Pontins Camber Sands

I'll start with the only couple of good points I could think of....
-Camber Sands has the most beautiful, clean, family friendly and child safe beaches that I have been to in a long while. The views are amazing and the beach is sand with dunes which seem to go on for miles. But beware massive and I mean massive jelly fish do swim and get washed up On a regular basis. My children found the jelly fish really intresting as they had never seen one that big before!
-There are some lovely views around the pontins hell hole.
-Really hot when sunny!
I was never a fan of these holiday camps and always said I would never ever ever go to one of these places for so many reasons mainly because I am not a fan of 'organised fun' time tables and don't agree that you should visit a beautiful place and only stay on the site. I only relented as a friend persueded me that there were several families were going which make it more intresting for the kids and I would not be forced into 'FUN ACTIVITIES'
Now I will start with the stupidness Pontins come up with when the break was booked. The £9.50 holiday from the Sun does does not apply here as a 3 night break for 2 adult and 3 children (6yrs,3yrs and 1yrs old)turned into £150... Yes £150! We were charged £10 for linen (fair enough!) but £20 each for each entertainment passes which were compulsory even for the 1yr old! So that's £100 on 'entertainment' I really don't want and amenities that were second to none in a contest of rubbish places to take your kids eg a run down swing park right outside the 'Queen Vic'pub
where there is a huge cloud of smoke the wonderful smell of nicotine that links the two together...great... special effects for the kids!!! That's another thing that we all want on our family time away check list.
When we arrived there you have a car check ... just to make sure you are not smuggling in the hoards of people who are trying to get in but don't have the £20 for the entertainment pass. After driving around the warren to get to reception I was greated by two lines of people. I naturally joined the smaller one of the two only to find the other one was for people complaining. So I went back to the car, my boyfriend had to drive all the way around again to get to where our 'apartment' was then drive some more as the parking is crap and they do not allocate spaces. I went to look for the apartment had to go up some rickity child unfriendly iron open stair case. I opened the door and my heart sank. I could tell by the smell that hit me that it was a pit. I walked across the carpet full of dirt, crumbs and various other bit's of debris onto a sticky kitchenette floor. When I say sticky I mean shoe sticking to the floor sticky. I went back to the car told by partner I wanted to go home. He asked why and then he saw my face and said oh! The kids heard this and where quiet upset as they were looking forward to their break. So I agreed to stay... more fool me as I had to spend the next 2 hours cleaning the damn place. My partner walked in and after 5 min he turned and went for a walk for half an hour.
This is a list of problems in just our appartment,
Filthy carpet
Dirty bathroom floor
Dirty/stickey kitchen floor
Dirty (covered in ,crumbs and dirt) Main double sofa bed that didn't fold down or into a sofa correctly and was smelly which we found out during the evening
Dirty dishes,cups,glasses, pots and cutlery
Dirty fridge, sink and work surfaces
A broken gate leg dinning table
Sticky chairs
Filthy cupboards
Smelly fridge
Dirty shower, toilet and sink with hair, mould and other unknown!
The bedroom carpets were filthy
The window's and curtains were full of mould which we did not know about untill the next day when our eldest complained the next day that she was finding it hard to breath/ coughing alot. She has had no problems with asthma for over 1 1/2 years. We had to put their pillows at the other end of their beds to sleep.

