Surrey is known for its open landscapes, quaint villages, and ancient forests. There are two faces to forests - the peaceful place for a woodland walk, and the wild environment where trees and plants obscure your view and the crack of a twig can give away your position. If the second of these too makes you feel nervous, fair enough, this guide probably isn’t for you. If it gets your senses alert, your heart racing and your trigger finger quivering, read on! We’re going to tell you all about the paintball mayhem that you can enjoy in Surrey.

Paintball is the best way to step into the action that we all enjoy in big budget movies and the latest video games. As well as putting our strategic ability to the test and awakening our natural survival instincts, a game can transport us to a fully realised, themed environment which immerses us in the experience and brings out our best. This is all thanks to the owners of the venues, who are also absolute fanatics of thissport. Not only do they put together the best experience possible, they’re also committed to safety, quality, opening up this activity to as many people as possible, whether they’re children or adults, veterans or first time fighters.

Where are the best paintball venues in Surrey?

• Caterham: The village of Whyteleafe, just outside Caterham, has a couple of features that make it an ideal spot for a paintball site. First of all, it’s located within the M25, meaning that it serves residents of London as well as Surrey and neighbouring counties. Secondly, it’s in a wooded area, wild enough to make you forget that you’re so close to the nation’s capital! The paintballing installations themselves, however, are enough to bring people here from much further away. Top of the range paintball guns (known as markers in the industry), purpose built game zones and excellent customer service are just some of the areas where this venue excels. Perhaps all that’s not surprising when you consider that the owner is a former Paintball World Cup winner!

• Cobham: This one is outside the M25, but only just, and it’s about an equal distance from Woking, Guildford and Leatherhead. Its position in the countryside is a real bonus, because the team has 100 acres of woodland to play with when designing their battlefields, which means big spaces, and multiple themes. There’s a Wild West frontier town, a dense jungle, modern warfare trenches and even a zombie apocalypse scenario. Each zone has its own rules, its own challenges and its own atmosphere, so there’s no danger of getting bored throughout a day of fun. And you should take time to have a look at the wall of fame which shows the huge number of celebrities who’ve come here to enjoy paintballing which includes actors, models, sports stars and even politicians and members of the royal family! If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us.

Options for organising this activity

A game usually lasts between 20 and 30 minutes. If that sounds too short to you, don’t worry, because you won’t be booking an individual game, but an action packed morning or afternoon session that includes multiple games. And of course, that means that you’ll get to experience numerous mission scenarios across a variety of the immersive game zones. In between the games, you can relax, reload and, if you’re lucky, enjoy a pizza from Pizza Hut to keep your energy up in the following games.

The morning and afternoon sessions are usually open battles, meaning that anyone can book a place in the event and come along for the fun. But organising an event or party for a large group is incredibly simple, and allows you to have a tailor made experience here. Birthday parties are a fantastic opportunity to get your favourite people together - then cover them in paint! Party programmes are available for both adults and children, and last between 2 and 3 hours. But it doesn’t just stop at parties - this is a classic activity for stag parties, and an increasingly popular choice for hen parties too. Perhaps blowing off some steam before the big day does everyone some good? Youth groups like the scouts and guides or sports teams are welcome as well, and it’s an innovative way to do some team building with a corporate group.

Something that you have to remember before getting into the battle arena is ammunition - you don’t want to remember when it’s too late! Most packages that the venues offer include a number of paintballs that you buy upfront, but you can also stock up between games.

Who can enjoy this experience?

Guns? Projectiles? Deep dark woods? We understand why these images are enough to make parents think twice before taking their kids to play paintball, but we guarantee that once you visit a site, meet the marshalls, and take a look at the safety equipment in use you’ll change your mind, In fact, you can find specially designed equipment sets for children here which allow them to enjoy the game without the pain. Mini paintball is perfect for children from 8 to 11 years old.

That means that the proper stuff is suitable for all players over eleven years old, but you don’t need to worry about your little boy or girl facing off against a full grown adult on the battlefield, because events are organised into adult and junior categories. That means that teens and tweens are kept separate from the full size games, and, to be honest, isn’t that what the adult players want too?

Finally, it's worth saying that you don’t need to be any kind of licence holder to use a marker on a registered site in this region. And you don’t need your own one either. In fact, you don’t need any specialist equipment, because everyone is given a mask, a camouflage jumpsuit and sometimes armoured gloves on arrival. You just need to come dressed for the weather, and for spending a couple of hours outdoors.

Is that enough to get you to take up arms and start painting? If so, you’re ready to book.