Pontins Camber Sands

1 reader found this review helpful

this place is a joke!!! the room was absolutely DISGUSTING!! the carpets were vile - idnt even fit in the room properly, cover in junk and burns. dont think it'd be hoovered in years!! the bathroom was just a gross the floor in there was coming up at the edges were u could see dirt and mold everywhere, the place was so dirty (even had skids and poo around the toilet - so much for cleaners!!!!) i went out and got bleach and cleaning sprays and did the whole place before i let my kids loose in the place!! god it was just horrid!! the beds were so uncomfortable i've come home feeling like i'm 80 years old!!! the sheets stunk and all of us especially my nearly 2 year old have come home with a red rash everywhere!! my 2 kids 5 and 22month went healthy and have come home with rotten coughs and colds! just a disgusting place! the hygiene in the whole place was gross its stunk and hasnt been cleaned for a VERY long time!!! it was like jeremy kyle on tour - loud mouth skanky people!! just summed up the whole place!!! the pool was vile no private showers and the tiny cubicals u had to get changed into had mould all over the curtains! my kids absoulutly loved it!!!! there were so many kids left to run riot while the mums and dads sat around getting plastered, they made some friends and played football on the green outside the rooms!!
over all the place was VILE!! we spend all day everyday at the beach which was LOVELY!! the best and ONLY nice part of camber sands was the beach - lovely people in the kit kat cafe and the swings / bouncy castle were great for the kids!! we had a lovely time despite the most disgusting place to stay in!!

5 readers found this review helpful

If you are thinking of going here, please dont!
We booked a classic chalet for 4 nights, the website looked good, it was a good price and i remembered pontins being great when i was a kid.
However we turned up there after a 2 hour drive to find it looked very out dated and shabby. We drove around the building before check in and hoped we werent staying in some of the worst looking chalets.
We then got out and had a look around, as far as i could see the place was run down, filthy and just a dump.
The carpets were all filthy, the rooms smelt, the chairs were plastic and grey, the pub was dingy and dark, the facilities looked like they were falling apart, the food places were those hole in the wall fast food, grease buckets, the pool was boring and dirty looking, the childrens indoor play area was closed up, there didnt look much to do outside either, the various kids parks were either falling apart or were shut off, and there didnt look like an awful lot to do for the few days that we would be staying other than crazy golf and some run down go kart track.
Neither of which my 3 young girls would have enjoyed.
We checked in and went to investigate the chalet, as we'd feared, we were in one of the shabby looking ones.
Classic i think not! I think we were shoved into a basic to be honest!
The sofa bed was the most uncomfortable thing ive ever sat on, it was filthy, had springs sticking out of it and when we pulled the bed part out we fell about laughing. It had a giant dip in the mattress and was about an inch thin!
The kids room was tiny could hardly move, the bathroom was very basic and had mold everywhere, the kitchen while clean was also tiny and very basic, the living room had those awful grey plastic chairs and the tv was the size of a stamp.
Luckily id bought my laptop along with a mobile broadband dongle. I got on it within minutes and within an hour had booked us a weeks stay at butlins instead.
We went to check out and after an offer of an upgrade (which i refused) was refunded straight away with only the deposit as a loss.
We had something to eat in the 'sands restaurant' which was more like a self serve glorified run down cafe. food wasnt all that either.. think microwave meals! So we hopped in the car and made the 2 hour journey to butlins where we have just had a fantastic week.
I would never visit a pontins resort again, the whole thing needs ripping down and starting all over again!

4 readers found this review helpful

what can i say, i only went for a day to visit family and 10 minutes later i felt suicide was a good option, the moment you arrive 2 jobsworths greet you, one who stank of whiskey and wearing a suit 10 sizes to big, the other who drags you into his run down dump of a office and reads the rules out to u whilst stealing money off you to enter this vile chav ridden scum hole, when u finally enter the pit the views are amazing, chavs in burberry gobbing and smoking joints, holes everywhere, scummy challets falling apart and big mouth annoying blue tracksuit morons pretending to be entertainers, still if u would like a drink theres always the QUEEN VIC!!!!!!!! and if u would like a swim theres a pool that was last cleaned in 1908, i never thought in 2010 there would still be a place on earth that could be as bad as this hell pit but hey here it is, next year im going to iraq!!!!!!!

8 readers found this review helpful

Filthy floor Filthy sofa, Place smelt of vomit and cigarette smoke,our friend had same next door

