Beaconsfield Caravan Park & Lodges

We'd booked a "romantic lodge in the woods" at Beaconsfield Site (on the A49 between Shrewsbury and Whitchurch in Shropshire to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.

We arrived to a wonderfully spacious lodge, well equipped and very clean with a hot tub bubbling away on an area of decking near the side entrance. However - we stuck between two identical lodges with the set up similar to the static caravans on site. With windows overlooking us and neighbours facing us directly we hardly felt we were in the woods and it certainly wasn't particularly romantic!

The first thing that struck us was that every sign from the entrance gate through to the inside of the lodge was the nature of the welcome "DO NOT...", "... NOT ALLOWED", "... BE CHARGED FOR", "THERE IS AN ADDITIONAL CHARGE FOR...". Blimey. Felt like the Gestapo were watching us.

It's an adult only site but still it bans cycling (?). At 41 I'm hardly a boy racer. Use of their small swimming pool was an additional £3per person (!?) - we'd paid £400 for 3 nights!. Use of the hot-tub was restricted to daylight hours. Consumption of alcohol in the tub was banned (!) and in their restaurant there was a minimum spend of £11 per person "ON FOOD".

Needless to say we cavorted in the hot-tub, day and night, and consumed many a glass of fizz and couple of pizzas. Yep we broke the rules.

On arival we were told that we were to leave to spotless lodge in the condition we found it otherwise there was a cleaning charge of £75! Needless to say we cleaned like hell on the morning we left, knowing that we won't be returning.

We enjoyed our week despite their best efforts to restrict our pleasure. AVOID!