Holiday Reviews - Camping, Caravan and Lodges
Holiday reviews of camping, caravan and lodges in the UK and Europe.
Camping North Cornwall: Trebellan ParkOur first holiday as parents was a week's camping in beautiful North Cornwall. To some this might seem a brave choice to undertake with a just-about-toddling 15-month-old (and a lively Border Terrier!) but we were on a very limited budget but wanted to get out of the city and introduce Gracie to some new sights and sounds. We found the most amazing campsite, Trebellan Park , which is situated several miles outside of Newquay and has glorious beaches all around and a very handy 16th-century coaching inn practically on the doorstep. We're definitely not basic campers, preferring the 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach but a few home comforts really made life in a tent with a toddler much easier. These included: an airbed, to ensure mum and dad got a reasonably comfortable night's sleep; a travel cot for Gracie, along with a 2.5 tog growbag to keep her snug at night (even the most sunny of days turn into very chilly nights); and a camping stove so we didn't have to rely upon the sometimes dreadful choice that children seem to be offered in most pubs and restaurants. It's amazing what you can cook on a camping stove with a bit of imagination and even Gracie agreed that everything tastes better when eaten out of doors! A little trick we learned was to create a little enclosed 'garden' in front of the tent with windbreaks, which gave Gracie a safe place to play and stopped her trying to escape! The campsite itself was peaceful, beautiful and rural (exactly what we had come to Cornwall for), with views down to its own fishing lakes and then across to open countryside. The good facilities made everything a little less difficult: good clean showers, an outdoor swimming pool, a small playground, and a freezer that enabled us to freeze icepacks to keep Gracie's milk cool. Gracie was delighted with the peacocks that roamed freely across the site and enjoyed our daily walks down the fishing lakes to spot the fish jumping up from the water. North Cornwall is the perfect base. The Eden Project is just a short journey away and the lovely family seaside resort of Perranporth is only about 10 minutes by car. Gracie's face was a picture as her bare feet touched the cold sand for
the first time! Slightly further on down the coast is the pretty village
of St Agnes with its numerous craft shops and beaches that are great for
surfing. If our finances allowed we wouldn't always holiday in a tent
in England but it certainly isn't second best. It was lovely to have a
week away from CBeebies, rushing to the next mother and toddler group
or getting distracted by the inevitable day-to-day things that crop up.
Just taking the time to go at Gracie's pace was lovely.' New Forest, HampshireAutumnal camping is hip, but cold! Packed up to the ceiling of our once-so-roomy mini-MPV, my husband, our 16-month-old daughter Bethany, and our two 5-year-old Labradors set off for a canvas experience in the New Forest Hampshire at the beginning of September. I'd love to say it was an epic journey getting there, but we are blessed in living just 30 minutes away, which is more than enough when the dogs and Bethany are doing a strange double act. We'd loaded the car up with: tent, air bed, duvet (well we weren't slumming it), travel cot, blankets, dog cage, bowls and bones, two camping gases, pots, pans, cutlery, plates, washing up liquid...the blessed bottle opener and much more. We picked a lovely spot, slightly sheltered by trees that would not cast a shadow in the morning when the dew was plentiful. The dogs, staked into the ground with leads so as to minimise New Forest pony and cattle contact, watched happily and excitedly as the 101 items were placed in and around the tent. Once awake, Bethany loved the freedom of the outdoors, running around, picking up leaves, twigs and the odd rabbit dropping and pushing her toy pram in any direction away from camp. She laughed and squealed and shouted 'baa baa' at any passing pony or cow and again to our delight we found she was an excellent animal deterrent. Whilst lovely to watch, the ponies and donkeys can be rather bold entering
tents and camps in the hope of finding food, but one look at a tiny child
