parks is £175 or £140 (QECP parking).
Which car park depends on what you are doing:
- Main visitor centre: cafe, toilets, shop, and the start of the walking and mountain bike trails. This is where the Christmas events are.
- Gravel Hill: the dog field, Holt Down and the woodland walks, and the place for horse boxes.
- Juniper: play areas, the assault course, the pizza oven and BBQs, and a kiosk with a toilet open 24 hours.
- Butser Hill: across the A3, with a kiosk, toilets and the views along the South Downs Way.
- Benham’s, Lower and Upper Windmill, Lower Juniper: the smaller BBQ and dog activity car parks.
Parking charges apply during every event, including Christmas at the Park, and the county warns that the main car park fills on December weekends.
The cafe and facilities
The Beechwood Kitchen at the visitor centre keeps GMT hours from late October: 9:30am to 4pm on weekdays with hot food from 10am to 3:30pm, and 9am to 4pm at weekends with hot food from 9am. Breakfast runs until 11:30am, from a £14 full “Butser Buster” to an £11.50 smaller plate, and there is a dog-free area at the back (Beechwood Kitchen).
Accessible toilets are at the visitor centre, Butser Hill and Juniper. Trampers, the all-terrain mobility scooters, can be booked for morning and afternoon sessions, 10:30am to 12:30pm and 1:30pm to 3:30pm, on 02392 595040 (facilities). Dogs are welcome across the park, with livestock grazing on Butser Hill to watch for.
Winter events
The county council’s what’s on list for the park runs to Christmas. The dated, ticketed events are these (QECP what’s on):
| Date | Event | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Sun 18 Oct, Sat 14 Nov | Foraging in the South Downs with Wild Food UK | Ticketed |
| Wed 28 Oct | Little Adventures Halloween Forest School | Ticketed |
| Fri 30 and Sat 31 Oct | Halloween Hollow: trail, pumpkin games, pumpkin carving. 10am, 12pm, 2pm | £10 per child |
| Sun 1 Nov | Winter Park Yoga, monthly series | Free |
| Thu 5 Nov, Thu 3 Dec | Guided Downland Walk on Butser Hill, monthly | Free |
| Sat 7 Nov | Free Pilates; Festive Mosaic Wreath Workshop | Free; ticketed |
| Fri 13 Nov, Fri 11 Dec | Beginners Mountain Bike Ride | Ticketed |
| Tue 17 Nov, Tue 15 Dec | Guided Woodland Walk, monthly | Free |
| Thu 19 Nov, Thu 17 Dec | Forest Bathing introductory session | Ticketed |
| 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Dec | Christmas at the Park: elves' workshop, trail and Father Christmas. 9:30, 10:30, 11:30am, 1pm | £15.95 per child |
| Thu 17 Dec | Festive Mosaic Christmas Decorations workshop | Ticketed |
Halloween Hollow is the half-term event: a Halloween trail, a pumpkin playground with bowling, ring toss and noughts and crosses, then carving your own pumpkin. £10 per child, adults free, three sessions a day, booking essential, and dress for messy carving (Halloween Hollow). Our half term page has everything else on that week.
Christmas at the Park is a two-hour experience for ages 2 to 9: decorate a Christmas decoration with the elves, walk the Christmas trail with a booklet and pencil, then meet Father Christmas in his grotto for a gift and a free babycino token. £15.95 a child, adults free, non-refundable, and each child needs their own ticket with a name and age (Christmas at the Park). The other Father Christmas options nearby are on our Father Christmas page.
Event tickets are non-refundable and not moved for weather, though the park refunds if it cancels. Sold-out events have a waiting list through the visitor centre.
Walks in winter
The trails are open all year. The Long Woodland Trail is 8km through beech and conifer woodland and takes about two and a half hours; the blue mountain bike route is 6km from Gravel Hill; and the South Downs Way crosses the park on its 100 miles from Winchester to Beachy Head (QECP trails). Butser Hill, the highest point on the South Downs, has its own car park across the A3.
Getting there
The park entrance is on the A3 at Gravel Hill, PO8 0QE, about five miles south of Petersfield. The A3 resurfacing at Longmoor, north of the town, does not affect the park entrance, but our roadworks page has the current overnight closures. There is no bus stop at the park and the nearest station is Petersfield.
Still to be confirmed
The county’s pages give the cafe’s hours but not a gate closing time for the car parks, and no Christmas Day or New Year’s Day arrangements. We will ask and update this page before December.
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