Mangawhai Heads Holiday Park — Hotel in North Island

Disappointing Experience - Would Not Return

I rarely leave reviews, but felt compelled to share my experience at this campground. Unfortunately, it was a letdown in almost every way.

First, the staff were incredibly rude. Every time we asked for assistance or clarification, we were met with negative, dismissive comments. It felt like we were bothering them, even though we were simply trying to make our stay comfortable. The customer service was by far the worst part of our visit.

It was also far from kid-friendly. My children were playing with water guns on our site—mind you, they weren’t bothering anyone—and they were scolded for wasting water. I get having rules, but this felt like an overreaction. It wasn’t like they were being disruptive; they were just having fun on our own site.

To add to the frustration, as we had to pay for hot water during our stay (which we understand). More often than not, the machine didn’t work, and we ended up with cold showers, which was especially frustrating after a long day. It's not a huge ask to have basic facilities that work.

Then, one night there was a tornado. You’d think that the owners or staff would check in on the all campers. It seemed they picked and chose who to check in on as they skipped us. But no—nothing. It was a very unsettling experience, and it seemed like the staff didn’t care at all about our well-being.

Unfortunately marred by the campground security's overzealous approach. The location itself is great, and the atmosphere was fine, but the security staff were extremely rigid. It got to the point where even talking among ourselves felt like a violation.

The main issue was with the security's obsession over noise. There were people outside the campground, in the neighboring area, being loud late at night. While it wasn’t ideal, we didn’t care much—it's camping, right? But security kept coming over to us, telling us that the noise from the neighbors was too much. We weren’t even the ones causing the noise! It became frustrating, especially when it felt like the security staff kept coming over to talk about the distant noise which we didn’t care about.

It was disruptive, to say the least. Instead of allowing campers to enjoy themselves in the peaceful setting, we felt like we were constantly being policed for things outside of our control. I don’t mind having rules, but there needs to be some flexibility, especially when the issue isn’t even originating from the campers themselves.

If you're looking for a more relaxed vibe, where you can actually enjoy some conversation or just a bit of noise without being treated like you're breaking the law, this place might not be the best fit. The campground itself is nice, but the security policies and their over-involvement were a big turnoff. This is also the only campground I’ve been to where visitors have had to pay over $40 to visit for a short period.

On top of all that, the campground was unnecessarily restrictive with locks on everything. It felt like we were constantly being monitored, and there was no sense of freedom or relaxation. The whole vibe was not welcoming, and we didn’t feel comfortable or at ease.

Overall, the lack of hospitality, the poor facilities, and the unfriendly atmosphere made this a trip we won’t be repeating. I understand needing rules and regulations, but this place took it to an extreme. Would not recommend, and we definitely won’t be returning. I would suggest work on their customer service going off their other reviews - as this impacts people’s...

Great site, clean and tidy with beautiful amenities… however that’s where I have to stop.. the staff were very unpleasant to deal with from the first phone call to pretty much check out.. it was like they had no interest in us being there.. I rang for genuine questions and was met with short and abrupt answers and hung up on, same as a couple of other people in our group.. upon arrival, we weren’t greeted with a hello but a “are you checking in” she said one car per site, so I asked the genuine question of why? (As it does state on website only one vehicle in peak time, December 1st) which is wasn’t peak.. but got “if I was to give out more codes, it would be a car yard, not a campsite” which I found rude and unnecessary.. so maybe change your website to say one car all the time.. I then tried to lighten the mood and made a little joke about late check out, not even a small smile just a okay pay now. We were also approached today by a guy saying he told our teens off the day before, for messing with the bark at the park and made them clean it up, which fair enough, as they should have… but he continued to accuse our teens of doing it again, “for revenge” I explained they hadn’t actually been back to the park And had been with us the rest of the time, but he just kept saying he assumed it was them as he saw them do it before, I explained 3 times it was not them, my teen also said it wasn’t them but he just would not listen and told me they had to clean up a mess that wasn’t theirs because he assumes it was them and he’s too busy to deal with it.. I’d understand it was them, but it wasn’t the 2nd time and he would not listen. Overall very disappointing as it made us feel very unwelcome and we will not be back which is a shame as it’s a...

I stayed at Mangawhai Heads Holiday Park during the 4-week Covid19 Lockdown period. To that time everybody was nervous about the situation. With my stay at the camping my mind changed from being scared to feeling home, feeling safe and feeling well protected. It's all about the owners familiy who took so much care about us. They provided us with everything what we needed from outside. So we could stay in our lockdown bubble very safely. Richard, Noela, Hayley, Eugene and their kids are the best hosts you can imagine. At the end it was very hard to leave, because i really felt home. The camping is situated in one of the best natural spots in whole new zealand. There is lots to do around, you can swim in the tidal affected river without waves or in the sea with nice waves. You can kayak the river i.e. to a huge sanddune and climb that. You can surf the waves at the sea, there is also a surf school. Lots of possibilities for hiking and bicycling. The aminities with toilets, warm showers, indoor kitchen and outdoor barbeque are new, well working and spotless clean. The warm showers are operated with 1$ and are the best showers which i ecperienced in NZ and AUS, they are big, enough water, good pressure, you can exactly adjust the temperature between cold and really hot. Neighbouring shower guest does not affect the temperature setting which is awesome. The camping lots are spacey, flat and grassed, auitable for all kinds of camper or tent. I really can recommend to stay at this place and enjoy the hospitality of all the staff. For me the stay was the end of a two year world trip and it was one of the highlights....