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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Big 'thank you's to those who recommended places in the Isle of Wight.

19 replies

mckenzie · 17/04/2009 20:52

We have just come back from 5 days at Gurnard Pines (recommended on Mumsnet). We went to the Flamingo Park (recommended on Mumsnet) and had a great day and the Fossil Walk (also recommended on Mumsnet) was wonderful - the DCs loved it!
Black gang Chine was as described - dated, over rated, not worth the money etc but DS loved the water slide and both DCs loved the Snakes and Ladders.

For what it's worth, I though the Island Creche facility at Gurnard was fantastic. The DCs spent a few hours in there as part of their children's holiday club. The staff were attentive and friendly and the staff/child ratio was great.

DS gave the holiday 9 out of 10 and DD cried this morning when we left. Says it all huh. And didn't we have fabulous weather???

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Celery · 17/04/2009 20:58

So glad you liked it. I live here and I love it. Might have been me who recommended Gurnard Pines, we use the swimming pool and soft play there.

mckenzie · 17/04/2009 21:47

It's great isn't it Celery? Monkey mansion was used at least once a day by my two and we swam every day as well. DD loved the fact that she could just touch the floor but still swim with the others.

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Jeffa · 17/04/2009 22:01

very pleased you enjoyed it. One of my best friends works at the Island Creche. Glad DCs enjoyed it.

ChippyMinton · 18/04/2009 08:24

We were there that week too - it was glorious weather wasn't it?

Which fossil walk did you do? We are going again in May and DS1 is keen to do one.

mckenzie · 18/04/2009 09:08

I think we've been spoilt for any future visits by the weather being so good - not that I'm complaining.
The fossil walk was organised by the Dinosaur Isle museum. I think they do them daily during the holidays.

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ChippyMinton · 18/04/2009 09:19

Ta. Was it the Yaverland one or the Brook one?

MummyDoIt · 18/04/2009 09:40

We stayed at Gurnard Pines last year and loved it. My only complaint about the Isle of Wight is the price of the ferry to get there! Otherwise, absolutely brilliant holiday.

ChippyMinton · 18/04/2009 10:05

Ferry can be expensive, but some accommodation includes the ferry, and tesco clubcard points can be used on Wightlink.

tattycoram · 18/04/2009 10:11

I love the Isle of Wight! Sounds like a great holiday

mckenzie · 18/04/2009 11:57

sorry chippyminton, Yaverland and Brook don't ring any bells with me. I'll find you a link for the museum if you like and the walk that we did started at Shanklin (I seem to recall there being a choice of walks on different days).

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ChippyMinton · 18/04/2009 14:43

thanks mckenzie, there are several walks listed, and shanklin was one of them.
One of them starts in a National Trust car park, which would be handy as it's freeparking for NT members.

mckenzie · 18/04/2009 16:10

yes, the parking was quite expensive at Shanklin. We were told to allow 2 hours for the walk so to be on the safe side I had to pay for 3-4 hours parking which cost I think about £3 (there wasn't a 2-3 hours option).

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Stellywelly · 19/04/2009 20:27

I'm really interested in giving Gurnard Pines a go - looks great for families like us (dc's of 2 & 4)....it's had some dodgy reviews on Trip Advisor though? Was it OK?

mckenzie · 20/04/2009 15:46

our review would read something like this.

Pine lodge spacious with all you need. We noticed some mess on the floor when we opened the fridge door but the cleaning team happened to be opposite so they came over, cleaned up the mess, apologised and checked the rest of the place to be on the safe side. We had a leaky kitchen tap which was fixed asap. One of the mattresses was totally unusable but because we didn't need to use it I didn't report it until we left.
The outdoor play area is great with wood chip/bark on the floor, the baby swings are missing (don't know why) so there wasn't much for very young children but my 4 and 7 year olds had plenty to entertain themselves. The indoor play area was great with a TV on a big screen for adults to watch while their children were playing.

