One of the things that makes Cumberland Lodge such a great conference and retreat venue is our location. Despite being with easy reach of guests from around the UK, or indeed the world, with easy access to three major motorways, mainline railway stations and London’s international airports, we can offer a secluded, peaceful and beautiful environment.
This is because we are based in a 17th-century country house in the heart of Windsor Great Park, just a few miles south of the historic and famous Windsor Castle. While outside the park’s boundaries lie the busy towns of Berkshire – Windsor itself, Virginia Water, Staines, Bracknell, and Maidenhead – Cumberland Lodge is surrounded by thousands of acres of rolling park, woodlands and lawns. These teem with wildlife, ancient trees, driveways, paths and historical sites to find and explore. This is what makes Cumberland Lodge one of the finest and most memorable conference venues Windsor has to offer.
This location offers the perfect canvas to organise a team-building retreat or corporate getaway. While much can be achieved in one of our fully equipped conference rooms, over a meal in one of our dining rooms, or while socialising in one of our lounges, you can’t beat team activities to break up a normal routine, break the ice, and encourage your people to form bonds and develop new insights.
At Cumberland Lodge we can provide a wonderful venue and support for your corporate retreat or team-building event, but we don’t provide or run any activities ourselves. So, for your inspiration and information, here are some examples of the team activities you can do at Cumberland Lodge and out in Windsor Great Park. We’ll also suggest some fun things to do in and around Windsor itself.
At Cumberland Lodge
While we don’t directly organise or run activities for those who hire our venue, we do make some basic team games and entertainment available for socialising and relaxing.
Weather permitting, we have a tennis court on-site and can provide rackets and balls. The grounds around the Lodge are also suitable for a game of rounders. Both are a great way to burn off some energy and get some team spirit and competition going. For less energetic options, why not make full use of the country house setting with a game of croquet or boules on the lawn?
Our grounds are also ideal for a variety of other outdoor team-building or leadership development activities, especially for smaller groups. However, we would recommend getting out into the majestic surroundings of Windsor Great Park wherever the weather, your team, and your planned activity make it possible.
In the park
Windsor Great Park consists of over 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) of managed parklands, most of which is open to the public free of charge. It’s the perfect place to get your people out and about in a new environment that, with some carefully chosen activities, you can make as relaxing or as challenging as you need. And Windsor Great Park has no entry fee, so it’s the perfect space for setting up things to do for free in Windsor.
Walking
There are miles upon miles of walking routes in the Great Park, whether it’s the length of the tree-lined Long Walk up to the castle, around the shore of Virginia Water Lake or through the deer park. Just getting out and about in the beautiful environment of the park can be a good bonding experience for your team – a chance to chat and share experiences.
You can also add some structure and gentle competition to a walk around the Great Park by setting up some sort of route or a series of checkpoints. These can be in the form of an orienteering course where people have to locate and navigate between points. Or add a level of challenge and creativity by giving these locations in the form of clues or logic problems for your people to solve.
Scavenger hunt/picture challenge
You can send your team(s) out to explore Windsor Great Park with even more structure, and possibly against a ticking clock, by setting them a scavenger hunt or picture challenge – give a list of objects or information to collect (possibly guided by clues or hints collected along the way) or pictures they have to return with. These pictures can be of specific things around the Park, things open to creative interpretation or chance encounters, recreations of famous works of art or movie moments and so on.
One minute challenges
Make the most of the space in the Park, find a quiet spot and get your teams to try as many simple tasks that each last a minute – as well as keeping the energy and engagement levels high, this will also sharpen time management and communication skills.
Typical tasks can include stacking plastic cups to make the tallest tower, moving ping pong balls between buckets only using spoons or chopsticks, knocking down arrangements of cups with air from a balloon, make the best paper aeroplane, or extract an egg from a bucket without touching it using only provided supplies. Let your imagination run. Perhaps let your team come up with some in the run-up to the retreat as part of the preparations?
Just make sure that any equipment or objects are easy to transport, simple to use and won’t harm the environment. And please make sure to take them all back with you.
In and around Windsor
Going further afield, make the most of your visit and include some nearby attractions and activities for your team. Whether it’s just to relax and socialise or as part of the teambuilding and development aims, there are plenty of things to do in and around Windsor.
Visit Windsor Castle
The castle’s presence dominates the Great Park and the town. It’s also a fascinating historical structure – the largest occupied castle in the world and the one that’s been lived in the longest. It’s still used as a royal residence by Cumberland Lodge Patron, King Charles III, and is packed with history across nearly 1,000 years. Tours are available for groups and make for a good shared learning experience for your people as well as a wander through a beautiful and historically important building.
Escape rooms
As well as an increasingly popular hobby and leisure activity, escape rooms are a great way to foster communication, problem-solving and teambuilding. They’re more intellectual than physical, so make a good change from some of the more usual outdoor activities. Escape Experience and Escape in 60 are both in the town and among the most fun things to do in Windsor. Both offer multiple escape rooms and are set up to deal with corporate group events.
Windsor & Eton Brewery
This small craft brewery is one of Cumberland Lodge’s local food and drink suppliers.
Based in the historic heart of Windsor, it produces 22 varieties of beer. The brewery offers 90-minute group tours behind the scenes with insights into the brewing process and, of course, a chance to taste both the raw materials and the finished product. This makes the perfect start to a day out and about in Windsor for your team and an organised but relaxed break from seminars and workshops. The Windsor & Eton Brewery also hold a variety of evening events in their Taproom that, as well the products of the brewery also serves food and other drinks. You can also book an hour’s shuffleboard session if you want to try a different sort of team activity.
Bubble football
It’s five-a-side with a difference. That difference being that the players wear inflatable ‘zorb’ bubbles on their upper half. This transforms the regular game of football by slowing down the action and encouraging contact (albeit of the bouncy and safe kind). This makes the game suitable for all ability and skill levels, as well as ripe opportunity for laughs and stories as the players bounce, slide and jump off each other. As well as the regular rules of five-a-side, you can also play games such as Bulldog, Sumo and Last Man Standing. There are several locations and event providers around Windsor that can provide bubble football experiences.
Dragon boat racing
Windsor is close to the famous River Thames, so when you’re looking for things to do in and around Windsor you should try and include some time on the water. While there are opportunities to hire boats for a day trip or cruise on the Thames, to keep the spirit of bonding and healthy competition alive, how about dragon boat racing?
Ideal for larger groups that can be split into teams of between eight and 12 in each boat, dragon boat racing sees your people become the power unit for a traditional paddle-powered longboat. Dragon boat racing is a sport with over 2,000 years of history in Asia and the Pacific, and racing boats are usually decorated with dragon heads and tails at each end. After learning the basic techniques, a series of races will pitch your crews against each other – usually with paddlers, one drummer to keep them in time and set the speed and a steersperson – they will be trained staff to guide and monitor your crew. Things culminate in a grand final race.
Dragon boat racing requires skill, coordination, commitment and morale, and is fertile ground for bonding and stories to tell later. There are multiple venues suitable for dragon boat racing around Windsor, and event companies will provide everything you need from the boats and safety equipment to trained staff and the event medals – you just need to bring your people and their enthusiasm.
One of the best conference venues Windsor can provide
With a spectacular and unique setting, a full range of working facilities, accommodation and catering and any number of team activities available on site or nearby, Cumberland Lodge can be the perfect venue for your conference or corporate team retreat. Contact us today for more information.