Haven Caister-on-Sea Holiday Park — Attraction in Great Yarmouth

We had a bronze caravan middle of April, because it was only myself & husband we didn't include the swimming pool or the club house in our holiday, that is called Haven hideaway, & was £150 for Mon -Fri, which is not bad at all for a haven site. The caravan was 3 bed, nice & clean,(they did miss a cobweb), we were able to put suitcases on the beds in one of the bedrooms not used, very handy, the main bedroom had a small ensuite with a toilet & hand basin,also had a tv fixed on the wall if you like to watch tv in bed, whilst the main bathroom also had the shower, fairly narrow as you would expect, but the water pressure was better in the shower than anywhere we have ever had, home or abroad including hotels, absolutely excellent, also included a hairdryer which i wasn't expecting,as it states they are not in the bronze. The kitchen was well equipped with your cooker, a built in microwave, a decent sized fridge with a freezer comparment at the top, toaster, kettle, & all the crockery & cutlery. I did take my own frying pan for our bacon sarnies. Dining table with four chairs, & a sofa in the living room, & a coffee table, i was surprised there were no coasters for peoples cups, & the curtains were a bit faded & one was slightly torn, but overall it as very good for the money, we also had a hard standing for our car, didn't have to drive on the grass, you have options to choose another van, to upgrade, or choose your position on the park, ours was perfect by luck, Broadlands,& also choose your check in time, which we didn't bother with. When you arrive you are checked in at the security gate & given a label to hang in your car to say you have arrived, we were allowed to park outside caravan whilst waiting for it to ready. We went to the restaurant(Mash & Barrel) while waiting , they have a deal on amongst others for 2 paninis, & 2 soft drinks or hot drinks for £12, which is a decent price for a holiday park, & they were cooked beautifully, we didn't eat cooked food in here again but we did go in for a drink, the service was good, you can also order from table. The park is at the top end of Caister, & we walked down into Caister via the road & back along the beach or visa versa, you can also walk in Gt Yarmouth along the beach, the Norfolk coastal path along the top of the beach, Caister beach life oat station is along here, or the road way, the buses are also very frequent, it is a good base to visit other places, we also went to Happisburgh(check out the owl rescue, brilliant),Gorleston, & Lowestoft from the site. There is a decent looking play area for children, & of course the amusement arcarde, there is a burger king take away, a Papa Johns pizza, & a fish & chip shop on site. We will definitely be going back,Mon -Fri is perfect, & already looking at dates for next year, want to take granddaughter on the snails at Joyland. Updated review We were back at haven caister Fri 9th May-Fri 16th May, park still the same nice & clean,pressure washed down in the morning, apart from a few lazy buggers who couldn't even be bothered to walk to a bin,& left a complete trashed area of bottles & wrappers for someone to clean up in the morning. We didn't go mash & barrel this year, but we did use the EV chargers for our car, they are not the quickest, there are 4, but one was playing up, simple to use, plug your lead in, need your own, scan the QR code all the details come on your phone screen, add a card or we used Google pay,& it starts, no app to download, cost us about £20 to go from about 30 miles up to 207, never going to be as cheap as home charging. You can leave them & go for a walk as we did into caister it self, left it on about 4hours each time. We will definitely try & tobacco yearly for a week as it is an...

First thing's first. They have seals at the beach. Go out at high tide or just early and you get to see a little slice of first -person wildlife watching. Worth appreciating and reason to go to Caister. The end.

Ok, the longer bit next. Sorry if the detail bores you but I know it will help some.

I love Haven Caister-On-Sea, so much I've been 5 times now in 2 years with my fiance, previous to that I've stayed at many Haven, ParkDean and local holiday parks in Norfolk so it's fair to say I love staying in caravans. A childhood of Haven in the early 90's ensured I fell in love with UK holidays. I've never been abroad. Scotland or the Isle of Wight is about as close as I can tenuously get.

My review is based on 5 stays in on the site, having stayed now at Stokesby 29 twice (2 bed Silver), 39 (3 bed bronze) and 41 (2 bed bronze) Acle, then most recently the lovable Caister Beach 52, a 2 bed bronze spec.

Firstly, consistency is erratic in the specs, 41 was very basic in spec and appearance compared to the others, so much so that I can't see how it's the same value as CB 52. I paid £35 extra to stay at 52 because I know the park well and figured I'd go for a beach experience this time and it was well worth it. 41 Acle is a bit of a short straw in comparison.

