recommend me a haven with good beach and pool

samsil

hmm Im no expert. all I know is that we booked hafan y mor and upgraded to 'luxury'. when we got there we were told we were given a free 'upgrade to 'gold' . but it was an apartment, and we had (foolishly, didnt realise) told the boy we were staying in a caravan. gutted. it was ok though it had a flat screen tv and a little cosy-ish fire....the weather was terrible for sept so make sure whatever you have has heating (we have only ever paid to 'upgrade' to luxury and got fairly lucky. ( I dont know what parallel is deluxe plus and prestige in terms of 'gold/silver' someone else might know?)
at greenacres whats nice is that theres no chalets just caravans, and the caravans we have been given there have always been immaculate.
I do have a soft spot for greenacres as its a 'smaller, friendlier' site...Hafan Y mor is a 'flagship' (think it used to be a butlins??) and its where all the 'action' is.
re kids club- dont know about the timings. they had an amazing craft session on one day at greenacres with all the glitter/glue bits and bobs all over the dance floor it looked ace but my little one wouldnt go in, found it too daunting with all the people, he just wanted to do air hockey in teh arcade instead

skintas_2

devon cliffs exmouth was nice , had a nice pool and one of the best beaches ive ever been too

skintas_2

i think thorpe park beach and pool is ok, my children have passes each i think we went there 14 times last year. merlin have a sale on atm £&* per pass, ive gonna renew mine i went fright nite i think it was £43.20 now to get in, in the summer we where goin for the day, sometimes twice a week with a picnic

dmbw

I am contempleting going to Presthaven in N Wales late spring/early summer with my 3.5 year old. We will be doing a lot of swimming and would love a nice beach too. Would this be the best park or another in Wales? The fact it had a fun fare attracted me over the other parks i'm guessing it'll only be a few bits but anythign to keep the little one entertained. ideallly we'd like to have a few days around the park itself and try and minimise day trips as this is a bit of a bonus break.

artichoke

dmbw wrote: »

I am contempleting going to Presthaven in N Wales late spring/early summer with my 3.5 year old. We will be doing a lot of swimming and would love a nice beach too. Would this be the best park or another in Wales? The fact it had a fun fare attracted me over the other parks i'm guessing it'll only be a few bits but anythign to keep the little one entertained. ideallly we'd like to have a few days around the park itself and try and minimise day trips as this is a bit of a bonus break.

HI

We went to Preshaven Sands in Early September last 2011. The beach is fantastic - great stretch of clean sand. Our kids played for hours on the beach and in the sand dunes.

The fun fare - there are a few rides, and go karts - can't remember how many things - a small train ride, two different go karts for different age groups, a ride that goes up in the air, maybe another ride - we only did the go karts once and no other fair rides as they were quite expensive.

The pool - 2 different indoor pools - once with a shallow end for toddlers. Plus the fantastic lazy river which my 2 loved :T but somepeople were complaining that the swimming pool was cold.... it was not the warmest pool i have been in;)

Plus there is a large adventure playground which is free which is just outside the showbar complex and this kept my 2 happy for hours on end, whilst i sat in the sun reading my book:T

But Hafan y mor has a fantastic pool - much, much bigger with slides, waves, etc... but the beach is not as easy to get to - it depends where abouts your accommodation is as the beach is at the far end of the site..and is a mixture of pebbles with some sandy patches..

Also if you are going on a newspaper deal then the basic accommodtion is chalets at H y M not caravans. This site also has a fantastic free adventure playground and go karts which are not free.

Greenacres has a fantastic beach as well - but a smaller, basic pool...

there is too much choice:o

Art

numpty09

if you liked perran sands, you'll love devon cliffs.
Fantastic pool, 3 slides and a lovely area for just swimming in and the beach was exquisite.

apesxx

artichoke wrote: »

HI

Also if you are going on a newspaper deal then the basic accommodtion is chalets at H y M not caravans. This site also has a fantastic free adventure playground and go karts which are not free.

Art

Are the chalets bad? have never seen them before. do you have to upgrade to luxury to get a caravan? were not usually too bothered about the luxury, but after staying in a standard caravan at the end of october last year at haggerston castle near scotland i'd kinda like one with heating this time.

thinking of trying to book hafan y mor for the 16th july. Then if the sun do the holidays again later this yr for school hols guna try and get the fri-mon to add on to the end of it to make a week.

then next year were definately either going to do duinrell in holland, a park near disneyland or one in brittanyx

Also we didnt really like haggeston castle, theres nowhere to walk to or no beach access. the arcades were really expensive and not a massive selection of rides for the little ones, could only find one park and it was rubbish with litter everywhere. the pool was ok and also there were no paths to walk along between the entertainment complex and caravan so had to walk along the road which was unlit (and we all know a lot of people drive back to their vans in these places after drinking a skinfull in the showbar) and we had to call out the repair people everyday because our pilot light in the boiler would not light every morning. DD is desperate to go back but only to ride a pony again. we def will not go back here.

artichoke

apesxx wrote: »

Are the chalets bad? have never seen them before. do you have to upgrade to luxury to get a caravan? were not usually too bothered about the luxury, but after staying in a standard caravan at the end of october last year at haggerston castle near scotland i'd kinda like one with heating this time.

thinking of trying to book hafan y mor for the 16th july. Then if the sun do the holidays again later this yr for school hols guna try and get the fri-mon to add on to the end of it to make a week.

then next year were definately either going to do duinrell in holland, a park near disneyland or one in brittanyx

Also we didnt really like haggeston castle, theres nowhere to walk to or no beach access. the arcades were really expensive and not a massive selection of rides for the little ones, could only find one park and it was rubbish with litter everywhere. the pool was ok and also there were no paths to walk along between the entertainment complex and caravan so had to walk along the road which was unlit (and we all know a lot of people drive back to their vans in these places after drinking a skinfull in the showbar) and we had to call out the repair people everyday because our pilot light in the boiler would not light every morning. DD is desperate to go back but only to ride a pony again. we def will not go back here.

samsil wrote: »

hmm Im no expert. all I know is that we booked hafan y mor and upgraded to 'luxury'. when we got there we were told we were given a free 'upgrade to 'gold' . but it was an apartment, and we had (foolishly, didnt realise) told the boy we were staying in a caravan. gutted. it was ok though it had a flat screen tv and a little cosy-ish fire....the weather was terrible for sept so make sure whatever you have has heating (we have only ever paid to 'upgrade' to luxury and got fairly lucky. ( I dont know what parallel is deluxe plus and prestige in terms of 'gold/silver' someone else might know?)
at greenacres (

I have never stayed in a chalet but i did have a look when i stayed at H y M as we met people who were staying in the standard chalet on a sun holiday - they are basic and a bit run down...

but i don't know what the apartments are like which Samsil got (see above quote) when upgraded...

I love H y M and have been when kids were little in term time and so booked direct with Haven - I am always worried about booking newspaper promotions to the haven sites with Chalets ie H y M, Perran Sands, and Caister because they get terrible reviews...

but i have been to all those sites in a caravan and enjoyed the sites themselves. I suppose it depends how much time you spend in the accommodation - we cook / eat all our meals in the van so i want a decent kitchen and clean place for the kids to sit and eat. We have only ever booked standard vans and have never had a problem with that.

I am interested in that you did not like Haggerston Castle as have been thinking of going there next year maybe..

I know what you mean by having to walk along the road - Haven Marton Mere was like that with one stretch of road with no pavement.

Good Luck tomorrow with your booking...

I am still not completely decided i a have 2 dates in mind but only one site i really want to go to..Thorpe Park..

Art

samsil

hi there just a quick reply...
having experienced an 'apartment', at hafan y mor- we HAD 'upgraded' to luxury but got given an apartment - they said theyd even upgraded us to the 'next standard (which was a 'gold' standard) - it was Ok,didnt ruin the holiday, and had heaters in all rooms and a little fire in the lounge, flat screen telly....

BUT I now would always prefer to go to a site that's caravans only so I can be sure we dont get an 'apartment' (chalet)....

downsides of them-
you dont get as much 'living' space as a caravan, once kids have gone to bed etc or if weathers bad and youre stuck in.
you have people/apartments either side (could be noisy potentially)
in ours there were apartments above, you could hear people moving about, and the access to the above apartments was via a metal 'fire escape'
type staircase outside and when people used the staircase it was noisy., you could almost feel vibration when doors slammed.

we went to skegness butlins one year on the sun deals, v similar experience upgraded to 'luxury' and got given an apartment, again, it really wasnt 'terrible' but its not as good as a caravan.....you just dont want to be hearing other people trooping in from a night on the tiles if youre there for a quiet time with kids.

artichoke

hi

yes, that is exactly how i feel, i don't want to hear other people next door and above coming home late after we have got the kids to bed etc plus as we take the dog in a standard van i worry that the dog in a standard chalet would bark at noises from next door etc where as she is ok in a caravan as knows it is her own space..

so i also avoid booking sites with chalets on newspaper deals.

I had hoped that once the dog dies we might be able to do a double upgrade on these sites and get a caravan but it seems from Samsil's experience that a double upgrade at H y M still gets you an Apartment...

I would be interested to find out what upgrades at Perran Sands get you or at Caister... do any other Haven sites have chalets...??


Art