This was not just my experience as 3 other families I knew had three appartments all over the camp and they had the same problem. One even upgraded their appartment and had the same problem.
My partner had gone to get an iron and some towels for us when he went for his walk. They said the towels were not ready untill the next day and the stores were locked untill 8.30am the next morning and we could get an iron then. We needed the iron as we kept all our clothing in our bags as we did not want to hang them up... not sure if there were any creepy crawlies! We managed to get the last iron at 9am and needed to share it between two other families(friends) as they had to do the same. My partner ended up spending £40 on a new set of towels that they just so happen to sell in the shop... amazing that... no towels ready untill the next day even though it's part of your linen but they have them for sale in their shop!
I am glad the weather was good because we would have gone home if it was not for the beach.
Look at the end of the day for the price you pay you can have a cleaner happier time camping or staying on the local caravan site. I was not expecting a palace but a clean place would have been a start.
We only used one thing that would have been included on the 'entertainment pass' which was the swimming pool. We worked it out that it cost us £100 for 1.5 hrs of swimming! Great value!!!
On another note we come from London and their staff in the shop seem to think that if you are black as is my partner you are from South Africa with the coments 'oh that's a strange accent where do you come from South Africa?' and the security guard will follow you if you come in a group. Make of it what you will!

We had blood up are walls and hairs in the bath and dust just about everywhere. Custmer service (or reception) monkeys could be more polite, one lady told us she would give it a quick clean but honestly it would take years to clean. Could not upset the children so had to folk out another £100 to get a classic which was very clean (so they can clean). We got a budget room with THE sun offer. Pontins are conning people by making people upgrade so they can have clean room. I am not a fussy person but NEVER COME TO PONTINS. Pontins love to make your stay even more luxary buy filling both showbars full of very comfortable plastic chairs which hurt your back! But never forget there take-away chicken thing, we oreded a family of 4 box and the chicken was so greasy! I dont mind a bit of grease but the chicken was made out of grease. But dont make me forget are door on are chalet was missing part of the door! If you love looking at rotted away chalets and falling roofs this is a place for you. HEALTH HAZARD, BRING EXTRA CASH AND BRING YOUR OWN FOOD AND BRING YOUR OWN CHALET AND JUST DONT COME HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!oh yeah and 2 of us had ashma which did not help

I stayed at Pontins Camber Sands for a fitness weekend and enjoyed the exercise classes but hated the accomodation. The room was smelly- old dusty wee smell, the rooms were so tiny you could not stretch your arms inside them, the bathroom was ok but we had a Leech/slug/worm thing living in the sink and there were fleas hopping all over the chalet!!!!!!! We were not given enough towels and our door wouldnt lock properly.
The entertainment was ok and i did enjoy it but the big room still smelt of dusty old mould. The food outlet (can not be classed as a resturant) was quite awful and also smelt horrid. The food was of a VERY low standard- as expected of a cheap holiday camp but still shocking to me.
I think you could possibly enjoy staying at Pontins if you dont mind really poor accomodation- as we stayed in a 'top of the range' CLUB appt and i thought it was still VERY basic and VERY dirty.
I might go back to Pontins for another exercse weekend if i can be convinced and forget how i felt during my stay but its unlikely i will be happy to sleep in bug and wee infested rooms- Im suprised im not ill!
Overall i had a fun weekend- the room was a big let down and the food was not good but i still managed to enjoy myself with my friends.

The smoke alarm was not fixed to the ceiling and did not contain a battery on arrival.
Mould absolutely every where ceilings and walls.
The front and back of the bedroom doors where hanging off making it difficult to open and shut the bedroom doors, would set a light in seconds if there was a fire.
Carpets filthy
Need to wipe your feet on the way out.
Club - Tables with uneven legs caused drinks to slide off.

Me, The boyfriend and are Best Friend booked this holiday through the sun and we thought it would be a good weekend.We arrived at Pointins to find the first gate was closed and we had to find another one, we eventually found it and found the reception. After booking in we was given are welcome pack and told where to go but after that we wasnt told what time anything was or how to find out about the entertainment or anything. So we took are stuff to are room after parking and then went back to front desk and had to ask for the extra information. We went for dinner but the first night there was no starters or bread rolls and the fish and chips were rather greasy. Also on the following day we wanted to hire towels and was told that we couldnt get any till 3pm as they had none left but werent told we needed to take them when booking as well as toilet rolls, the other thing we noticed was there was nothing there for adults to do in day and we wanted to go on go karts and that but they were shut even though they said they would be open all day. Also the activities and entertainment included in the brouchure wasn't actually there and we wasnt told we would have to pay extra for it. The only good thing really about this park was that the entertainment in the evening was fantastic. Wouldnt go here again. Also are room had a bath and not a shower which was a little grubby.

