A Weekend away at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park

[Ad- gifted experience] All of us were invited down to Devon, to spend the weekend away at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park, in their Twitchen House section! Woolacombe Bay has a number of holiday parks in Devon, all of which are quite similar. Excited, we loaded the kids up right after school and drove to Devon. I use to actually live in the Devon area, and had never been to a holiday park, so I was really curious as to what we would be able to do in this holiday park. We were specifically in the Twitchen House area of Woolacombe Bay, though it’s really close to the other sections of the Holiday Park, and has a really similar layout to other areas too.

Twitchen House Caravan

When we arrived at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park, it was already past the children’s bedtime, so we were able to quickly check in at reception, and drive to our Beach Haven Caravan, which has a driveway for your car. When we parked, the children were so excited, they walked in and found their rooms, doing a big explore. Amelia and Robin shared a room while Kai had his own. Each of the children’s rooms had two single beds, so we could have fit another kid in there! Dann and I had a single room that shared a bigger bed. When it comes to the bedroom layouts, they are clearly just for sleeping. The beds take up most of the room, though everyone had side tables, easy access to sockets, and a closet big enough to store your towels and a bunch of your clothing. There is also a mirror in each room. The beds weren’t as comfortable as the ones at home, but that didn’t matter much as we were out most of the time and slept in well.

When it comes to the rest of the house, we had two bathrooms in our caravan, one had a shower. This was great for the size of our family! The kitchen was a really good size, as was the dining room and living room (with two couches!). Everyone could easily sit down and watch tv. We had a deck with a picnic table as well, which was amazing for eating outdoors – something that Robin really loves to do! The kitchen did come with essentials; pots (no pans, which was a big shame), cups, tea pots, kettle, toaster, mixing bowls, eating bowls, cutlery, cutting board, and more. It’s just a great place to stay. Kai, Amelia, Robin and Dann had been to holiday parks before, and felt this one was a really good sized, especially compared to ones they had previously been too.

The TV had some issues with connection, as did the internet in general at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park. We ended up paying for the more expensive internet package, which still didn’t allow us to do more than connect for emails and check Twitter, but I hear that’s just the internet in that area generally. It’s worth noting, as we are quite plugged in as a family. The TV signal dropped a few times on the first day, but we were able to easily use their website to request someone to come fix it, who was there within the hour and able to re-connect our TV so it worked.

It is worth mentioning that you don’t have to rent a caravan to stay at Wollacombe. You can take your caravan with you or pitch a tent in one of their tent areas if you’d like!

Woolacombe Bay Activities

Now, though the home itself is really great, the main thing that we wanted to do on holiday was all of the activities. Several of the activities at this park are free, while others have a small fee to attend them. Almost all activities can be booked online, ahead of going to them, through their website. We did a lot of activities over the weekend and had a blast. One of the first was pottery painting, which has a fee that is then used against the price of the individual pottery pieces you purchase. They do mail this pottery to you if you are leaving before it will be done, which is what they did for us! I painted a rainbow cupcake plate, Robin and Amelia painted cat statues, Kai painted a cup and Dann painted a little turtle charm. The art shack was really clean, everything was laid out well, and even Kai enjoyed painting his own object, which was really surprising.

We then spent some time at the outdoor pool, which had just opened that day. You do not need to book for this pool, and it’s in an area that includes a splash park and large, outdoor water slide. The kids loved the outdoor pool. It was heated, steam rising, plenty of picnic tables around to leave our stuff. They ended up picking this activity as their favorite, which figures as we go swimming weekly in our household. Everyone loved the waterslide as well, and Robin enjoyed the splash park. We also went to the indoor pool, which had a little kid’s area with a giant mushroom and some colorful animals. When we went, these animals and the mushroom were turned off, otherwise they would have rained water and squirted at each other! The indoor swimming area also had a decent size pool and two water slides. These waterslides have lights inside of them, which is so cool and different from any waterslide I have ever gone in.

When it coms to nature activities, they have a little GoExplore section, which contains loads of activities out in a slightly wooded area right near the main bit of Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park. We built bird nest boxes in this area, with the children picking out bird houses based on the birds they want to attract, then hammering them together and painting them. Robin even picked to paint hers with mud-filled, which she thought was really fun! We also made bee houses using recycled material and learned all about bees while doing so. On our last day, we did a fire starting workshop, where the kids got to use flint and steel to light cotton pads on fire on a slate tile, before we roasted marshmallows and made hot chocolate! It’s a really fun area that also has an informational nature walk and geocaching, but we were out of time! Each of the activities ended with us getting a little award, that the kids were very excited for too.

Food and Venues at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park

Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park has a little Nisa corner shop, which contains plenty for lunch or dinners if you want to cook your own. We had tacos, tuna pasta, and burgers, as well as a oats with jam at ours. They also had some souvenir stuff, sun screen, and lots of essentials. The main hub, which contains the outdoor pool area, the Nisa, also has a big play park that the children really enjoyed, especially Amelia who thought it was one of the best parks. There is Bar 51 right near the outdoor pool, so you can get food delivered to your picnic table or eat inside. We ate inside for breakfast one day and dinner for the other. Bar 51 has a lot of basic options; pizzas, steaks, burgers, full English breakfasts, etc. There were totally kid friendly dishes.

Attached to this venue, there is a cinema that you can purchase tickets for at reception, a good sized arcade with plenty of different games to go on, a free to enter soft play area that you can send your kids to while they are waiting for food, the show stage which has nightly and morning shows for the adults and children, and reception is attached to this building at the back. It’s a really good hub! We didn’t end up staying up for any of the late night shows, but did see one of the morning shows which contained Woolacombe Bay’s beach ball mascots, dancing and singing on stage. It was really fun to see!

Off to the Beach

Right from the Holiday Park, you can actually follow signs to go through the valley and off to Combe Beach, which is a really beautiful walk through a forest, then a valley then to the beach. It’s not very far at all, thought it does take you off site. This is the only time we ever left Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park, as we wanted to see the ocean there. This beach has a staircase leading down, with lots of rocks and cliff edges around. It’s a beautiful place to walk through! The valley before it is huge, and vast. The forest has tons of blue bells and is where the guided tour is held, as we past one happening around us. This area of the beach was very secluded, and we were told there was another, busier beach which is more idea for swimming and sand castles just 5 minutes walk from where we were anyway, giving plenty of options!

Overall thoughts on Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park

I am sure it’s very clear that we had a wonderful time at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park. We just loved the entire time we had there. The staff were all really helpful and understanding. The times you book events for are flexible, so there is no worry when it comes to getting from place to place on a schedule. Everything was close enough to walk around easily, and we all just had a wonderful time. The children said this was the best holiday they had been on (and as previously we spent an entire week in the Isle of Wight, I was surprised and impressed they loved it so much). Dann and I really enjoyed it too. We are hoping to come back again next year, as we just enjoyed it so much. The variety of activities and quality of everything around is just so fun feeling! I am sure we will remember this holiday for quite some time.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!