Haven Hafan y Môr Holiday Park — Attraction in Llanystumdwy

This trip was a number of firsts. First time I have ever been to North Wales and witnessed its natural beauty. It was also my first time staying at a caravan holiday park. Growing up, I have always thought caravan parks would be naff and filthy and it has never appealed to me. However, being at an age where I now have a young family means I now get to do “family stuff” and my significant other has booked this place to visit their famous water park. Fortunately, I agreed to visit and my initial aspersions vanished when my family stayed at a “gold” category caravan at the Stables. First of all it was clean - the beds and towels were clean and the place was spotless. Second, the interior of the caravan was modern and contemporary. The caravan had all the cutlery, plates, cups and also a fridge, dishwasher and gas cooker with extractor fan. Bedrooms had USB sockets and modern led bedside lamps. Loos flushed powerfully and the heating and hot water was excellent. The surrounding area outside the caravans was okay a bit bleak but not sure how you can improve it. Sadly I didn’t venture too far to the golf course or the beach due to the stormy windy weather.

At the time of writing the facilities, playgrounds and activities look well maintained. I was expecting the play areas to be a bit ropey and unloved (a bit like a normal playground) but I was pleasantly proved wrong. Everyone seemed to be having fun and the equipment looked well cared for, it wasn’t perfect but it certainly wasn’t bad enough for me to comment on it.

Okay now for some things I didn’t like and to be honest this is purely down to my taste. Food choices seemed ok on paper but the reality wasn’t perfect. Slim Chickens was probably the only one that kinda met my expectations (positively) the rest however was just seemed too “rich” for my liking. Pizza , Burger King , and fish and chips don’t do it for me but I guess this is because I’m not a 10 year old kid. Seating wise , you can order your food and sit inside “the cove” which is a stage show platform where you can eat your food and enjoy the show (which again isn’t my bag). It also has a bar and a tiny amusement arcade. There’s also the Coast House bar and grill but that place needs a lot of improvement. The table booking system means you easily can’t walk in and dine. Service is very hit and miss. Food is standard pub grub. Again not my bag. There are other food choices like the pizza place next door but it’s so awkwardly accessible that I kept forgetting it existed and never visited.

Water park was great. My only criticism is the water is too cold (we visited in April). My kids loved it but they kept shivering and their lips turned a little blue. It’s something they got used to but hard to forget. It reminded me back to my school days where you warm up in the pool if you’re active but chapping the moment you’re not. I found it cold that after an hour I was getting an annoying headache. Another criticism is they need more slides for toddlers. Slides seem to cater for under 3s and then shoot all the way to to teen level. Kids that are 3-4 don’t have an enough slides.

The site also advertised Portmeirion Village. I don’t think it’s affiliated and I think it’s Haven just present what the area has to offer. It is about a 20 minute drive away. For me as a grown adult that was one of the best parts of the trip.

Ok to sum this place up. Would I come again? Yes. Maybe in the summer. To enjoy the journey up to north wales, visit snowdonia on my way to Hafan Y Mor, to sleep in a clean warm caravan with all the self catering facilities and for my kids to have fun. I mean it’s kinda naff but I still enjoyed it in the spirit of things. I forget it caters for kids not me so I hope my kids have some fond memories. Would I come regularly? No. Food is one of the bugbears plus general uk staycations aren’t my thing.

One last thing. For this particular vacation the other patrons and guests were lovely. I was expecting worse and it wasn’t the case.

If your kids are young and you fancy a road trip give...

Not sure where to start with this review as there are some great things about this place but for us as a family we decided to leave two days earlier with more negatives than positives to stay our full week. We went with my 3 year old son who has special needs and my 18month old daughter. We found the caravan too much for my son to cope in unless he could run out the front of the terrace bit. This couldn’t be done everyday as the weather was raining a lot of the time. He would get quite stressed and was constantly wanting to open and close all the doors in the caravan and cupboards and oven in the kitchen area. The oven was also at reach for both kids so when cooking anything we had to stand in the kitchen by the oven until everything was cooked and then wait till the oven was cooled down, this was a nightmare. I did approach reception on our first day explaining I would be happy to pay to upgrade in to anything that could provide us more space with an oven at a higher level. I was told there was nothing available. I found this hard to believe as I spotted several empty caravans when walking about and kids being back at school. I felt the place was not overcrowded in the slightest so why no other alternative accommodation at any point in the stay surprises me, it not like I was asking for it to be free.