4 readers found this review helpful

I've been to Haven, Butlins, Park Resorts, and Pontins before and never have I been so disappointed as when I came here - if only I'd read these reviews before putting "Camber Sands" on my list.
The accommodation (booked through the Sun Deal) was dismal. I know you can't expect much luxury from a Budget room but this was way below acceptable. The windows and front door didn't shut properly and the sofa bed in the lounge was just a joke. If you sat on the sofa you ended up in with the springs of the mattress beneath - like something out of horror movie! They had 4 miss-matched school canteen chairs around the table that made me feel like I was back in an Exam Hall in School.
The carpet was stained and felt so dirty I didn't want to step on it which is pretty tricky when humans can't fly. I hardly slept all week due to the fact that I daren't put my son (16 months) in the travel cot supplied and had to sleep with him in a single bed with plastic mattress and for some reason he would wake with what looked like a red rash probably due to the fact that the sheets were boiled in bleach or something alike.
The entertainment was badly managed - a family quiz at 10.30 pm in the main entertainment venue - after topping the bill Same Difference!?!?! 2 Blue coats running out to the audience for answers and then racing back to the stage to give the answer to another blue coat - whatever happened to the holiday makers getting up on stage. Oh but saying that they did another night for a dancing competition which saw them have to go through about 5 or 6 rounds of different styles of dancing - they thought they were just going to have a quick boogie and get picked but boy had I been picked I'd have felt like it was a prison sentence the amount of time they kept those people on stage!
They also started the childrens entertainment downstairs for an hour whilst using the main venue for Bingo. Then the childrens entertainent moved upstairs after the Bingo had finished so all of us with prams and bags/drinks had to make the treck upstairs and then find tables. Who's idea was that??? Why don't they just do the Bingo downstairs???
If you have a pram and want to use the upstairs "Family" venue you have to use the Wheelchair lift and get a key at reception - otherwise you have to carry your pram up the steep old style stairs.
Food was ok but my husband saw the guy behind the hot food counter use a temperature probe on the chicken that was sat in trays - he then wiped the probe with a cloth and put it in another dish of lamb!?!?! Surely that's not recommened by the Food & Hygiene people? As for the children's food it was awful - dried up chicken nuggets and smilies on display - oh or turkey dinosaurs.
We left a day early and half way home I felt my mood start to lift and breathed a huge sigh of relief that we were away from that hole of a place and going home. We saw 2 other families packed and leaving early too.
Never again and if you haven't been there - please don't waste your time or money - you can visit Camber Sands Beach but stay elsewhere!!! Thankfully we have a 2 week break booked for July otherwise I would have seriously been crying my eyes out at this disaster of a holiday.
And they shut Blackpool but kept this open???
Natalie

Having read the reviews I was dreading it! But it was actually OK. Our budget accomodation was basic but clean enough and had everything we needed. The sofa bed was not very comfortable, so made kids sleep on it on the second night. The evening entertainment for kids was great, they loved it. Staff were very helpful and friendly. Pool was great. I would recommend exploring the vicinity, Camber beach is good also we went to Dymchurch - great beach there too. We had sun holiday vouchers so got a cheap deal which i think was value for money.

2 readers found this review helpful

After reading reviews my expectation were very low!!
On arrival, the site look very dated, walking around the site we were all praying the late upgrade to club had gone through as the basic chalets were indeed basic, some of them looked like they had gone well past the stage of needing just a lick of paint .
At 2 o`clock we picked up our keys and took a slow walk to our home for the next four days, on entering you couldn`t help but notice the stained and cigarette burnt carpet, but the chalet was clean and tidy.
We found the entertainment very good and the prices for drinks etc good value for money.
We all had a go on the Go karts and at £2,50 we were more than happy.
The beach at Camber Sands is brilliant,in my opinion one of the best on the English coastline.
Your in for a long drive if like us you want to shop at a supermarket,the Budgens at Rye is very limited so we drove to a Sainsbury`s near Hastings.
Overall we had a brilliant time at Pontins.
Ps, Check out the Robson Green Lookalike handing out Passes at the exit gate

2 readers found this review helpful

I had read all these reports before going and to be honest I was worried! We arrived and thought ok its dated but we will make the most of what we find. We arrived at the ‘Club’ apartment/chalet and found it clean and nice smelling, it had everything we need and we found most of the families around us had similar aged children, I’m not sure if that was planned but it was great for our (nearly) 5 year old. We also have a 5 month old baby and we were not concerned in the slightest for his health and we ARE fussy!
The Staff were polite and helpful, the pool was great, lovely and warm and had clean changing rooms, we tried the go-carts and had a ball though there are no toilets and walking back to the main building was a pain! Food on site was quite good value for money but maybe not the best of quality, no shortage of pubs and restaurants near by, so have a short walk.
The beach is FANTASTIC! Hope you have good weather like we did, pay the car park or walk to the beach, you will not be disappointed.
One gripe.... I took a Vodafone dongle to check emails and look for local days out etc and found it to be less then impressive, I was told they had wireless internet in the main building but did not test it. I’m surprised they didn’t have wireless available all over the site like other places I have been to, I put the company CaravanConnect.co.uk forward as a suggestion as I have used them in the past and found the service impeccable!
Anyway, moan over... Go and enjoy your holiday, we did :0)

6 readers found this review helpful

OMG! What an awful place. We have just come back from Pontins Camber Sands. On arrival you could see that the place was dated and old and needed a refurb. On unlocking the door to our apartment we were devastated. It was dirty, full of ants, mouldy, and smelt. The door frame was not fitted properly and you could see the pavement between the door and the floor of the room, the cooker was filthy, the carpet was dirty, the bathroom and shower mouldy, the cutains mouldy, ants in the wardrobes, bed and throughout the apartment. Nearly poured a cup of tea and saw an ant on the kettle. Opened the kettle and it was full of boiled ants.
We paid extra for a classic room, what a waste of money. The only saving grace was the beach. Fantastic. Make sure you wear shoes at all times. We only used the shower once and had to shut our eyes to do so. It was horrible.

7 readers found this review helpful

I have just returned from a 5 day holiday with my mother, partner and 2 and year old son. I had readthe reviews on here before i left and i was worried it might be like a prison. So many people on here complaining about too many things. You have to learn to make your own excitement. The blue coats were really funny and helpful. and the entertainment is good for the children, tbh i would prefer a bit more adult entertainment but while there there is something on the show that you think may be not up to you liking...just talk to people and have a laugh with whoever your with. It was so close to the Beach, sadly it was only hot got 2 of the days i was there. I have rebooked for a long weekend in August, so fingers crossed it will be hot then. Yes i agree the Basic room wasnt as nice as most places but your not meant to be stuck in the room. You get what you pay for, its cheap and cheerful. I recommend this to anyone that is not stuck up, and acatually knows how to have a good time.