1 reader found this review helpful

I stayed at Pontins Camber Sands for a week and would never stay there again as I was very unhappy with how clean the room was as the floor was very dirty and didn't look like it had been cleaned for years and the bathroom needs updating it has no shower and looks very outdated and if you need soap or shampoo etc then you have to bring your own including toilet roll as they don't supply this. The kettle was dirty and the fridge was black with dirt at the bottom but the cooker was clean. That was all you got other than a very small portable tv with only 5 channels if you wanted anything such as a microwave, toaster, or anything else you had to pay a rental charge which I wouldn't bother with. The food on the site was not very good as I had the breakfast which was meant to be all you can eat but it wasn't self service so they wouldn't give you a lot of food. I did also try the dinner one night and had fish and chips which wasn't very good you don't get many chips and the fish was very oily and had no taste and soggy batter. There was other food places on site one of which was never open and the other just seemed to open when they felt like it. The plates they served your meals on such as your breakfast or dinner were very small to make it look like you had a lot on your plate. If I had to really rate this out of 10 then I would give it -5.

1 reader found this review helpful

we had the miss fortune to stay for a long weekend 19~22 August 2011. From the second we arrived and the main gate was shut ( it never actually ever opened I think), we hated it. Where to start?, the appartments looked like cell blocks, and inside they were worse. freshly, and badly painted, smelt. holes in the walls, and floors, uncomfortable beds, filthy carpets, hardly anything actually worked (mirror lights, etc), as a Landlord myself I am amazed that thye can apss this off as a holiday appartment as it would never come up to regs, for letting. we never ate on site as could not face the awful looking food, and iof the appartments were that bad what state were the kitchens? the appartment next to ours was actually trashed. empty, broken window glass, and bare floor boards. I wrote a letter of complaint when we returned, but a three weeks have passed and no reply, so I am assuming they dont care, so i am warning you all stay there at your own peril. They need to knock it all down and start again, or preferably just knock it all down. the sandy beach was its only saving grace but the camp cannot claim anything for that otherthan being next to it. then the camp was build probably in the 60's it may have been good, but now its past its prime, if I had wanted to stay in a prison we have them clsoer, thanks, with the lack of reply to my letter I now leave it to you to not go there, if no one vsiits they wil shut down, I meantime will send my report to custumer trading standards, or anyone I can find, this should not be allowed to happen, I know whowvere goes there once would NEVER return, so dont even go there once, its hell, awful, worste place I evere been, stayed in, or gone to , NEVER again.

3 readers found this review helpful

We were unfortunate enough to get a sun £9.50 holiday To pontins and thought for that price it would have to be a bargain. But we were wrong. It was the worst place we have ever been, it was so bad my son cried when we arrived. We couldnt believe how disgusting it was it looked like a prison. The room was horrible, the kitchen was disgusting and smelt like poo and mould. My bed had springs sticking out of it and my kids beds smelt and had urine and feces stains on it. The bathroom was full of ants the door wouldnt . It was the most depressing place i've ever been .

aftter reading all these comments after booking it me and my boyfriend were dreading going to pontins! tryied to get the money back, but wouldn`t give us a penny! so we went there got in to our chalet, it looked basic, there was a toe nail in the sofa bed, and there was mould all the the bathroom, food was terrible! did like any of the food down there! they really need to knock it all down and start again! but it was a bareable holiday, only great things was the entertainment! wouldn`t go back!!

2 readers found this review helpful

Well after reading some negative reviews before the holiday we had, on 29th August for 1 week.....we disagree with everything bad....we had a lovely holiday, entertainment good, food good, chalet good, clean and very big, would go back again thats for sure, dont believe everything bad you read from others.