Comparing the both, it's quite shocking how different they are, 41 was hard to access due to other's parking and dependant on ground conditions allowing it. It was claustrophobic in it's place between caravans and budget looking, nothing to see out of the window other than the windows of other caravans. 52 had a remote for the heating, massive master bedroom and a view of the sea. Says a lot. I suspect it's someone's pride and joy let out on their behalf. If this is yours, I'm jealous and hope you spend lot of time there.

Secondly, extras like early booking in have taken the covid social distancing element of having to keep us apart while picking up keys and turned it into a way to make money, now it seems like a way to space us all out to use less cleaning staff.

Fair enough until you get a 4-5 slot.

The difference between getting in at 1-2 Vs 4-5 is practically a day's worth of holiday. Clever business though, from a customer perspective if you reach the area early you'll only go and spend £25 while waiting so paying to check-in early can make sense. 4-5 is too late though as you basically get there and the day is getting on so you're too tired to go back out and enjoy the park vibe.

Thirdly, the extra charge to pick a caravan, seems a little expensive for what it is. Charging for people's affinity for a certain pitch, or putting people into a lottery of location is a little harsh, particularly the location lottery aspect. Will you have anywhere to park? Will you be in one of the really crammed in parts of the park or next to the big screen with the great sound system? Will the sofa be nice or break your spine to sit on? You'll find out on the day!

Matching people with what they're looking for in their holiday would make more sense than charging for it, if the caravans are going to be occupied anyway just let us choose please to thank us for booking in advance!

I won't go into what is available locally as it's covered a lot in reviews already, just wanted to make some points and more importantly let people know what they're getting with specific caravans. If you end up with 52 Caister beach, you definitely can't go wrong.

Another pleasant experience, shame I had to leave early to beat the bad weather tomorrow. 3 times within a year though, I've had my fair share of time there so can't complain. See you...

Over our holiday we had some absolutely lovely members of the activity team help us of which has decided for us that we will be returning in 2025 for our big family holiday which has been a big decision since there will be so many of us and it will be a longer holiday rather than just a week.

Archery, Sunday 30th (10.45am session). We had Andy help us during archery and he was absolutely brilliant. All instructions were incredibly clear and he made it all very fun whilst ensuring we were all safe. There was a brief moment where another child in our group pointed the bow towards a relative of which could've been dangerous but he responded incredibly quickly and calmly which showed us just how top tier his safety is. He then cracked a few jokes to put the kid at ease which was lovely to see. We hope he is still here for the big family one.

Aerial Course, Sunday 30th (4.15pm session). For this activity we had James and Tom help us around the course of which we couldn't have asked for anyone better. James was very quick to help anyone who seemed a bit nervous or couldn't quite figure out how to do something and his attitude towards working was brilliant, it was clear he enjoys the job and he was very approachable, even just to chat. Tom really stood out to us during this activity. My youngest sister is high spectrum autistic and has never been able to do an aerial Course as she tends to panic and have a meltdown. Tom was absolutely brilliant with her however. He took his time to help her individually, encouraging her, making her feel incredibly safe, talking her through everything step by step and getting excited for her progress. She struggles being around people she doesn't know but has spent the entire holiday talking about Tom which shocked us all. He's also said hello to her on passing throughout the holiday since which always boosted her mood which was honestly so lovely.

Target Shooting, Thursday 3rd (12.30pm session). We did this activity with the lovely Amy and again, as with everyone else we had, she was brilliant. She explained everything clearly and was incredibly hot on making sure everyone was safe all the while enjoying themselves. She took her time to help each of us individually, giving us advice on how best to aim and encouraging us when we were doing well. She even put my sister at ease who had never done target shooting before and made her comfortable enough to listen and actually enjoy herself. We had a laugh with her and she spoke to us in passing which again, was so lovely as it showed she cares about her job and the people she helps.

The Jump, Thursday 3rd (5.15pm session). For the jump we had the lovely Andy and luke which was brilliant. They made us all laugh throughout and were really happy to chat with us whilst we were waiting for our turns which was brilliant. They gave incredibly clear instructions to the extent that everybody did it correctly from the very first jump and the session went so smoothly. They were very encouraging and managed to get 2 of my siblings to do the top jump of which they haven't been able to do the last 4 times we did this activity. Overall, very pleased with the both of them.

The food at the mash and barrel was absolutely delicious and we felt the nostalgia of our first ever holiday as a family when seeing the club sandwich was back!! The beach was absolutely lovely and the caravan was really nice and clean. There was one minor issue regarding the shower but that was sorted for us quickly. This has been a brilliant holiday and we can't wait to return. We will be recommending this haven to absolutely...