Haven Holidays, Presthaven Sands Review

Overall Rating

Myself and my partner booked a three night stay in Sept from fri - mon with The Sun £9.50 holiday offer for us and our two children to Presthaven Sands. It cost £120 altogether for our stay after we upgraded our caravan from standard to luxury plus. This was our first caravan holiday and so were new to Haven also. To be honest I was absolutely dreading going after reading the dreadful reviews and we were really expecting the worst.

Directions to the park are not very clear and our sat nav lost signal so we wished we'd thought to bring a printed set of directions also, we found it eventually and drove slowly down the long path that leads to the reception area.

I went to check in and found that we couldnt check in at the front desk as that was just for the prestige guests,feeling a bit embarressed as we were told to go to another desk in the showroom. Walking through the tacky arcade to the clubroom that has seen better days and with an awful musty smell coming from the carpet, first of all we saw a bar that people were already lining their drinks up before they'd checked in and joined the queue.It could only be described as a cattle market but the staff on the makeshift check in desk were very quick and soon we had our keys and map of the caravan site.

We drove to our plot number and hesitantly got out to have a look already deciding that we would be heading back to the reception if we werent happy.The outside looked promising and inside was spotlessly clean,looked and smelt brand new, very modern with a dvd player and freeview box, central heating throughout, nice clean shower and en suite and a third bedroom when we had paid for two. We were very impressed as I had come armed with cleaning products expecting it to be dirty, but I just gave it a wipe over with anti-bacterial spray and it was fine.

Straight away we walked down to the beach which was two minutes away and had a nice time with a bucket and spade and a football. We visited Llandudno and went on the great orme tramway which was lovely with beautiful views and a cafe and playground at the top of the summit. I cant reccommend enough Enochs fish and chip shop at Llandudno junction for friendly staff and a gorgeous meal.

Rhyl sun centre was another place that we really enjoyed despite reading some bad reviews decided to go and check it out ourselves and we spent a good couple of hours there, there are slides for all ages and even for wimps like me.

We did try the evening entertainment and werent impressed with the expensive drinks and the way staff were constantly trying to sell balloons, slushes, sherbert and light up things to the kids. Bingo cost us £9 for three tickets and the prizes werent even that good. The show was okay for little ones id say under 5's mainly but nothing for older ones. The staff were friendly enough but the room itself was smelly and the tables were sticky and wobbly.

All in all we had a very comfortable and relaxing stay and we didnt wast to go home. It was very good value although we would try another Haven site next time it has not put us off future caravan holidays.