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Westmorland Caravan Park (Tebay, Cumbria)
by brittle1906
Review of Westmorland Caravan Park
**Location**
Westmorland Caravan Park is located between junctions 38 and 39 on the north bound M6 motorway in Cumbria. The caravan park is owned by the Tebay Services and can be accessed from the south bound carriage way too, by means of following signs from the car parking area, ... which lead onto a private road to the caravan site.
We have used this caravan site for overnight stops many times over the years and have always found it to be of an acceptable standard.
**The Site and Facilities**
The entrance to the caravan site is down a steep slope and over a cattle grid. Even though this caravan site is situated off of a motorway, noise is not a problem. The site is surrounded by mature trees and these seem to deaden any traffic noise.
Pre-booking is not strictly necessary; however during peak season and Bank holidays, it is advisable. Booking in is easy, the reception office is located just inside the entrance and staff are friendly, helpful and efficient.
The site caters for caravans and motorhomes only. All pitches are of the hard standing variety and the site cannot accommodate tents. All 80 touring pitches have electric hook up for your electrical bits and bobs. The current is constant and unlike some caravan sites I have stayed, does not trip or cut out if you use more than a couple of electric items. All pitches are fairly close to fresh water taps and rubbish disposal facilities. There are two chemical toilet disposal points, toilets and showers, washing up sinks and a small laundry with a washing machine and tumble dryer. Irons and ironing boards can be hired from reception, which also stocks a small range of camping knick knacks such as chemical toilet requisites, batteries and so on.
Reception is not open 24/7, however staff are available, should they be required in an emergency as they are living on-site in a static caravan next door to the reception building.
Some pluses for this site are that the mobile phone signal is usually excellent, something that is not always the case in my experience, and dogs (on leads) are welcome on the site. There is a lovely dog walking area around the site which Rob-Dog enjoyed very much, especially as he could stretch his legs and indulged in a doggie sniffing fest after a long journey.
Most people using a caravan site are interested in the toilet and shower facilities; at Westmorland they are located in a beautifully presented barn type building. The high vaulted ceilings are criss-crossed with honey coloured wooden beams and the whole facility is clean and well stocked with the usual toilet tissue, hand dryers and so on. The 'ladies' has three shower cubicles, four toilets and four wash basins. There is a low hanging area for towels, clothes and other items, topped with a useful shelf with a mirror above.
One toilet and one shower cubicle are designated for disabled users, these are wider than the standard cubicle and they are fitted with appropriate grab rails and other fixtures.
The showers and toilets are clean, but there are one or two drawbacks. Firstly the lights and electric fan are movement sensor operated, not too much of a problem during the day time, but a blasted nuisance if you are showering during the evening. I found myself plunged into darkness during one evening shower and had to come out of my cubicle dripping wet in order wave my arms about to obtain light!
Luckily I was the only person in the shower block at the time, so was not in danger of exposing myself to strangers! It was irritating, but nothing insurmountable.
My second gripe about the shower block is the strange system of starting your shower. There are three buttons on the wall located at right angles to the shower cubicles, one for each shower stall. You need to press the button that corresponds to the shower stall you wish to use in order to get the water flowing.
This is an absolute nightmare, as there is nowhere private to undress other than inside the actual cubicle and you need to cross the shower room in order to hit the button. It is also unclear which button corresponds to which cubicle, other than the centre one. As flow is timed, you end up wasting your precious hot water while you fumble around.
Worse still, on my last visit, I hit what I thought was the correct button, only to start the water running in the shower at the other end! Unfortunately there was a lady standing in the shower cubicle drying and dressing and I inadvertently soaked her! She was quite nice about it but obviously not best pleased to have her dry clothes drenched!
Grumbles aside, the showers are free, hot and very powerful, the water runs for a good 8 to 10 minutes which I find more than adequate for showering and hair washing.
Naturally all the facilities within the Tebay Service area are available to caravan park residents and these can be accessed by a short walk.
**Prices and Contact Information**
Prices include electric hook-up and are based on 4 people and 1 vehicle. The price per night for low season is £18, for mid-season £20 and high season £22.
The site offers a long stay discount of 10% for visitors booking for 5 nights or more, and they also have a low season offer of 3 nights for the price of 2. Seasonal touring caravan pitches can be rented for around £1,200.00. This fee allows you to use the site from the beginning of March until the early November. You can also rent a static caravan on the site for the same time period for around £1,300.00.