The changing rooms for the swimming pool were clean and spacious with nice powerful showers. The pool itself has a sloping bottom so shallow one end and deeper at the other. I'm not sure of the exact measurements but DD, just 4 and pretty average height i think, could touch the floor.

The creche was clean and bright and the staff were lovely They run a holiday club everyday for the older children so my two went in for an hour on two mornings (so i could use the gym) and they were well entertained and looked after and happy.

The gym is okay, depends what you are used to I guess. No air conditioning, 3 treadmills, 2 upright bikes and 2 recumbent bikes, 3 cross trainers and 4 rowers. Free weight area with benches and usual weight machines. No staff around when i was there to ask any questins though if you were unsure. Gym cost I think £3.95 per use or you could buy a weekly pass. Swimming pool and soft play is included in your rental fee.
There were a few tennis courts that were fine for bashing a ball around for a bit of fun but the actual court would have been no good for a good level of tennis play I don't think.

Missing was a safe area for the boys to play football (or at least we didn't find one).
There is a woodland walk that took about 15 mins - very pleasant but nothing special.

Brasserie was lovely, nice coffee and cake and we ate there one night - lovely fresh pizza, salad etc. Service could be slow if it was busy.

What made it for us was that our next door neighbours had childrne of very similar age and the people behind us had the same. Whether this was just our good luck or the lodges are allocated taking childrens ages into account or not I don't know but it was lovely to be able to open the front door and let the children out to play.

If you have any specific questions Stellywelly do ask and I'll try to answer. We were very lucky with the weather too which obviously helps to make it a good holiday but certainly based on our experience, we will be returning.

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Stellywelly · 21/04/2009 18:42

Brilliant Mackenzie....that's really helpful - like a personal trip advisor

My dd starts school in September so the October half term break will be our inaugral 'school holiday' if you see what I mean and I had haboured high hopes of jetting off on some snazzy winter sun destination...until I saw the price of actually holidaying in the school holidays

Going on the ferry feels like you would actually be going away and someone else had mentioned Gurnard Pines but not much detail....we basically want self catering with a few extras like the pool/activity den for rainy days and slow starts but not looking for a full on Center Parcs or Bluestone experience. I'm not bothered by 'stylish' decor - just want clean and functional. I think the poor reviews on Trip Advisor were from returning guests who prefered the place in it's original guise which I'm guessing was a bit more of a traditional holiday park with entertainment etc although there was a stinging review on a shoddy chalet so you have put my mind at rest.

Ds will be 2 when we go so one question with the pool is does it just have ladders to get in or does it have wide steps that he can potter about on? If not he is going to be in a rubber ring! The only question now is booking for a week or just the 4 day break...hmmmm! Thanks again

PS - did it have wifi??

mckenzie · 21/04/2009 18:57

hi again stellywelly. The pool doesn't have a sloping entry or anything so it will be the rubber ring for your youngest I'm afraid. re WIFI, I'm not sure as I didn't take the laptop. Something else I have just remembered, our neighbours had taken their freeview box and plugged it in to get lots more channels. We got the classic BBC 1 and 2 and ITV plus a couple of sky channels I think.

My two DCs loved the ferry ride across and it did give the impression of really 'going away'. DS even asked what food they ate on the IOW and what was the time difference!!

I was about to throw away the pamphlets that i had picked up with details of parks and activities etc. Would you like them?

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Stellywelly · 22/04/2009 12:38

The leaflets would be fab - how do I send my address details to you?? Bit new to all this

mckenzie · 22/04/2009 15:58

you can do 'contact another member' and then the message only comes to me (via my e mail, not on Mumsnet).

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Stellywelly · 27/04/2009 20:45

Sorry Mackenzie - couldn't figure out what to do and then realised you have to subscribe - unfortunately I'm too tight to pay the fiver (I know - awful) so can't contact you directly....thanks anyway. Probably going to book up in the next few weeks so your review has been very useful

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