Too popular by half (Haggerston Castle Caravan Park)

Member Name: gooeyuk

Product:	Haggerston Castle Caravan Park
Date:	23/06/09 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great location, pretty site and boat hire

Disadvantages: Too popular for the facilities to cope with

This review is based on a stay with partner, two children, one child's friend and a dog at the end of August 2008. The stay was booked via Haven Holidays and paid for with Tesco Clubcard tokens (note - no longer available).

Haggerston Castle is a large site in the very north-eastern corner of England; 10 miles south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and directly adjacent to the main A1 road.

If you're the sort of family that goes to a site and stays there for the full week or weekend, never leaving, then you'll probably love Haggerston Castle. We're not and we didn't.

Our visit was the tail-end of high season so we expected it to be busy. But it was unbelievably busy. We couldn't get a table in either of the showbars unless we were there very, very early or we were extremely lucky and happened to be walking past a table when a group stood up and left. But more often we didn't have the patience and retired back to the caravan. If you get there at noon and watch all of the shows during the day then you'll probably be fine. But if you've been out for the day (and we were out every day as there's so much to see around the area) then by the time you've got back, eaten, got dolled up (kids!) and hiked across to the complex then it'll be packed full.

The shop also frequently ran out of staple products (e.g. bread and milk). More area devoted to food and less to fluffy gonks may have been useful.

On the plus side, the site itself was fine. It was very well kept and the lake is lovely. The hire boats were good (if not a little expensive) and the kids loved the freedom of having a boat (they're 15, 15 and 17).

On the positive side and despite having the lowest class of accommodation (Bronze) because of the dog, the actual caravan was fine. All I want of a van on these sites is that it's somewhere to cook and sleep. It was in good repair and everything worked. Perfect.

The site's location is it's main plus point though. Just off the A1, it's ideal for visits to Holy Island (Lindisfarne) or the many attractions on the coastline (Seahouses, Bamburgh Castle). It's a short-drive to Berwick-upon-Tweed (where there's a Morrison's supermarket for when the camp shop runs out) and you can jump on a train there and zoom up to Edinburgh. We took the car up to Edinburgh as we wanted to call it at a friend on the way and to go across to Leith to see the Royal Yacht Britannia (well worth a look around).

Please don't think I'm being a snob. I've been to many Haven parks over the years and I know what they're like. I've actually been to its sister site in Berwick-upon-Tweed and loved that site. But Haggerston is the worst site I've been on in and that was simply because of the volume of people. The staff were over-stretched and impersonal. The queues for the pool were horrendous (we queued for much longer than we spent in there).

This is probably a great site when it's quiet. But it isn't when it's busy.

Summary: Probably great out of high season, but be prepared for crowds in high season