Reighton Sands Holiday Park

We booked this holiday park through Haven's website for a last minute Bank Holiday getaway, the website makes it look great! What a complete mis-judgement... The drive up is lovely, you can see the cliffs (as long as you ignore the rollercoaster types dips in the road...about 6 of them!) Then as you turn into the parks entrance, our heart sank! The signs are rubbish, as is the parking, the other drivers don't care and just drive any which way and as for pedestrians...there are no paths!! Check-in was fine, was directed to our caravan ok. We paid for a 'Prestige' caravan but we would rate it more as 'standard' - we dread to think what a standard was like. We were (initially) quite happy that we could park outside our caravan....until 20 cars also took up all the spaces too!! - if we went out in our car, we came back to no spaces and had to park 6 caravans away with a small child and a baby in the rain!! As for the shower....I couldn't fit in it and I'm only a size 10 (with a pregnant belly!) My partner couldn't turn round without banging each limb! - bit like the corridor to the bedrooms....you must be single file and go in another room to pass each other! There is a shop on site - we went in to buy some essentials and something for breakfast, we roughly bought, items for a full english, bin liners, milk, yogurts, crisps and some fruit juice.....it came to £50!!! We should have gone to the supermarket as orignally planned! - also if you do use the shop, take your own bags....they're ridiculously expensive too! Also, the sales assistant was rude, although her attitude changed when we pulled our roll of money out! (yes, we came back with most of it) The first night we decided to go have a look round. We got a table in one of the TWO bars that is there, Finnigans and ordered food.....we asked for starters then the mains AFTER, 30 minutes later and still waiting, I went and asked what was going on and found out that one of the starters had been left off and another in it's place - great! advised that ours was next so sat back down, 10 minutes later two out of three meals arrived...my partner was left starving for another 10 minutes and when it did come it was red raw, I cut into my chicken and that too was raw - being pregnant I couldn't eat anything else on the plate!! It wasn't like it was busy and believe me there was many others in our situation, after already complaining THREE times, we got up and left!! Oh and I must add that they charged us £7 for a cola, fanta and capri-sun!! We decided to go and have a look at what was on offer facilites wise....well its all in one tiny building so that didn't take long! The swimming pool is tiny, they had these big balls that you can go in and 'walk on water' but we daren't use them for fear of knocking ourselve out on the edges! The changing rooms were three small cubicles at the side of the pool - totally ridiculous! The other 'bar' / fun room was very small and once it was full it was absolutely roasting, not to mention 'smelly', the second night we went in to get a drink, my partner ordered a pint and was asked 'you sure you don't want a jug' - [--]? Obviously the norm in there! The arcade machines....well half of them worked and the others were either empty, jammed or turned off and the change machines were just as bad! The website advetises 'Mini-ten pin bowling'....It's ARCADE BOWLING with two small machines, our son even asked if we could now 'go find the proper bowling!' Well once you've seen it once, you've seen it all in that place! We even tried the fish and chip outlet....the wait was ridiculous, the chips were raw and I would have preferred not to have been given the added extras of beans and peas in my gravy!! We didn't go back after that, we basically only used the site to sleep! There was nothing for the younger children. if your idea of a holiday is drinking beer all day whilst packing your children off in the shabby arcades then you'll have a blast! Now for the beach.....Yes there was direct beach access.....via a majorly huge steep hill! Thankfully there is a tractor that takes you down to the beach but it should come with a warning sign that rollercoasters have - Not suitable for pregnant women, people with back/neck problems etc! The bumps are horrendous and quite scary. The ride back up was smoother but try and sit at either end - not in the middle as everyone slides down to the back due to the steepness of the hill! As you walk onto the beach you notice this huge pipe leading obviously from the campsite....leaking 'liquid' onto the beach, may I also add that children were playing in it!! The beach otherwise was clean-ish but the sea was freezing, why people were jumping in it in bikinis i'll never know. There wasn't anything on the beach except a battered old ice cream van that no doubt charges extortionate prices! We stayed on it for 20mins max, then left! I think it's fair to say that we will not be returning to this site and are very unlikely to use Haven again.