screaming and running towards them seemed to keep them at bay.' Shell Island - BarmouthEvery year, my partner, son and daughter and I go to Shell Island for August Bank Holiday. We go for a long weekend and meet up with family and friends, usually about seven tents making up our campsite. This year we bought a massive eight-man tent; it was better than everyone else's but took six people to get it up! The year before last we had a four-man tent and couldn't stand up inside it. I love camping: it's so cheap and easy to please the kids. Once the tent is up, it's time to relax. The kids play in the sand nearby, adults sit around chatting or reading or playing sporty games. Our daughter Chloe (8) loves camping and spends most of her time digging most of the time in the sand. Our son Harvey (3) brings loads of cars which he drives through the sand. He's so happy staying outside all day pretending he is a car. At night, we get all our camp chairs, place them around the camp fire, and we have a night candle on a pole that gives some light. The kids toast marshmallows, while the adults drink merrily! Once it's completely dark we all get our touches and head towards the sand dunes. We march to the top of the dunes and take in the views and shout out 'oggy oggy oggy!' and someone replies from another dune! A weird and wonderful way of communicating in the pitch black. Some of the more adventurous adults and the kids go to the highest (and safest) point and lie down flat, then roll down the dune. It is an unbelievable feeling - scary but exhilarating - when you finally come to a halt. The only bad point is it takes ages getting the sand out of our pockets, shoes, ears, hair, etc. Waking up in the morning is fantastic because we get to eat bacon butties
outside in the fresh air! And then the day ahead is relaxing, unless we
go on a trip to Barmouth, visit the town and the beach. But we have a
beach literally on our doorstep - what more can you ask for? Wyke Down Farm, AndoverWhen we booked our camping holiday, we had a few criteria: we didn't want to travel too far, we wanted to go somewhere we hadn't been before, and we wanted showers & loos. So we ended up at Wyke Down near Andover . Upon arrival we were charmed to see chickens running around and cattle in the fields. The campsite was tidy and clean with well-kept grass. It's a smallish site and when we stayed (last week of August) there were about a dozen other tents and the same number of caravans. There was plenty of space between pitches. Toilets and showers were clean, but we had to master the "jump in, jump out" technique with the latter as it alternated between freezing and scalding! The big advantage of Wyke Down is that there is a pub/restaurant on site that serves fabulous food; great for those days when you're too tired to rustle up basic camping stove grub. There was a big boot fair in the opposite field with loads of cool stuff - well worth a visit. We didn't know the area, so I'll save you some time if you're in a similar position: Salisbury, a little over 20 miles away, was great. Loads of fab shops and a good Pizza Express. Portsmouth - don't bother unless you're after your usual large, high-street stores. Finkley Down Farm - excellent - so much for the littlies to do and lovely grounds, and just a few miles down the road. The Museum of Army Flying is situated in the delightfully named Middle Wallop, eight miles away: much raved about by my three boys, aged 5, 3 and 33! But I enjoyed it too. Loads of hands-on exhibits and nothing can beat sitting in the cafe with
a helicopter hovering at eye-level as it lands across the way! I'm not
a theme-park sort of person; I think they're overpriced, especially for
somebody like me who's a total wuss and won't go on any rides. My kids
are too young for most theme-parks but then we tried Paultons, near Ower,
on the way to Southampton. This is a longer ride out - about 45 minutes
from the campsite, but well worth it. Camping on a bank holiday in PembrokeshireWith a tiny budget and even less desire to struggle with 17th month old Gracie on a plane we decided to spend the last week in August camping in Pembrokeshire. Often billed as Cornwall minus the crowds we weren’t disappointed. Although plenty of people obviously had the same idea as us, Pembrokeshire’s numerous campsites and wide expansive beaches had room for all. We shunned the more popular sites with family friendly facilities and found a pretty, if somewhat basic campsite just on the way out of St David’s, for the princely sum of £6 per night (for all 4 of us including the dog!) we had the site practically to ourselves. There are lots of alternatives for those less hardy campers including the spectacular and popular Caefai Farm Campsite situated on a cliff overlooking Caefai Bay with its own organic produce shop on site. Officially Britain’s smallest city, St David’s has plenty to occupy and due to its village-like feel you can leave the car at the campsite and wander around on foot. St David’s cathedral stands adjacent to the magnificent ruins of the medieval Bishops Palace, both well worth a walk around. If shopping is more your thing there are plenty of surf shops and craft shops to satisfy. Do join the lengthy queue outside the fish and chip shop. I promise you the wait is well worth it. I would thoroughly recommend paying a visit to St David’s visitor centre on the way into the city, there you will find plenty of suggestions for activities both within St David’s and further afield. A local walkers map can be purchased there for 25p. You can also check out the visitor centre on-line.