More information regarding season dates and other charges can be found on the caravan parks website:-http://www.westmorland.com/cumb​ria-lake-district-caravan-park
On booking in, you are given a card which entitles you to a 10% discount on food from the Tebay Service station and 10% discount on goods purchased form the Westmorland Farm Shop also located within the service station. There is a hotel on site too and your discount card will give you 10% off bar meals taken in the hotel, however, alcoholic drinks not included in the discount.
The caravan park contact details: - Westmorland Caravan Park, Orton, Penrith, Cumbria, CA10 3SB, Telephone number 015397 11322.
**My Thoughts and Conclusion**
Westmorland Caravan Park is a convenient stop over for me when travelling to or from the north of the country. We used to travel regularly from Kent to Northumberland when we owned a holiday home there and found Westmorland Caravan Park a perfect stopping point, especially when we had left home early in the morning, it was ideal to spend a night in our motorhome on the site before continuing our journey, arriving fresh after a good night's sleep and a relatively short drive.
We also travel to Scotland fairly often and again Westmorland Caravan Park makes a very welcome overnight stop.
We have used the site many times over the years and although I have never stayed for longer than one night at a time, the site is ideally located for exploring the area. The Lake District is close by, as is Carlisle, Northumberland and Hadrian's Wall. Many people use the caravan site as a storage facility for their touring caravan which is a great idea for people wishing to spend an extended holiday in the area.
The site is fairly basic but has everything you need on hand. There is no shop as such on the site but of course, groceries can be purchased at the service station. The Tebay farm shop is a gourmet's paradise with some really unusual and interesting food items on sale, there is also a Lakeland outlet and various other shops within the Farm Shop. We always make a point of buying some local honey from the farm shop as it is excellent. The Farm Shop is little pricy, but you can buy some remarkable local produce and of course you do have your 10% discount card!
Tebay is the only independently owned service station in the United Kingdom and to visit it is an experience in itself. The service station opened in 1972 and has gone from strength to strength. The caravan site may not be grand, it is not an all singing, dancing type of holiday site, but it is a very useful site for people travelling on the M6 with their own caravan or motorhome.
I would not hesitate to recommend this site to others and am awarding Westmorland Caravan Park a 4* rating.
Thank you for reading
©brittle1906 July 2012
N.B. My reviews may be found on other sites under the same user name.
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Oddballs Crazy Golf (Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire)
by doriee
Cruising around Cleethorpes with a mate the other week, we decided to take a walk along the promenade as there's lots of arcades, food stalls and other things to do down here, we came across the oddballs mini golf area which I always knew was there but haven't ever played on it. This about in the middle of the sea front located right at ... the bottom of the grassy hill next to the water falls. This is really easy to find as it is in quite a large area. There is plenty of parking around this area, there are parking spaces located all along the sea front with you do have to pay and display.
When we went here it was a sunny Saturday day so we expected a lot of people to be out, surprisingly there were a lot of people on the mini golf set mainly big families letting their children have fun and playing which was fine by us, we were allowed to pay and go on straight away as you don't have to do the courses in order. The price is £2 for adults and £1.50 for children, you get a coloured golf ball each and a club each, my friends was pink and my ball was green so it was always easy to tell whose ball belonged to who.
There are 12 holes to play on in this mini golf course which isn't bad for paying with spare change. We skipped the first course as a big family was playing with children and they just couldn't pot the ball bless them! Moving to the second hole which was clearly marked on the ground as were all the courses which is handy because them you can go in order around them all. The ground was made of that coloured tarmac you find in play areas and parks. The courses varied from each other, some had windmills and the pier, others you had to get up hills, miss out objects and all sorts of crazy items! The layout of the holes was easy to follow, the numbers were clearly marked on the ground. There was a circle on the ground where you put your ball to start, on some of them this was uneven so it rolled away but there is thick rope around each course so you won't interfere with other people's games
We got around this full mini golf course in about 45 minutes which isn't a large amount of time to be playing, but it's really funny to play just because of how bad we were playing, just basically whacking the ball and see how far it goes (often off the course despite the ropes) there is one course that gets you a hole in one which is purposely set out like that so everyone seems like a winner, one of the funny things about are day was that it was sunny but it was really windy too, so our balls kept moving so we had to hit them even more but for £2 and 45 minutes of laughing and having a good time it was really worth it.
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