First caravan holiday, what do I need to know?

[Belleende]

After a not particularly enjoyable family holiday in a villa in Portugal earlier this summer, we are experimenting with what makes a good holiday for us and a four year old and a 20 month old. We have booked a caravan for a week in a pretty big park in Devon. Lots of facilities on site, decent sized van. Never done it before, any tips to make a caravan holiday a success?

If you plan to cook take your own pots and pans, the provided ones are tiny and rubbish (I also take knives, chopping board and my rice/slow cooker). If you have low value coins at home take them for the amusements. Take a fancy dress costume if you have one, there's usually a fancy dress thing for the kids, ditto a talent competition if you want them to take part. My kids loved bingo (go figure) and they liked the craft activities - every morning there's something indoors to occupy the under 8's, ideal for British weather. There's entertainment after bingo which is hit or miss but I have heard amazing young singers (most are university students). It is what it is, and you can avoid the facilities completely of course but my kids liked the kids programmes

Definitely a blackout blind. I was recently lying in a caravan at 5am checking a 30 mile radius on gumtree for a gro blind while my 2 year old did laps of the van singing to wake up his brother to join in the fun...

Try to get hold of a teeny paddling pool to use as a temp baby/toddler bath. Or you can get a blow up baby bath that’s shaped like a duck
Take glow sticks, or a light up plastic tat thing, if you have one. Our site had a “light up party” (££ to buy one)
We take hot choc sachets and squirty cream for rainy moments and sit in the caravan watching a dvd and listening to the rain

All good advice here!

If showers are rejected by your child - take a little paddling pool for soapy fun before bed.

Take some tea towels, there are never enough provided, and washing powder. With 2 small DC you will definitely need to do a couple of machine washes, and some camp sites don't sell detergent and if they do, it's overpriced.

Arrange a food delivery from Tesco / Sainsbury's / Asda etc Saves a lot of hassl

Can you get a big shop delivered to a caravan? That would be ace.

Yes you can get food shops delivered to site. The caravan fridge will be small and the ice box won't freeze anything. take a bath mat for floor of shower room and toilet bleach.

Went to a haven site recently, it was hellish. Caravan was dirty, when we went in the cleaner was still there! I ended up crying down the phone to my gran, I was so stressed and I hadn’t even been there for 10 minutes! Also, buy extra gb of mobile data as the caravans don’t have WiFi! Also, if the television doesn’t work, go into settings and press scan both, and be prepared to spend a fortune in the amusements.., my uncle says that I behave like an elderly librarian and I still spent £100 in the amusements! The amusement arcade had a claw machine with pugs and the gift shop was full of pug merchandise (and unicorns if you are interested, which I am not), and I couldn’t resist buying a reusable shopper bag with pugs on it, and my father won me a pug on the claw machine, and my cousin and I got to pet a pug, the only bits I enjoyed were the pug bits and getting coffee at the coffee shop and the amusements arcade, so be prepared for you to be miserable with the children being overexcited!

Order a supermarket delivery shop for the first day if you can. Saves loads of space in your car. Don't forget you need a tea towel, washing up liquid, kitchen roll and tin foil. Apart from that not much to know. Have a great time