Filey, Wooler & California Cliffs. (Haven Holidays in general)

Member Name: daseaford

Product:	Haven Holidays in general
Date:	11/10/00 (1346 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good facilities.

Disadvantages: Parks vary.

We have now been to three Haven holiday parks and have been pleased was all three sites. Here are our opinions of each one:

Filey. (Yorkshire coast)

Reighton Sands (between Bridlington and Filey) is the best Haven Holiday Park we have been to so far. The park has a mixture of caravans and chalets and we stayed in one of the three bedroom chalets. This chalet was not too small and had all the self-catering requirements we needed, including a microwave oven. We did find a couple of dirty marks on the linen that had been provided for us and when we reported this to the staff at the reception desk they were very apologetic and immediately got onto a “walkie talkie” set and a new pack of linen was delivered to our chalet before we got back to it.

The site has a host of facilities including a large self-service shop, take away food bar, bowling alley, pool tables, amusement arcade, swimming pool, children’s indoor and outdoor play areas, bar and two clubs (one family club and one adults only club).

From the site there is a steep path down to the beach, only about a hundred yards. At low tide the beach is very big, but at high tide there is almost no beach at all.
There is a regular bus service that comes right into the camp with buses to Filey, Bridlington and beyond.

In the evenings we tried both the adults only club and the family club and we preferred the family club, it seemed much more “alive” and everybody was having much more fun. The prices of the drinks were not the cheapest in the world, but were not too expensive either.

The swimming pool was never too crowded, but we found out why the first time we used it, the water was cold. A short dip certainly wakes you up, but you do not feel you want to stay in the pool too long.

The site is nicely laid out and the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. I would recommend this park to other families.


Wooler
. (Northumbria)

<br>The Riverside Haven Holiday park is located about 40 miles north of Newcastle in the beautiful county of Northumbria. The park is situated on both sides of the A697 on the south side of the town of Wooler. On the west side of the road is the area for pitching tents and touring caravans. The main reception and static caravans are on the east side of the road where there are about 170 caravans, each situated in its own space, with a car parking area next to each caravan.

We stayed in a two bedroom caravan which had mains electricity, mains water and bottled gas. It had a toilet with a combined bath/shower, full size gas cooker, fridge/freezer, microwave oven, television, and radio cassette. The caravan was immaculately clean, including the linen that was provided for us.

There are a number of facilities on the park including the evening entertainment which is held in the Riverside Club that includes games and activities for the children in the earlier part of the evening, with cabaret and disco dancing later on. As well as the club there is also a separate bar and a family room with a pool table, table tennis and a few arcade machines.

The main feature that comes across in every part of the park is the friendliness of the staff, who always welcome you with a smile and seem to show a genuine interest in ensuring everybody enjoys their stay at Riverside.

There are two unusual facilities on this park. The first is that there are horse stables on the site. Visitors can hire the horses to go hacking around the local countryside. (There is an additional charge for this). Secondly, there is trout fishing on the park. If you are staying on the site there is free fishing on the river that runs through the site for Brown Trout and at certain times of the year there is also Salmon and Sea Trout. The site also has its own Trout lake which is stocked with Rainbow Trout up to 6 lbs in weight. There is a daily permi
t charge for using the Trout lake.

There is a very clean swimming pool and spa bath on the site, which is open for six different one hour sessions each day.

Also on the park there is a small supermarket and a launderette.

This is a very welcoming site that is looked after extremely well in a very beautiful part of the country. After a stay here you will go away feeling much better and very relaxed.


California Cliffs. (Norfolk)

This site is at Caister near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and is a very large impersonal site.

There are many facilities on this park including a very professional programme of evening entertainment. The main club is a large, very comfortable club with a variety of acts appearing every evening. There is also a second club that is basically for teenagers and youngsters, and a third bar that is a quiet, adults only bar that is very relaxing.

During the day there are a large number of organised activities for youngsters, or you can choose to use some of the other facilities on the site which include:
A swimming pool.
A games room.
An amusement arcade.
An outdoor play area.
A bike hire centre.

We particularly liked the bike hire centre as they had the large four wheel bikes which took all four us. We did have a little bit of trouble steering to start with!

The site has a well stocked shop for self catering needs and a fish and chip takeaway.

To reach the beach from the site you descend a series of steps down the cliff, about 200 yards from the park entrance.

The park has a lot of good facilities and well organised activities, but because of the size of the site it is a bit impersonal.


Overall I would certainly recommend the Haven Holiday Parks to other families.

Summary: