I have to admit, I was nervous about what to expect when we arrived at Haven’s Hafan y Mor holiday park.
Firstly, this trip had involved very little research and planning (totally out of my comfort zone but we had a deadline to get it booked).
Secondly, my opinion of holiday parks was sceptical and we had experienced a couple of ‘not so nice’ places previously.
It was about 9pm when we arrived but reception was still open for us to check in and the whole process didn’t take much more than 5 minutes (including a much needed visit to the toilet).
Our caravan
We stayed in a 2 bedroom ‘Deluxe’ caravan and were pleasantly surprised. It was light, modern, spacious and had everything we needed.
Upon initial inspection, it appeared clean but we did find a few ‘leftovers’ from the previous guests that the cleaners had missed (including packets of medication, a pair of socks and some teeth! Yes… actual teeth which we found quite revolting).
Despite the small niggles with the cleaning staff, everything else was great.
Layout…
The layout gave us plenty of space in the living area and kitchen and the bedrooms were at the back. We were able to shut both the bedroom doors and the door leading to the bedrooms to block out the noise from the television after the children had gone to bed.
We forgot the travel cot for our youngest (nearly 2), so we had to sleep her in a bed.
The room that the girls slept in had two single beds and was set up as in the picture below.
To prevent our youngest from falling out of the bed, we moved the set of drawers from in between the beds and pushed the beds together. The youngest slept on the side next to the wall and we put the extra pillows on the floor the other side just in case our eldest fell out.
You can hire cots and bed guards but if you’re cost conscious like me, then this worked a treat.
On the subject of beds, I have to say these were extremely comfy and we all slept really well.
WiFi in the caravan!
Ok, so no WiFi can be a good thing – it stops you from sitting there on your phone instead of spending time with your family, but I struggle without my main source of information.
This is the first holiday park I’ve been to where you get free WiFi in your caravan.
Given that I hadn’t planned what we were doing whilst here, it meant that I was able to research where we were going the following day without having to sit on my phone in the reception, bar or restaurant (and I did this after the girls had gone to bed so wasn’t too anti social).
Location
The location was great for exploring nearby coastal towns and villages. The holiday park is right on the coast so you can walk to the beach; or within 20-30 min drive, Pwllheli, Abersoch, Criccieth, Black Rock Sands and Borth-y-Gest all have beautiful, sandy beaches.
Our favourite was Borth y Gest, to find out more read my full blog on our Weekend in North Wales.
It’s also close to Snowdonia National Park, with the village of Llanberis at the foot of Snowdon (the highest mountain in Wales) approximately 45 minute drive away.
I intended on doing a few short walks (our 5 year old can walk about 5 miles and we have a child carrier for our nearly 2 year old) but the sunny weather enticed us to the beaches.
Swimming
The swimming facilities are amazing and perfect for kids of all ages. There are plenty of splash pools and jets for babies and toddlers, but also slides, flumes and a wave pool for older children and adults.
We found that most people went swimming first thing. So we got out early in the morning and spent the day visiting the local sites and attractions, then came back late afternoon for swimming.
It was much quieter and we barely had to queue for the water slides or flumes. It also meant that we could use swimming as a bribe for good behaviour during the day.
Site facilities
We often use these holiday parks as a base for exploring the local area and therefore don’t really make use of the onsite facilities.
Although, the girls would enjoy the evening entertainment, we’re not really huge fans. The weather was so glorious, we really couldn’t justify spending the evenings inside where the daylight was non-existent and the air was more of a boozy breeze than a sea breeze!
The park had so much to offer in terms of well maintained grassed areas to play games on, play areas, nature walks and of course the beach. We enjoyed early evening strolls, ball games and BBQ’s on the beach which was just bliss.
There are plenty of activities both inside and out to keep you busy and we certainly didn’t explore the park and what it had to offer as much as we could have.
There is a boating lake, Aerial Adventure high ropes, various sports and nature activities as well as restaurants and well known food and drink chains.
Our final thoughts…
Haven’s Hafan y Mor holiday park has so much to offer with great accommodation, on site facilities, beautiful beaches and mountain scenery. We will definitely be coming back to explore further.
