Northumberland?Park resorts - head starting to hurt....

huggermugger

I fancy going to Northumberland with my son this year, we want to see the Hadrian's Wall bits & pieces plus maybe Beamish, some NT places... have heard great things about the beaches/scenery/people...

No money (how incredibly unusual...:D) so thought I'd use Tesco vouchers. Looked at Park Resorts - there are 5 in that area. Have looked at reviews - there aren't many, most are at least a year old but they are mostly pretty dreadful.

These are the resorts:

Whitley Bay
Church Point (Newbiggin)
Cresswell Towers (Druridge)
Crimdon Dene (Hartlepool)
Sandy Bay (North Seaton)

tbh, we just want somewhere to sleep that's fairly clean and not too noisy, but looking at some of the reviews, that could be a tall order. Surely it can't be that bad???? :eek:

My worry is that it's a hell of a long way to go and it would be our only holiday.

Any input or experiences would be gratefully received. Failing that, please send paracetemol....

Anastasia

It is a long way to go. We live in Yorkshire and the journey was enough for us one year. Wonderful place I agree.

What about youth hostelling with tesco vouchers? You could travel around the country. We stayed in London one year and went to the science museum for free. kids loved it.

huggermugger

Yes, we love youth hostelling & probably will stay in one on the way up... but you have to pay for Friday and Saturday nights during the summer, plus we'd really like to take the dogs with us. Our hearts are set on Northumberland tho they have sunk, reading the reviews of these parks...

Always_Harassed

The only one I have stayed in this area was Haggerston Castle and I thought it was awful. The one piece of advice I would give you is to stay in a caravan and not a chalet as they tend to be newer. Stayed in a chalet at Blue Dolphin and spent the first day cleaning it and it was so tatty.

sare_2

We stayed at Cresswell Towers two summers ago, with our boys aged 4 and 8 and I would stay there again.

First impressions were a little worrying as when we stopped at the reception there were lots of teenagers in groups hanging around the entrance and when they were watching us I did wonder what type of holiday I was going to have. I need not have worried, we really enjoyed it.

We used the site as a base and didn't use any of the facilities there as we were always out in the day and stayed in the caravan in the evenings. We chose a fairly new Silver caravan and the quality was excellent. Incidentally, the swimming pool on site closes at 4.30pm, if that's a factor for you.

The site is well placed for tourists. The local beach is 4 minutes walk and is stunning, I didn't know we had beaches like that in this country. There's a small shop selling ice cream that is good too!

Don't know how old your son is, but if similar in age to mine I can recommend Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh beach, and Wet N Wild indoor water park if it's a bad day. I didn't like Seahouses, despite rave reviews I thought it a dump.

It would be a long drive for you (I live in Scarborough and it was a good 2 and half hours) but Northumberland is lovely.

sidney1974

Have stayed in last two years at both Sandy Bay and Cresswell Towers and would thoroughly recommend Cresswell as a great place both to stay and to base yourself for journeys further afield. There is a great drive north to Seahouses and Bamburgh Castle, along with Alnwick Castle and other historic properties. Is also close enough to be in Beamish within an hour and for the parts of Hadrian's Wall along with the delights of Newcastle and the City Centre.

Cresswell itself is based next to the fantastic Druridge Bay and on a good weather day can provide a cheap day on the beach, with only the delicious Cresswell Ices shop likely to threaten your wallet both for ices and maybe a kite to fly on the beach! The caravan site is friendly although you don't get long in the swimming pool and entertainment can be limited. The caravans themselves were fine and we had no problems with other guests.

Sandy Bay is truly awful and I agree strongly with the poor reviews. The quality of the caravans was terrible and the company were unprepared to assist which led us to leave after a single night. The park is also fairly unpleasant with gangs of youths hanging around in ways which other family members found intimidating.

huggermugger

Thank you very much for all these replies - I'm really pleased to hear some positive feedback! The info about things to do inthe area really helps as well. Tokens arrived today so I will get it booked I think...

charis18uk

We stayed at Cresswell Towers last year doing exactly the same as you. The site is not much to speak about, but tbh we never used it and Cresswell Towers was just our base to explore the area. In terms of location it is an excellent base to get to just about anywhere in Northumberland.

I would recommend staying in nothig less than a gold mobile home as this was good enough quality, not sure I would have liked less.

Our family are a picky bunch and we enjoyed our holiday especially the price!!!