Different methods of estimating the value of recreational areas are discussed with particular attention being given to socioeconomic methods - the survey method and Clawson's method. Aspects of consumer's surplus and aggregating welfare measures have been dealt with. A Clawson method has been applied to empirical data from a forest area in Wales and data from a region in Denmark. In the case from Wales, it was found that 73% of all visitor groups in the sample were on holiday. In addition, for many visitor groups (48%) the visit to the forest area was just one part of the day's outing. Therefore, it was considered necessary to modify the Clawson method. Problems with the weighting of points for the trip demand curve have been given considei-able attention. The data from Denmark give rise. to consideration of the problem of substitute areas and a classification system was used to select population zones for the Clawson analysis. Different models for the trip demand curve have been tested and the exponential was found to be the most appropriate.