A haven for caravan lovers (Church Farm Holiday Village)

Member Name: pagso

Product:	Church Farm Holiday Village
Date:	28/08/09 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Close to nature reserve and beach, well kept park and good facilities

Disadvantages: Swimming pool has restrictive opening hours, expensive and rubbish shop

This is a Haven caravan park just outside the village of Pagham near Chichester. We have visited a couple of times and have booked both times through the Haven website and taken advantage of last minute price reductions. We stayed for a 3 night break over a bank holiday weekend and paid about £220 for a "gold" standard caravan which was according to the website originally over £500 - which seems extraordinarily expensive for a 3 night break in a caravan.

The standard of accommodation was impressive, the caravan was quite new and cleaned to a high standard and our "gold" rating entitled us to having the beds made up for our arrival although we had to take our own towels. We were able to check in from 4pm and the process was straightforward or at least it would have been if we hadn't been given a map with the wrong caravan highlighted!

The park itself is very attractive, lots of green space and borders a lake and nature reserve. It was an easy 10 minute walk through the park to the beach which was pebbly so quite difficult to walk along.

There is a main building which houses an overpriced convenience store, a chippy and the bar, restaurant, entertainment area, amusements and an outdoor and indoor swimming pool. The pools were good but irritatingly shut at something like 5pm - it was a warm sunny afternoon and we were kicked out, I couldn't believe it. The pool was full of families with their children enjoying a warm sunny afternoon and they emptied it. Why? The indoor pool also has restrictive hours and has something called an owners swim session which is only available to people who have bought their caravan.

To access the entertainment/bar area you have to go through an amusements area - which results in losing your children to slot machines and sets you up for an evening of whining for more change! The entertainment was OK, a bit cheesy but certainly suitable for a family audience. Drinks were reasonably priced but the food in the bar restaurant part were pretty poor and not particularly cheap.

Not far from the park entrance are a couple of nice pubs which also serve food and there is a small Tesco Express which is much better stocked than the campsite shop and within reasonable walking distance.

The park seems to attract families and we didn't notice any problems with drunkenness or loud music. We hired some bikes from the park but had to go back a couple of times as they were broken and needed to swap. The park has its own pitch and putt golf course alongside and you can hire clubs for a reasonable price from the park.

Am not sure we will visit a third time but would feel confident about trying another of Haven's parks.

Summary: A nice looking park with downmarket entertainment block