Short Review
We stayed here for two weeks – our first time here and our first time with our new caravan. The booked is a bit confusing and talking to others they had similar issues. We’d booked a serviced pitch, with awning and with space for our car. Serviced pitches here are EHU only. Not an issue for us overall – but others were expecting water hookup as a minimum with EHU.
We arrived after reception had closed, but had our pitch details. Unfortunately there was no way that this pitch would fit our caravan, awning and car. At best our caravan and Awning. It was also all pea shingle (but not a big issue at the time).
One short call to the Warden later, we were moved to a different pitch with plenty of space. In the morning we went to reception who apologised, were great overall and we had it agreed to stay in the pitch we’d been moved into to settle up.
That was our only real problem throughout the two weeks stay. Some bits on the detailed review, but overall:
Lovely site, friendly staff, customer focused, great location.
Detailed Review
The pitches are quite expensive overall, that wasn’t an issue we booked knowing this. But it wasn’t clear on booking exactly what sort of pitch you’d get. We spent 2 weeks on a pea shingle pitch (no grass). Not a massive issue, we have the awning, foam floor tiles that makes it nicer to walk on. Others may not be as happy. If we’d not got the flooring it may have been a bit of a nightmare. There are a lot of pitches with hardstanding for the caravan, with grass areas around. It would help to be clear on what you’re getting when you book.
The actual site itself was kept very clean, all the staff were excellent. The issue we had was resolved quickly, and to our satisfaction. I always say “Problems happen, it’s how they are dealt with that matters”.
The shop is clean, and has quite a lot you’d expect to find. Prices vary – but I’ve not been to a site shop that is always as cheap as supermarkets and wouldn’t expect to find one! You’re paying for the convenience and that is fine.
We were with our 5 year old daughter, she made friends, had fun, cycled round, scooted round and played in the park. I think the only real downside was that the Park had a few holes (not sure if they were DUG up by other kids or just wear and tear).
Toilet blocks were generally really clean, obviously you go early in the morning – you can find the toilets . . .dirty. Certainly wouldn’t just blame the site people here – some of this is just being respectful in general. Showers were hot, unfortunately too hot to put our daughter under. Personally I was fine with it overall – and was some of the cleaner toilet/shower blocks I’ve used.
From the site, there are some lovely walks down the railway tracks. Great for a nice bike ride as well. You’ve also got Bournmouth/Poole and various attractions close by.
The pool being shut was a shame, that would have been the icing on the cake. However we did use the local(ish) Oakdean park for the pool. Generally that was nice and quite.
I think some of the problems others had we thankfully avoided (noisy neighbours) until about our last couple of days. Seemed one family enjoyed screaming at children – personally I don’t have too much of an issue during the day, but when we’re all in bed and our daughter is waking up because of it . . I’m not as happy. We didn’t complain it stopped, then started again about 6:30am! But this isn’t the sites fault.
The bar is nice and new (and dog friendly in part of it) – we didn’t eat there, so won’t comment on the food. The beer was nice 🙂 It is a shame (but I can fully understand why) that there is a separate sauna and jacuzzi for the lodge owners. I can’t imagine what that would be like if opened to everyone!
Personally we’ve booked back again, and got an allocated pitch we checked before leaving and will be happy with. My only groan on this would be that days after returning we got an email offering us a 10% discount for a re book. We asked about it being applied to our booking, but you can’t use it online and only when we call them! Honestly it’s 2017 it shouldn’t make a difference and a week costing £400 for a hardstanding + EHU it would have been nice to have this honoured. It’s probably (with some minor issues above) why i’m rating 4*. Repeat bookings should be something important. . .and regardless of method. . honoured.
So overall – nice site, nice staff, nice location. Some facilities restricted to Lodge Owners. We’ll happily go back again, now know the local area and where the big supermarkets are for stocking up on food.