Haven Holidays, Presthaven Sands Review

Overall Rating

Having booked a 2 night stay at Presthaven Sands for a short break over the August Bank Holiday weekend all I can ask myself is...why ?!

We had booked a 2 bedroom Standard Plus (costing £200 - this caravan should have cost £500 for 2 nights but we received a £300 discount)and was a little nervous upon reading the reviews the morning of our arrival. We were right to be nervous...it is worse than anyone has mentioned on any of these sites.

We checked in at 6.30pm and had checked out by 7.30pm ! This included a 5 minute journey in both directions by car to reach the caravan and 10 minutes per trip to unload and re-load the car.

The overwhelming smell of wet animals upon entering the caravan was only compounded by the animal hairs everywhere (floor, kitchen surfaces, kitchen sink, dining room table), the broken fixtures (kitchen, galley area, living area) and the stained fittings (living room) not to mention the human hairs blocking the kitchen sink.

We cannot comment on the facilities or food outlets as we obviously did not have time to use them but first impressions last. The chippy looked extremely dirty from the outside and the swimming area was surrounded by corregated iron sheets with old plastic windows.

The only reason I have given this site 1 out of 5 in this review is that this website does not allow you to have 0.

I have heard that Haven have seen a 38% increase in revenues this year as people have turned to caravan holidays in the UK. Well done to Haven for having a strategy that is about to ruin their industry - it would surely be better for their company to simply portray the perception of wonderful family fun in the wonderful British countryside with fun activities rather than actually encourage people to come and see for themselves ! I would expect a 75% reduction in revenues next year once people have experienced these sites for themselves which will then probably take Haven out of business.

For those people who enjoy these sites I would say "each to their own" but I would ask them to check out the prices for other holidays at far better locations - you may be surprised ! When I think where we could have gone for £100 per night (you can get a hotel room in New York and Dubai for less than £100 per night) and when I think 2 nights should have cost £250 per night without the discount I just feel astonished !

All in all a thoroughly miserable experience on a thoroughly miserable site in a thoroughly miserable location ! And we wonder why the UK holiday industry is losing out to overseas holidays.