Our first visit to the Isle of Wight and a Park Resorts site. Having read the 2009 reviews I wasn't expecting much when I turned up but we were given a nice caravan, the staff were excellent, site was clean and tidy and although the shop was fairly small it stocked what we needed.

The food at the bar/restaurant was OK, the beach is pretty much just shingle, didn't use the swimming pool but the kids loved the entertainment and they made lots of new friends.

Overall, we had a great holiday.

I have just returned for a 1 week stay at Thorness Bay on the Isle of Wight. I booked a Platinum 2 bedroom caravan direct with Park Resorts. We arrived at the park at 1pm and our check-in time was 1:30pm but I went straight into reception and I was allowed to have our caravan keys then. Our caravan was situated on the Solent View area of the park, with including Solent Breeze seemed to be the better half of the campsite.

When we got to our caravan it had its own tarmac drive at the side for us to park on. Inside the caravan was spotless and smelled very nice, also the central heating had been turned on low so it was just the right temperature inside. It was certainly the best caravan I have ever stopped in! It even had patio doors that led out on to a small decked area at the front. The only problem with the caravan was there was no baking tray and on my 3rd visit to reception we finally had 1 delivered - I was advised that there had been an ambulance emergency and that's why it had taken so long for me to receive it.

We used the swimming pool a couple of times for the adult only swim between 8:30 - 10:00 in the morning, I don't know if they do this all through the year. Beware though the swimming pool area does have a problem with ants. One of our group put his clothes down on the bench in the changing room while he dried off and when he went to put them on they where covered in ants.

We used the show bar a couple of times to go and play bingo. The area had been refurbished for 2010 and was clean and tidy. I can't comment on the entertainment as we always left after the bingo. We went in to the bar area one evening on our way back from an evening stroll on the beach, we arrived at around 8:30ish. I was told that it would be closing shortly as there wasn't enough customers (even though there was about 10 tables with groups round them) and we would have to move into the show bar. We sat and started our drinks and I had a flick through the food menu which looked reasonably priced, but we never ate there. After about 20 minutes we where told to move into the show bar so we drank up and went back to the caravan as loud noisy entertainment really isn't our thing. How ever I was slightly annoyed to see the staff setting up the pool table so they could all have a game after we had all left.

I would say looking at the other caravans to book the best you can afford as some of the older caravans do look shabby from the outside. Most of the caravans have the gas supplied via large orange gas bottles where as on Solent Breeze and Solent View they are connected to a proper gas supply. The chalets do look like large garden sheds but look as if they are in the process of being refurbished.

Overall we had an enjoyable stay at Thorness Bay and would definitely return to the Isle of Wight and Thorness Bay.