Last week we travelled to North Wales to stay at the Haven holiday park “Hafan y Mor” – a holiday we booked using the infamous Sun Holidays £9.50 promotion.
Earlier in the year we collected vouchers and booked two holidays; one in Felixstowe in the Spring, and this one, knowing we would probably enjoy an Autumn break before the weather got too awful.
We stayed in a two bedroom (6-berth) static caravan which, although being one of Haven’s standard accommodation caravans (aka their cheapest), was fairly comfortable. It was very clean and had plenty of space for the four of us – we were able to fold down one of the single beds to slide under the other, so thankfully both girls were able to share the second bedroom, with Lydia happily snoozing away in the full size travel cot we bought way back before Georgie was born.
In addition to the two (small but comfortable) bedrooms, the caravan had a generous size bathroom with a toilet, sink & shower, as well as a general living area that merged from kitchen to dining room to living room. The gas fire heated up the place swiftly whenever we started to feel the chill in the morning and evenings, and the provided bedding was warm enough for the cool nights.
The park itself was well maintained and Georgie really loved every inch of it. With ducks to feed and “muddy puddles” to splash in, a woodland walk to explore, a seashore to wander along and an ocean to wave at, our little outdoor loving girl was in toddler heaven.
On site was a great swimming pool complex complete with a lazy river and a toddler area with three slides, a teeny soft play area at the restaurant with a slide, and a large adventure playground with loads of different kinds of slides – all these activity areas at the park were good enough even to satisfy our our slide-crazy toddler!
We went swimming on two of the days were were on site, spending hours splashing about and floating happily around in the current. Lydia adored the baby seat we bought for her in preparation for our trip, and the speedo swim jacket we got for Georgie really helped her with her confidence in the water. She had great fun kicking and trying to swim on her own a little bit.
During the whole stay we only left the park once, to spend the day with James’s dad Anthony – our train day! Anthony & his (Step-)Grandfather Victor also visited us on site one evening and we all ate at the Mash & Barrel restaurant, a meal which we all enjoyed. James and I also tried out the “traditional” fish & chip shop, the Starbucks, and the Papa Johns pizza delivery service while we were staying – it was all very yummy with good service.
The only problems we had on site was with the wifi – when the weather took a turn for the worse on the last few days of our trip we resigned ourselves to some time chilling out in the caravan sheltering from the rain (tough decision to be lazy there!) and decided to splash out and buy a few days internet access to be able to FaceTime family & share photos, etc. Unfortunately although the wifi signal was good and the free 15 minutes had been usable, the internet went down shortly after we paid and we ended up getting it refunded as it was unusable. The wifi support team were friendly & helpful though, and refunded the money without any quibbles, so that’s good.
This holiday cost us £89.80 for four nights – with a £31.80 service charge & £20 fee to bring the dog, on top of the £38 we paid via Sun holidays. Divided up that is £22.45 per night which is fantastic value for a family of four with entertainment passes included too!
We had a lovely holiday and made some fantastic memories, without spending a fortune or going too far afield – a fab little Autumn break before the inevitable madness of the next few months!
Looks like a nice place. I went to Pontins last month. No wifi, no mobile phone signal, no data and ananalogue tv.