Every parent will know that time is precious.
Time passes you by such a ridiculous rate that one minute you have just had a baby and the next you are having a conversation with them about why some men like to dress up as women.
Sometimes it would be nice to find a way to slow time down.
Well this weekend I found one.
On Friday morning we left for Woolacombe, Devon. We had planned to stay until Sunday but on Saturday afternoon, 24 hours after we arrived, we left, absolutely exhausted and feeling like we had been there FOREVER.
I’ve never been to that area of the coast before and I was taken away by just how gorgeous the view was driving down into Woolacombe. We were staying near a little place called Mortehoe and it is an area that I would love to live in. Mortehoe was a stunning little village with lots of little cafes and amazing views of the coast. We also drove over to Croyde which is only a few miles away and again it is absolutely beautiful, both the coast and the town itself.
One of the things I loved about this area is that despite it being near the coast, there wasn’t a mark up in price on everything. We bought proper ice-creams from a shop in Woolacombe, they had two scoops in, the waffle cones and were only priced at £1.65 each. They cost more than that in Glastonbury!
We decided to drive down on the coastal roads instead of the motorway and stopped for lunch at a pub with a lovely garden.
When we arrived we headed to the beach in Woolacombe, we were so lucky with the weather as even though we didn’t get there until 4pm, it was still boiling. The beach is absolutely massive and a lot of it is wet sand so perfect for building sandcastles.
Cherry loved it.
Tiger wasn’t so sure!
After the beach we were all exhausted so we went back to chill out and have dinner.
The next day we were all up bright and early and it was another glorious day so we got ready to go out.
Then we headed over to check out the woodland walk on the park where we were staying. It was amazing, so cool under all the trees. There were a couple of walks you could do but Cherry still can’t walk that far so we just had a little stroll.
We were staying on one of the four holiday parks owned by Woolacombe Bay, ours was called Twitchen House. The site was great, there were plenty of facilities including a lovely park, an indoor swimming pool, a shop (again reasonably priced – armbands were only about £2.50!) and an outdoor swimming pool with a separate water slide and water fountain area. I loved the fact that the pool wasn’t very busy and Cherry had a great time swimming. I did notice that there weren’t any parasols to shade from the sun though which is something that I definitely could have done with!
After swimming we had lunch, went to the beach in Croyde, ate dinner on the beach in Woolacombe, had a lovely walk and ate ice-cream before embarking on a nightmare drive home (on the motorway this time!). Tiger wouldn’t stop moaning and I had to pretend Noddy was dancing to Renegade Master all the way home ( Cherry’s now decided it’s her favourite song!).
So you might be wondering why we didn’t stay for the whole time given that the weather was amazing and we had been having so much fun..
Well this trip was a review for Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks. We were given a choice of two accommodation options – lodges or caravans. I did opt for a lodge originally as I felt it would be a better choice for our family (turns out I was right!) but when booking we were offered a caravan and I kind of agreed without really thinking it through properly, or checking in the brochure.
As caravans go it was great, the bathroom was lovely and had a huge double shower, the kitchen was well equipped and came with a very efficient gas oven but the main problem was that the cot provided didn’t fit in the bedroom. I know it was probably silly of me not to check this but I guess I just assumed it would, J is only three months and still sleeps next to me so this meant Mr C had to go in one of the beds in Cherry’s twin room. These weren’t really big enough for adult men so he spent the night with his arm hanging over the side.
The other thing was that our caravan didn’t have any outdoor furniture, again this is something that I probably should have checked but again I just assumed it would, I guess I am just a bit clueless when it comes to caravan holidays!
So for our family a caravan wasn’t the right thing. I think if both the kids had been older and had been able to share the twin room then we would have been fine, in fact I’m sure they would have loved the adventure of staying somewhere different.
One of the fab things about the Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks is that they offer so many different types of accommodation for people on all kinds of budgets, as well as offering four different parks for different peoples needs. There are six different caravan options, we stayed in a gold and the one up from that had a wooden decking area, garden furniture and a gas BBQ so if we were to stay in a caravan in future then I think that would be the one we would choose, although that would probably tempt fate and result in it raining during our stay!
We are going to be revisiting in September to stay on another one of their four parks in a gold lodge and I know that it be a lot more suited to us.
So how do you make 24 hours feel like 24 years?
Go on a caravan holiday in 30 degree heat with a toddler and a baby!
We did however have a fantastic 24 hours and crammed in more than we usually do in a week!
Disclaimer: Thank you very much to Woolacombe Bay who invited us to stay free of charge for the purpose of this review.
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