Campsites in holiday parks? Pools? Evening fun?

[BettyBettyBetty]

Hi all!

We're looking to camp this year but with a 8 year old DS who gets bored easily, we thought maybe a holiday camp type place with a pool or evening entertainment might be better.

We're based in North London and can travel up to 2 hours. Any recommendations greatly appreciated!

Thanks :)

Others may disagree but for us, a lot of the appeal of camping is not having organised entertainment in the evenings and enjoying just chilling out and giving DS a chance to make friends on the campsite.

Our experience has been that a nerf gun and and football pretty much guarantee other children to play with (and DS is not naturally extrovert and good at just joining in).

I can see the attraction of a holiday park but would prefer to have a quieter camp site, go out and do stuff during the day and then come back for something to eat, a glass of wine and a game of Uno. DS seems quite happy with it although we usually camp for 3 nights - he might think differently after a fortnight!

The other thing to be aware of is noise. A lot of campsites have a 'no noise' policy after 11pm. You are less likely to find that on a holiday park and probably more likely to be disturbed.

You can stay in many sites like that but I also agree that you might not need it as much as you think. One of the nicest things about camping is that our children tend to make friends with others around, and they go off and make their own entertainment! You may also find it hard to find somewhere within 2 hours drive, most are on the coast.

There are some campsite which offer things to do, I haven't stayed at these though
Wickstead park
Gullivers Kingdom
Hardwick parks

Have you looked at sandy balls? Not sure how far in hours it is from you

We’ve found big holiday park campsites really quiet at night. There are lots of staff around to ensure good behaviour. Only noise problems we gave had have been with basic campfires allowed type of places.

Haven’t got any recommendations near London as we have done Cornwall or Europe.

My kids made loads of friends and entertained themselves on holiday park sites but also enjoyed the pools, playgrounds and evening entertainment.

Sandy Balls might be just over the 2 hours. Some of the Hobourne parks might be closer Bashley for example. We used to do those in 1.5 hours from Surrey and that's going back a few years!

Worth it though. I went to Haven Weymouth Bay last year and Sandy Balls was much nicer.

sandy balls use to be great but since its changed management its not the same, they seem to care much more about rental accommodation then campers

Sandy Balls a bit far for us. Thanks for all the replies so far!

Any others? :)

Not sure if they do camping. What about Butlins Bognor Regis.

I have done Minehead and the kids love it.

My daughter also likes a bit of entertainment on site. We often take our caravan to Butlins at Skegness. The touring field is very quiet and you reach the main site, that is across the road via an underpass. We drive from Essex and it’s not a bad journey

We camped at Kessingland, which is a Parks Resort place in Suffolk, it had the evening entertainment, pool etc. www.park-resorts.com/holiday-parks/east-anglia-and-lincolnshire/kessingland-beach/

Also the only Haven sites I have been to haven’t allowed camping, but some do like this one in Norfolk www.haven.com/sw_snippet/parks/norfolk/wild-duck/ which looks nice, or this one in Essex www.haven.com/sw_snippet/parks/essex/the-orchards/