HAVEN HOLIDAY REVIEW: Hafyn Y Mor, Pwllhei, North Wales

Accommodation:

We stayed in a 3 bedroom superior caravan. On entry the accommodation was clean, furnishings modern and the beds made up. The disappointments were the mattresses in our caravan could have done with replacing as the springs dug in your back! I've had this problem before with Haven so whether its an ongoing problem with all their caravans? They could do with replacing each year really. Also this may sound petty but we had no ice cube trays in the freezer either. Drinking without ice isn't the same!

Would have been nice to have a welcome pack and instructions as we had no idea how to work the oven on the cooker. It wasn't straight forward. And the heating was on full when we arrived which was a nice gesture but hit you when you walked in and we had to try and figure out how to turn it off!
Information:

As mentioned above it would have been good to have a welcome pack. The only guide we had was a park map and the Haven Holiday brochure. The lack of signage around our accommodation area made it difficult to get to the facilities on the first day. There was no mention of where the main bins were - we had to ask another guest!

The park map was OK but it never mentioned what times facilities were open so you would often get there for example the Fish and Chip shop and find it closed. It would have been useful to include prices of facilities too so you could plan the day a bit better. Also there is no doctors on site. I was told the nearest one was 4 miles away.
Facilities:

I won't go into detail of exactly whats there as you can see it all on the Haven website but the choice of things to do was adequate. I was disappointed to learn the bowling advertised in the brochure was no longer there and the Go Karts only catered for children aged 8 and above. If I had known this I probably would have picked a different park. It was nice to have direct access to the beach and hiring the pedal boats and Kart bikes were fun!

The food outlet choice was good with a dining pub, fish and chip shop, Burger King, Papa Johns Pizza and Starbucks cafe. An average to feed a family of 3 for dinner or tea would range between £9-15 each time so bear that in mind if you plan on eating out a lot. I would have liked to have seen a Chinese/Indian takeaway but that is just me being picky again! If I were to go on a Haven holiday again I would consider the half board option as it's just £12 a day per person for 3 meals.

Night Time Entertainment:

There were 2 show bars open out of the three which I thought was decent for the time of year we went (end September). During our time there there were some kids shows where they did dancing and magic which was great. The talent show was my personal favourite! Its a shame we were out of season as I would have liked to have seen a comedy act, wrestling and the circus. The shows started about 7 ish and continued through the night with adult only shows on at 11pm. But if you're out with the kids they'd probably be asleep by 10pm anyway if not before! Mine were anyway!

Price:

I was lucky enough to get a last minute £99 deal. The price was good value really and much better than the £200 + price we would have had to have paid for 4 nights if booked in advance. From the disappointments I have mentioned here I think I would have been a bit miffed to have paid that much!

Nearby Attractions:

There is only so much you can do on the on site facilities so we ventured out a lot. There are 3 beaches a short drive away from the park. You have got Barmouth Beach, Black Rock Bay near Portmadog and there was another towards Pwllhei. Harlech castle is a good attraction to visit as well although there is admission charges to look around.

There are other attractions that are suggested on the back of the park map. It all depends what you like to do really.

Overall:

It was an enjoyable holiday still with the 'disappointments' aside but not somewhere I would consider returning to again unfortunately.

Rating:

6/10