The real draw of Pembrokeshire however has to be the beaches, from tiny inlets to wide sandy bays there really is something to appeal to everyone from the numerous surfers and kite-surfers that bob about waiting for the perfect wave to families with young children like ourselves looking for somewhere safe and sandy to practice paddling. Stay until evening to witness some of the most spectacular sunsets in the UK. As we packed up our tent on the Tuesday after the bank holiday we promised
ourselves we would return to beautiful Pembrokeshire soon. Talacre, Wales'We booked a holiday as a relaxing break before our next ICSI fertility treatment. However, circumstances changed and the treatment cycle had to be postponed... but the holiday was booked (our first in 18mths and our second as a family) so away we went. Nowhere glamorous, mind you; in fact 50 minutes down the road to Talacre, North Wales . But it was MORE than the doctor ordered and, even more precious, our 29-month-old ICSI twins thought it was "paradise". Beachfront location, the lagoon swimming pool, the mysterious caravan,
and the Friday evening out were all HUGE winners not only with the twins
(who are still taking about it months on) but with us parents. Who would've
thought a self-catering caravan holiday could be relaxing and so positively
memorable? We had the best time. You can leave Mauritius (for now anyway):
this holiday was PERFECT. We're now reliving our memories and waiting
to start our next ICSI cycle in the New Year. (I wonder if we could afford
to go back to Talacre?) Deer Park lodges, CornwallRebecca Blunt and family upgraded their usual caravan holiday to a forest lodge in Deerpark, Cornwall. Definitely the way to go if you love peace and quiet! Read about their holiday here…. Mobile home Frejuis, FranceWe set off for a fortnight's holiday in Frejuis, France, our first family holiday with four children: our seven-year-old boy, five-year-old twin boys and our baby girl. Travel tip no.1: plan your packing and only take what you really need! Two trolleys and a buggy to push in the airport is quite a challenge! Budget airlines are great for price but offer no movies so don't forget the games, snacks, books, etc, to keep them happy for the two-hour flight. On arrival we collected our hire car, which they upgraded to a 9-seater from a 7-seater, though driving a minibus didn't quite feel like an upgrade! The height also prevented us from getting in lots of beachside car parks. Still, we had lots of sunshine and the boys loved the kids' club each morning as it was a good place for them to make new friends. Our mobile home was lovely and the site in Frejuis had plenty of activities on offer. My best advice is to relax and enjoy the moments with the children: appreciate their giggles down the waterslide, hunt shells on the beaches, (Saint Agulf had lots), play catch, dive on the inflatable, and watch the baby discover that sand does not taste so good! Excursions are fun as long as you turn them into an adventure; we enjoyed a lovely boat trip in Port Grimaud along with a yummy ice cream. The other excursion we would recommend was Marineland in Antibes, which we felt was a good-value day out. The children were mesmerised by the whale and dolphin shows and fascinated by the piranhas and thought 'mumble' may be amongst the penguins. Meals in restaurants are also good. A bag with some cards and colouring is really handy as each course can take a while. Staff in Europe are very comfortable around and accommodating with children. Teach your kids a few phrases in the local language as this entertained both our boys and the waiters no end as they practised their French with a lovely Lancashire accent. We have only a limited number of summer holidays when our children are
young, enthusiastic, full of energy, and appreciate getting up at 7.00am.
A holiday with four kids is not mad, but is a wonderful experience and
the children are already talking about where we should go next year. Where to next?
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Blessed
with warm sunshine I would have happily spent the week lazing around on
the beach but we decided to take a boat trip around Ramsey Island, an
RSPB reserve. Gracie (right) adored watching the many seagulls swooping
from the cliff tops, go as we did in August and you may even be lucky
enough to see the seals arriving to have their pups. Boat trips are available
from St David’s and Ramsey island is open to limited numbers from Easter
through October.
