Caravan / holiday parks

Even if it's cool, Kids will spend hours on the beach. It's boring watching them so you have to join in with the sandcastle making and rock pooling. The good thing is that the sea air tires them out so they sleep well. This sort of holiday you do have to be more active and outdoorsy. If that's not you, then yes you will hate it.

See if there's a soft play nearby, or a zoo type place. If you're in coastal Norfolk, I can recommend a few things for you.

If you don't like sightseeing or shopping, do you normally just stick to an all inclusive resort abroad and not leave it for the duration?

If so, you were always going to be bored on this holiday.

Shockingly dull aren't they OP?! Oh well we live and learn! You won't make that mistake again.

With a toddler in tow I wouldn't think bars and cafes are going to be much fun for long, but one would hope there'd be some family type activities in the area.

This.
I don’t know who won’t be bored just sitting in a caravan. You need to create your ‘entertainment’. The British weather won’t change so as there’s no entertainment on site, check what you can find around and do it.

Is it nowhere near anything you can explore? There must be local cultural or historical things?

Most people like just chilling in the caravan and going to the beach for a lot of the time.

What do you usually do on holiday to entertain yourself? There must be bars, cafes, restaurants in the local town?

You don’t like the beach, don’t like the pool, don’t like sight seeing (??), kids don’t like “tromping” around… there’s no pleasing some people.

It does sound like you like the Sun and european"vibe" which is fair enough do the kids like extended lunches ? I do think you need to treat a UK holiday like you would having days out at home.

Yeah, I don't think any type of toddler holiday is going to feature lounging!

My children loved this kind of holiday when younger. Spent hours in the park making new friends. Wouldn’t have been able to lounge by a pool abroad with them though, they’d have been bored rigid 😂

Sounds like you needed one of the ones with more activities on site. You've evidently gone for a park whose selling point is peacefulness, plus proximity to a naice town for those who enjoy wandering around naice towns. That's a very popular niche, but it's not your family.

Something like a Haven or Butlins would likely have suited you better. Plenty of tacky entertainment to tire out the toddlers.

You don't need to stay there all day, it's just a base, are there any good walks or towns nearby?

Depends what you want, personally find holidays abroad where you just sit on a sunlounger beyond dull. Doesn’t matter where you are, you need to explore a bit and see things and be honest, you know a holiday in Britain is highly unlikely to come with good weather

We have done all kinds of holidays, and most of my now adult children favourite memories are UK beach based ones. Building sandcastles, playing football/cricket/rounders/badminton on the beach. Flying a kite, playing the 2p machines. Number 1 memory for all of them is pond dipping when I fell in the pond. Then a couple of evenings either at the onsite entertainment, or playing cards and board games. Occasionally a visit to a local pub garden.

Yes, give us a rough idea of where you are...maybe someone can chip in with a good suggestion.

@Slightyamusedandsilly

How old are your children?

Caravan parks are usually very safe, unless your kids are very young set them free round the play park and the arcade

It sounds like your expectations were just a bit off TBH.

I usually enjoy a caravan park holiday - but as others have said just use it as a base to explore the area.

Depending on the ages of your kids you'll need to find some activities/places to visit that will entertain you all.

If you say where you are and the ages of your kids I'm sure the collective mind of MN will give you loads of ideas

I don't know what is different abroad for children surely they would get bored on the beach abroad etc. You really need to organise days out from the caravan or just mooch about is there not kids entertainment?

But wouldn't that be the case on a foreign holiday? If you don't like sightseeing what do you usually do that entertains yourself and them that you can't be doing now? It doesn't sound like a location problem that makes sense.

Sounds like you just picked a boring area. When we go do caravan holidays the caravan is a base for an area we want to visit. We go somewhere we want to be and do things we enjoy (walking, beaches, towns and food mainly!).

The caravan is just a base, not the point of the holiday

Yes, having kids in tow does change the dynamic. No doubt about that.

I think most people who do these hols use the caravan as a base and plan days out to local areas of interest. That's what we do anyway. We might have a morning or afternoon at the beach or in the arcades or doing on site stuff, but we mainly go out and about to local attractions.

These places generally serve as a base for exploring imo. You can make day trips to attractions/activities/scenery that you wouldn't normally be in reasonable driving distance of.

Some people just stay on the park enjoying the quiet and lack of pressure to attend to anything.