haven holiday or not

minnie123

I went to Haven in Exmouth with my BF and 3 year old a few weeks ago - we were meant to be staying from the Friday to the Monday morning. We got there about 4pm on the Friday after a 3 hr drive and drove back home Friday at 8pm. YES it was that bad. There was nothing to do and it was expensive. They had a clubhouse with bouncers and you had to walk through a big arcade to get to it. It reminded me of Phoenix nights!! The clubhouse was full of not very nice people drunk and falling over while their kids went round hitting each other and the whole place smelt of babies nappies. Seriously it was rank.

When we handed the keys in 4 hrs later to leave they didn't seem suprised at all, it must be quite common.

pigpen

I'd choose center parks over Haven any day.. Haven is cheap and nasty with extortionate prices thrown in. The activities unless you pay extra for them (in which case it is nigh on impossible to get into!!) are basically 'colouring club' .. The children were bored and asked not to go again!

I have been to 5 different Haven sites over many years and they are rapidly going downhill.. the sites were dirty, activities poorly organised.. the childrens 'film club' had a 15 rated film showing!!!!! The food/shop very expensive, and the staff were, well, bored... it was as though they were forced to be there and had little interaction with children and parents.

brokeinyorkshire

minnie123 wrote: »

I went to Haven in Exmouth with my BF and 3 year old a few weeks ago - we were meant to be staying from the Friday to the Monday morning. We got there about 4pm on the Friday after a 3 hr drive and drove back home Friday at 8pm. YES it was that bad. There was nothing to do and it was expensive. They had a clubhouse with bouncers and you had to walk through a big arcade to get to it. It reminded me of Phoenix nights!! The clubhouse was full of not very nice people drunk and falling over while their kids went round hitting each other and the whole place smelt of babies nappies. Seriously it was rank.

When we handed the keys in 4 hrs later to leave they didn't seem suprised at all, it must be quite common.

How did you know the people weren't very nice?

Was it tattooed on their heads?

Its Haven not the ritz!!!

I agree it IS expensive but saying there was nothing to do when you were only there four hours is rather a sweeping statement.

I am not sticking up for Haven but sheesh.

Now if it was Pontins I would agree with you.:rotfl:

J

Keith

I'm posting from haven. The neighbours have just come in and are talking like there is no one nearby.

The site is clean, Seashore, but the on site restaurant is expensive and not that great. As always the nearby town is much better for food.

It would be great of it was cheap but I think we paid over £400 for this.

Tsmee

Can I just say, don't judge all Haven holiday parks by Craig Tara. I would never choose to go there: it's got a really neddy (chavvy) reputation, and it's got that for a reason. (I'm sure a lot of nice people go as well, right enough)

We've been to two Haven holiday via the Sun tokens (hey, it's very MSE): Haggerston Castle and Seaton Sands, both fine. We don't have kids or use the facilities much (we tend to just use the caravan as a base), so I can't comment specifically on that, but I don't think the really bad experiences some posters have been unfortunate to suffer are typical.

We've also done a lot of Parkdean caravan holidays via The Sun, just as nice.

Tsmee

lollipopsarah

This makes me sad, we had many happy haven hols with our kids in kent/sussex/yarmouth until we took them to benidorn for our 20th anniversary and discoverered the A.I holiday.
Then came the sun holidays and we went with 2 friends to kessingland for a mini break (about 2 years ago) and we were sooooooooo disappointed - maybe I'm just getting old, but we found it too loud, the food was rubbish (we ate out) and even the bar wasn't up to standard, and we are not that fussy.
Having said that, when people tell me they are going on a haven holiday, I still find myself singing the old haven songs and trying to remember the dances!
It is what you make of it, just remember to take most of your food with you, and just top up with bread and milk from the shop.
We used to freeze most meat stuff before we went, and ate whatever thawed out first - if that makes sense.
x

cheepskate_2

hi
thanks for all the replys.

As we don't go on holidays to UK, we don't really know what is available or what they are like.

Can anyone recommend anywhere else in that area.

Centreparcs would be ideal for us, but just hate paying that amount of money for a bed.

begley

We've been on 6 or 7 Haven holidays over the years and have never had a bad time. We've always found the staff to be pleaseant and helpful. Yes, the onsite food is expensive, but we go to the nearest supermarket and stock up, then eat in. The entertainment is a bit ropey, but we've always made the most of it. We went a couple of years ago with Kiddo and her 2 mates, they were 12 at the time and they had a ball! The kids' club for their age was good, they swam every day and we treated then to the water walkers which was hilarious - they still talk about it now. We're off to Haven Greenacres this year in a caravan.........and then Haven Wild Duck camping 2 days later!!

sock-knitter

we have just come back from a week at golden sands mablethorpe, the site was lovely and clean, plenty to keep kids of all ages occupied, staff always polite, helpful, and always smiling. entertainment on a night was a bit tacky and naff, but we expected that, never ate the food on site, prefering to eat in the town itself, or cook in the caravan. we mainly use the site as a base anyway.
been to other sites over the years, and some are dirty smelly and appalling, but not all of them are the same

Lunar_Eclipse

pinkmami wrote: »

That (for me) was the blueprint for all Haven-like parcs. Chavvy, dirty, smelly, in need of renovations, etc.

We've been on a Haven holiday and found it to be most of these things. Ultimately, you get what you pay for. I think our site was in Bognor. It was actually very nicely situated and perfectly pleasant as a leisure park.

We found the general language and behaviour of the visitors to be the worst thing about the holiday, yet it didn't bother our children who had a fantastic time. There was a considerable amount of daytime drinking, smoking and some aggressive parenting that I found uncomfortable to be around. To be honest, the above description is fairly polite. I doubt we will ever go on a similar holiday again, but our conclusion was that if you went with a small group of other families staying in caravans next to each other, you could have a great time. We had a fun time, our children were 7 and just turned 9 when we went.

It would come down to money for me. I'm fairly sure we paid £99 for a 4 day family bank holiday break over the May half term. £99 does not buy you many options, so it would be a very cheap holiday, but I certainly wouldn't pay much more than that.