Oh I do like to be beside the seaside (Landscove Holiday Village)

Member Name: Craggybuk

Product:	Landscove Holiday Village
Date:	24/08/09 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty to do for the whole family

Disadvantages: A few initial problems

Background

Landscove Holiday Park is situated on Berry Head, a part of Brixham in Devon. Brixham is a fishing town on the English Riviera which stretches from Brixham in the South to Torquay, 8 miles further north. The site boasts very picturesque scenery, overlooking the English channel from its cliff top position. The site itself is approximately 1.5 miles from Brixham town centre and boasts 120 units of accommodation .

Accommodation

The site consists of roughly 60% chalets varying from 1 to 3 bedrooms and 40% mobile homes which came with 2 or 3 bedrooms. Although we stayed in one of the mobile homes which I'll come onto shortly, I did get to have a good look at the chalets due to the main window taking up almost the whole front of the building. I wasn't too impressed with this as guests would be far too exposed to passers by (including myself). Many a time did I walk past and see people watching TV or eating their meals. I would have felt uncomfortable with the lack of privacy if we were the ones in the chalet.

The beauty of a mobile home is that you roughly know what to expect before you view your accommodation. We had originally booked onto another site but had to change plans at the last minute due to circumstances out of our control, because of this, we had to take a 2 bedroom mobile home rather than our normal 3 bedroom version. This didn't really give us a problem in terms of sleeping, but we found the lack of storage space a bit of a problem. In general, the mobile home was very clean although we did have to call out the maintenance guys within 5 minutes of arriving as 2 light bulbs were not working and the window in the childrens room was coming away from the wall. We felt a bit let down about this issue as it was obvious to the naked eye that there was a problem but nothing had been done about it until we raised the alarm. To be fair to the maintenance staff, they did respond quickly with 2 new bulbs and some sealer to secure the window.

Facilities

Landscove scores very highly on its excellent facilities. All attractions are situated in the same area of the park which we found very useful as it meant the kids could play in the amusements whilst we sat in the bar having a drink and watching Sky Sports on the big screens.

Swimming - The site has both an indoor and an outdoor pool. The indoor pool was more suited to younger children as it was about 10 metres long and 1 to 1.3 metres deep. The outdoor pool was about 15 metres long and 1 metre to 1.6 metres deep. Both pools were constantly supervised by at least one (but usually 2) qualified lifeguards. What I did find strange was that only one pool seemed to be open at any time, for example, if the main pool was open in the morning, the indoor pool would be closed and visa versa. I assume this was a cost cutting exercise but it could have been avoided really, especially if 2 lifeguards were available as they could patrol one pool each.

Amusements - I've always been one for the amusement arcade wherever we go on holiday. For a site arcade, this has to be one on the best I've been to. All the main types of machines were present, namely penny falls, the grabber machines which my kids proceeded to win at on many occasions and a handful of video machines. All were reasonable priced, 2p for penny falls and 30p a go on the grabbers and video machines. What was nice about the site amusements was that it was used mainly by young children so there was never a group of teenagers congregating in the area which meant our kids could enjoy themselves without being intimidated.

Bar area - There were in fact 2 bar areas. The main one was used for shows such as comedians, magic acts, music, etc but we never used this one. Our usual nightly haunt was the harbour lights bar which joined onto the restaurant in one direction and the amusement arcade in the other. As well as the previously mentions TV's which were mainly used for Sky Sports but at times did carry 'normal tv', the bar was equipped with 2 high quality pool tables and a dart board that had seen better days. It was £1 a go for pool which I believe is a typical price these days and darts was free. Drinks in my opinion were quite expensive but I have paid more in other establishments. Typical prices were £3 for a pint of Fosters, £3.20 for a pint of 1664 and £2.80 for a large red wine. On one occasion we did purchase a pitcher of Pimms and lemonade for £10 which seemed pretty good value as we got about 6 decent sized glasses out of this. In my opinion, one of the most useful features of the bar area was its WiFi internet connection. I've never been on a site previously where this was available so it was great to check out Ciao (sad I know) from the comfort of the bar each evening and keep in touch with family that way. This WiFi access was included at no extra charge which was pleasing.

Restaurant - There was a small restaurant on site with approximately 15 tables. This was open from 8.30 to 11.00am for breakfast and then for main meals after this time. Food was reasonably priced and portion sizes were generous making this a good alternative to cooking. A Sunday roast carvery was available on Sunday evenings priced at £6.50. This looked nice but we took the boring option and went for a meal with chips instead. A takeaway service was also available from the restaurant which we used once when ordering a pizza for £7 which was delicious and well worth the money.

Shop - Although the site didn't have its own shop, there was a Costcutter over the road which was affiliated with the site. We used the shop for a daily newspaper and milk although you could have bought most items you would require from here such as beer, wine, frozen food, buckets, spades, postcards, etc. Prices were slightly higher than you would pay in a mainstream store but it was convenient to have the shop on our doorstep.

To Do Nearby

Coastal Walk - Our caravan was literally 30 metres from the cliff edge. There were lovely walks along these cliffs up to Berry Head itself. These walks were quite educational as there were information boards situated at various locations along the way, in particular at the 2 forts which were used to protect the coastline against the French many years ago. On my particular walk, I went as far as Berry Head lighthouse which you can get really close to. I did consider walking further down the coastal path into Brixham itself but the walk back up the cliff afterwards put me off as it would have been a lot of hard work.

Brixham Harbour - Brixham harbour is a beautiful place with something for everyone. There are quaint gift shops, some top quality fish restaurants and plenty of crabbing opportunities for the kids. We spent many a happy hour here dangling our lines into the water in the hope of catching crabs, this seemed a very popular pastime as the entire harbour wall was full of eager families seeing who could catch the biggest ones. We found the best time to visit Brixham was in the evening as the main car park only had enough room for 130 cars. There was a bigger car park at the new harbour for 970 cars but this was a good 1.5 miles away from any of the shops or attractions.

Paignton - I have to say Paignton is my favourite seaside town of all time. There is just something about the place that I love. There is always something to do here and it is well worth a visit if you are in the area. We always park in a side street at the top of town to avoid car park costs. This does involve a small walk to the seafront but it has saved us a fortune over the years of going here. Paignton is 5 miles from Brixham and will take between 15 and 30 minutes to reach depending on traffic which is very heavy around midday.

Model village - This is a must see attraction. Located in Babbacombe, Torquay, the model village is set in its own little world, hidden from the outside world by a multitude of fir trees. The detail that has gone into these exhibits is staggering and there is also a lot of humour such as a detectives office run by Hugh Dunnit and Howard Ino. The model village is very reasonably priced at £26 for a family of 4. For this price you can even go back in the evening when everything is lit up making for an even more stunning view. It takes about 2 hours to do the whole village and will be tricky for wheelchair users and parents with small children in buggies. The model village is 10 miles from Brixham and took us an hour to get there due to extremely heavy traffic.

Verdict

This is a high quality site with everything you are likely to need for a family holiday. The maintenance issues we had on arrival should have been avoided and these did make us feel a little negative to the site in the first day or so. Once we had forgotten about these, we had a great time in a great area of the country. I would 100% recommend the area to anyone who has never been there before and would recommend this site if you can get a decent price. We paid £560 for our week in the middle of August although prices do vary depending on the time of year you intend to go.

Park Address
Landscove Holiday Park
Berryhead
Brixham
Devon
TQ5 9EP

Summary: A great holiday venue.