Haven - honest experiences?

[CrumpetsandJammmm]

We’re thinking of booking a few nights in the Kent or Essex parks in October half term. I’m not expecting it to be 5* or anything, but what is it honestly like?

Kids will be 11 and 6, between the pool and an activity they’re not looking for a huge amount to do.

Did Haven when DD was younger and it was fine. Lots for her to do. She's now nearly 17 and would struggle to find it interesting.

Haven is fab, I agree with choosing a caravan further from the centre for it to be quieter.

They are fine, as are the other companies that offer similar. Book a newer caravan (gold or platinum I think they call them but might be confusing with a different company) and choose one away from the entertainment centre to avoid many people walking past you at night. Some have treehouses and lodges too.

It's pretty similar to centreparcs but half the price and less snobby

My kids love Haven and I do too tbh. We are less than 2 hours from Hafan y mor(one of the bigger parks), it's very popular with families round here. We go almost every year, this year we are going to one at Blackpool instead. We always just book a bronze caravan and never had an issue with them, they are always really nice. It's great you can choose to pick your caravan these days too.

We always get one more room than needed so for 4 of us we get an 8 berth just to have some room for storage. Get the highest level you can afford.

My kids loved and still do love at 12 caravan holidays.

My kids are older now and still love a haven holiday. The past couple of times we have booked privately owned vans through ukcaravans4hire.
Vans are much better equipped with comfortable decking furniture etc. Better prices too.

Just back from Skegness... site not finished which was a shame but Caravan was lovely!

We like a caravan park holiday, although gradually realised our kids don't actually get involved much in the entertainment and in the summer we are out and about so much we only use the pool rarely, so we've started going for cheaper places with less facilities now. But in October I would absolutely do a Haven.

My main tip is, as others have said, look to hire privately from one of owners. You save a lots of money (although as others have said check if you need to pay for passes separately and how much, but in my experience if you want a good caravan it still works out better). The owners caravans tend to be higher spec, better equipped and often on quieter bits of the site / with more space around them. The best thing is you are choosing a specific caravan so you can see photos of the actual one, not stock photos, and exactly where it is on site. It feels a bit risky but we've done private caravan hire quite a few times and never had a bad experience. We like a caravan with a veranda so we have our own outside suave without being in the grass possibly next to you car, and those are usually well outside our price range direct with haven but pretty standard privately. That's probably not a consideration in October though.

We had a long weekend at the Lakeland Haven in the Lake District on the Coronation weekend. We paid more for a signature lakeside caravan (the most expensive) and it was amazing. We could easily live in it 🤣 my husband was very reluctant to try Haven as he thought it would be sticky but we are now looking to go back, either signature caravan again or a lodge. Our 2 year old loved the arcades and there's plenty to do!