Cayton Bay is not the place to stay (Scarborough in General)

Member Name: werewolf2

Product:	Scarborough in General
Date:	01/11/08 (633 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: near to Scarborough, great views of the bay

Disadvantages: see review - too many to list

Park Resorts, Cayton Bay, Scarborough is not the place to stay unless you just want to use it as a base to visit nearby attractions in the Scarborough area. My friends and I went on a Sun newspaper holiday offer in October 2008 and were disappointed with the facilities (or lack of them).

On arrival at 1.30pm we were told in no uncertain terms that we couldn't book in until 4pm, but that we could use the on site facilities until then.

There was a swimming pool, which was closed between 1 and 2pm daily for lunch - as as we hadn't been able to unpack our bags yet, not exactly the best option. This had a large water slide, but during our time there we never saw anyone on it.

We took a quick look around the outdoor children's play area, which was quite muddy due to the wet weather we'd been having this year. I noted that there wasn't an adequate path to get to this from the road, and very little to entertain my friends' 17 month old son, Mark, as he was too small for most items.

In addition outside the entertainment complex was a crazy golf game (again no path to get between holes) and we never found out where to obtain the clubs or balls from to use this, and never saw anyone else using this facility on the week that we were there.

There was also an outdoor football/basketball pitch and despite the good weather we had on the day of our arrival, and all week, it was deserted. The entertainment brochure given to us on our booking in never mentioned any daytime activities, so we went out visiting local attractions.

Inside the main complex were the compulsory arcade machines, pool tables, air hockey and 2 bar areas with a small kids shop and a food outlet.

The toliets area was very clean and never seemed too busy - even the ladies! There was also a food shop just outside the main complex, which sold gifts as well as bread, milk, etc.

We used the caravan site as a base to visit Flamingo Land at Malton (about 15 miles away), Eden Camp - an old Prisoner of War camp (about 15 miles away), Scarborough Sea Life Centre and Scarborough itself. We also tried to visit a National Trust property - Nunnington Hall (about 30 miles away from the caravan site), which we arrived at about 11am only to discover it didn't open until 1pm!

As we soon bored of the site's facilities , we drove back into Scarborough to see some of the sites. We drove to the North Bay initially, which has a good clean long beach, but just 2 cafes and no shops. We paid about £1.50 to park for 1 hour. After taking Mark for his first walk on the beach and his first paddle, we moved onto the South Bay. Be prepared to pay for parking as we never found a free car park in the town itself - you even have to pay for the one directly outside the Sea Life Centre!

On our return to the caravan site, we were offered an upgrade of caravan for £25, which we ended up having to take, as when we checked out our original caravan, we found we couldn't set up Mark's travel cot, as there was a room with bunk beds in it, which went in different directions (i.e. one above the head went lengthways and the one lower down went widthways). Even if we could have moved the lower bunk we'd have banged our heads on the upper bunk trying to take him in and out, and the lower bunk did not seem to be able to be moved anyway.

In addition, the first Bronze style caravan was not next to the car parking spaces and was 4 caravans in, with a very muddy area in front of the doors. You could not park in front of your caravan and would be charged for a tow if you did.

We were more impressed with the upgraded caravan - a Silver extra wide one, which had a decked area from one door, which baby Mark could play on in safety as it didn't have steps on it. In addition, it had it's own parking space right next to the caravan.

We did have some problems with the caravan and its facilities but that is another story.

All of the caravan site was split into smaller sections named after birds, trees or bushes, e.g gosling, beech, ivy. There was only 1 entrance into the site and only 2 recycling points - every where else just had bins. On the map we were given are listed 3 payphones and a launderette but we didn't need to use these facilities.

Nearby is a beach (Cayton Bay) but is is a very steep incline to get to it, as you are on the top of a cliff, and you also have to cross the busy Filey Road to get to the path, so we never attempted this, as it didn't seem buggy friendly. The Sun offer suggested that the camp site was 400m from a beach, it never mentioned straight down!!

At the caravan site, there was a soft play area next to the Boathouse Pub, but it is not staffed, so parents have to go in and supervise their children. As Mark is only 17 months old, his mother and I struggled to get him to use the toddler area, and he kept trying to run off back through the arcades area, as it was too near the door. Not very well planned, in my opinion.

Scarborough Sea Life Centre is well worth a visit - we had a 2 for 1 offer from Tesco's and I have seen a similar offer on a particular brand of tea bags. It costs £12.95 per adult, £11.95 for concessions, under 5''s go free, and children have a cheaper rate, which I do not remember as it wasn't applicable to our group. We had to pay for 3 hours parking, which was about £3.50. When you get inside there are lots of exhibits of fish, sea horses and sharks. There is plenty to do for children - as they have a sheet they give out and you have to answer questions as you go round the centre. These have multiple answers and you have to guess the correct one. In addition, they often have talks about star fish or crabs in the rock pool area and you get the chance to hold some of these items, if you are lucky.

They also have penguins, seals and otters, which if you arrive at the right time you can see the handlers feeding them and they give you a talk about each particular breed. We were lucky enough to see the otters and seals being fed and the centre has an excellent cafe facility, which unfortunately is upstairs. Michelle and I managed to carry Mark's push chair up, but there is a stair lift for wheelchair users from the shop, which you need to get assistance with. I was impressed with the food and drink available from this cafe - as I am on a wheat free diet I can not usually find anything I can eat but they had a fantastic range of flapjack and other items I could choose from. The toilets had pictures of otters, seals, etc on them and were extremely clean. I was also impressed that there seemed to be wheelchair routes around the centre.

Scarborough has plenty of shops, arcades, and little cafes on the sea front on the South Bay. We also drove past Scarborough Castle - I believe this is an English Heritage site, but we didn't get time to visit this. There is also a Lifeboat station on the sea front, which we were able to visit and look at pictures, information about rescues and an old rescue boat. It also has a little shop where any purchase made helps the RNLI. Near to this, is a set of public toilets just off a pay and display car park, which we used on several occasions and always found to be clean. Michelle was disappointed with the baby changing facilities, however.

We went into a cafe one evening and were pleased to find it clean, child friendly and extremely pleasant. We had four meals and four drinks and paid less than £30 at the Welcome Inn on the sea front. It is a licensed restaurant at 22 Sandside, Scarborough, YO11 1PE (Tel 01723 375200). There were clean toilets and extra space upstairs. I found the staff at this establishment were extremely pleasant, helpful and we found the meals to be both good value for money but also hot, edible and interesting. Robert had a Hawaiian burger with pineapple and some strange combination of sauces.

We also saw Doctor Who's Tardis near the Tourist Information Centre on the opposite side of the road to the Welcome Inn.

I apologise if there is too much about the caravan site on this, but it was originally going to be a review about Park Resorts Cayton Bay, but as I have already written a review about a different Park Resort I can not seem to be able to put another one on.

Werewolf2

Summary: Cayton Bay caravan site useful for a base to see local attractions