I also mentioned we came for my sons 3rd birthday which was the following day and absolutely no personal touch in getting a ballon ,bubbles soft toy sent to the caravan for him. Is things like this nowadays too much to ask for?? Especially when we had already explained our frustration with the caravan. Being a family that goes to center parcs every year I can’t believe that basic stuff is not included in the price for example tea towels, oven gloves, toilet rolls. Having to pay extra for a high chair in the caravan is absolutely crazy. Who has space in their car once having a double pushchair, travel cot, cot mattress and suitcases of clothes and toiletries to bring a highchair?? All these essentials are included in a center parcs holiday with self catered accommodation which I think it rightly should be in any big branded holiday site.

The swimming pool would have been great but again I felt like it was more age appropriate for older children. Haven Seashore sight has a much better toddler area in their pool. The park itself was definitely aimed more towards older children. not a single enclosed swing for them to go on or an appropriate age slide. The slide that there was around 15ft high. Not a single SEN paid activity I could find for my son to do. Even though he was of an age he could do an activity nothing provided would have entertained him with his special needs.

There was also a huge disruption very early hours in the morning on our second night from what sounded like a very drunk man where police did escort him off the sight but it went on for what felt like forever and resulted in waking my little boy up very distressed which was very hard to then calm him down when he just wanted to be asleep.

The best parts were the food places you could go to and the entertainment for the kids. The entertainment staff all seemed smily and friendly. I do feel our break was very costly when we lost two days of our stay as no one could help with a better suited accommodation or come up with a solution for locks on the cupboards . Maintenance did come and put WD40 on all the squeaky doors but that was as much...

Honest review - Based on 2 adults, 1 year old & dog||The postive: ||♡ Scenery - Beautiful and stunning perfect for walkers and exploring based near snowdonia has a little costal walk with a rocky beach.|♡ Off peak - Best time to go its less busy more able to do the things you want to do|♡ Offers - The cove offer 1 pound meals for kids, 2 for 20 on certain mains mon-thurs and other deals |♡ Dog friendly - a lot of the site is dog friendly the pub offers dog beers and snacks |♡ Swimming - one of the best we have seen at the haven parks lots to do to keep children occupied |♡ train - there a little train that goes round the park which is prob great in peak season dont think they need to be there in lower seasons we barely seen any one on it every time we passed which seems a bit of waste of money to run I think it 3 pound per person for 1 trip ||Negative: ||♡ Peak season- They are building more caravans which would make things a bit more over crowded we was lucky the park wasn't so busy busy but there has been complaints of how busy it can get I could see where the issues would be which is why we would never book peak season. |♡ Hidden costs/ check in - Parks have ways of making money we paid nearly 300 for 4 nights. Check in was 3pm and check out 10am which is a rush when you have kids you get 3 full days. HOWEVER you can check in earlier aprox 12 if you pay 50-60 pound extra. You can choose the caravan u want for extra 65 pound. It's an extra 15 pound for WiFi which we had no service where we was staying. I get cleaning turn over but its a big holiday park company cleaners stated before they have a 20 min turn over from 10am ( that was stated by serval staff members) if check in 3 and building more caravans times are going to get worse but prices will still go up. |♡ nothing for under 2s - our child personally was fine she enjoyed just running round collecting rocks but anyone coming with younger kids should be aware there no activities we found which saved us alot of money we dread when she does has the prices of activities are very expensive. We did find the soft play back of the pub to realise it was for children over 5 it was more of a climbing frame. |♡ play passes - we paid the extra just to go swimming has we couldn't go on any activities they should do a deal for families under 2 we couldn't go to entertainment due to dog and even if we did there only an hour of entertainment or so for little ones around tea time. In reality your just paying extra for swim and entertainment has you still have to pay up to 25 pound for activities |♡ Cleaning equipment - there are no cleaning facilities unless you bring your own clothes tea towels and scrubbers we didnt realise untill we needed to clean the pots 🤣 it would make it easier for cleaning staff if we had even just a limited amount to clean down before we leave specially if we got a dog it wouldn't be nice for next person if they dont have dogs |♡ Food prices- our oven wasn't great it wasn't working properly so we has to eat out at tea times which is expensive alot the food places charge alot of money because they can people are going to pay it when there not alot of other choices ||It may seem like a negative post but we do like the park just little improvement which aint the park fault it higher management who run the parks they forget about family values and more about making alot of money caravan holidays where best part of most of...