St Osyth Beach Holiday Park — Local services in Tendring

Where do I start? Awful. I don't know how anyone would go here for a break.

For some background info on why I visited: Catch up with family - about 18 of us. Location decided by another family member as central for most of us. All booked own caravans.

First off, the sites buildings appear quite modern and well maintained but the caravans need some serious updating. No skirts. The ground around them really tired. Some areas around caravans dug up and just dirt.

I knew we were going somewhere budget but I didn't expect this bad...

Anyway... This place is honestly awful.

Caravan Stunk. Smelt musty. The sofa particularly. Really poorly stocked - not even a tin opener. I understand it's self catering but come on? Who goes away for Mon-Fri break and wants to pack a tin opener. The electrics didn't work properly, had to flick light switches many times to get the lights to come on. Uncomfortable beds The shower was quite powerful. That was nice. The oven handle was broken, completely snapped off and this was just left broken.

It is so noisy at night. Well, all the time really. There is no noise policy, or if there is, it's not enforced. 1am - 2am, people screaming, running, shouting, partying... Just full of inconsiderate 'campers'.

Dogs non-stop barking/howling.

Many many many areas of this campsite, stunk of weed. Multiple times a day, you're hit in the face with the stench of weed.

The general areas & the restaurant area etc Restaurant awful. Food cold. Poor quality but expensive?! There isn't really anywhere else to eat but god i'd avoid it. The pizza was either overcooked or tasteless. The other food from the menu just lacked any sort of 'chef' ability and felt reheated (barely!). The toilets were maintained pretty awfully. No baby changing facility. Many toilets left without loo roll or dirty, tissue all over the floor. Entertainment pretty awful too - no separation from kids entertainment so some dude shouting non-stop when you're trying to eat and have a conversation with your family and the kids entertainment went on so late. Drinks also expensive Sweaty dude in the ice cream/dessert parlour out the front. Dogs not allowed in the restaurant, fair enough.. but no alternative place to get dinner if you've got a dog, which is weird for a pet friendly site.

No paths around the site. Constantly walking on the road where there is pretty much always traffic. The beach sucks. It's grassy/thorny and mostly pebbled. A tiny area of 'sandy' beach. The shop onsite is expensive as expected but also poorly stocked in my opinion.

Pool * Felt grotty. Not allowed shoes around the pool but despite this, many shoes around the pool?!!!!! which left visible dirt all around the pool, inevitably getting in the pool. My cousin felt the need to get out the pool. Pretty basic pool for a large site.

Positives * Courtesy call to see how our stay was going. I reported the electrics. Andrew from Entertainments team was lovely. A nice guy. (but the push-karts sucked, you could basically only go around one bit of the camp - boring) A nice covered outside seating area They try for kids - lots of parks & arcades, activities and bouncy castle put up one day we were there.

Maybe if you're this kinda person - you'll love it. But that was not a break for me. I couldn't want to go home. I'd actively pay not to return to that Holiday park/Jaywick/Clacton and think it was mental that this place was picked.

We all (minus 2 groups) left a day early.

The overall consensus from the family...

We arrived on Friday 21st April to a caravan, the door open, every window wide open then we walked in to the smell of mold/damp and wet patches on the carpet, which we put down to the carpet being cleaned. Roughly an hour later we noticed the wet patches had got bigger so we went to reception to inform them that we believed there was a leak, they sent maintenance to see if they could find a leak, which he couldn't, just told us the carpet should dry in a few hours. The next day I had a shower, when I got out the wet patches were bigger and now going in to the front room area, wetting a pile of clothes in the process and also in to the kitchen area. Again we went to the reception, who sent maintenance who still could not find anything leaking but said "because he felt the carpets and clothes he would re-seal the shower tray and hopefully this will solve the problem"...it never the carpet continued getting wetter so we decided to leave the radiators on but even that didn't seem to help. We was also told not to use the shower until the sealant had dried which would take a few hours by now it was half 3 so we thought it would be best not to use it till after swimming the next day. When we used the shower at just after 5pm on Sunday, the carpet was soaking wet as if you was walking in puddles, we rang through to reception again to find they where closed so it put us through to security. They told us they couldn't do anything and that maintenance where going home if they hadn't already left, and that they would leave a message for them to come again in the morning, which I explained was no good to us as we was leaving, so he hung up. There was also no bed sheets, duvet or pillows for the pull out bed for the 1st night, someone bought them to us on the Saturday after we asked. We also had to book hour slots of swimming which is completely understandable to stop over crowding but we booked a 3pm one day and a 4pm another, we was not allowed in to the pool till approx 5 to 10 past both times and was then told the session was over at quarter to the hour both times so we where lucky to get just over half hour each time. The water walkers was cancelled everyday, there was no karts either, I know it is not peak time but there was nothing for the children to do, even the entertainment was mostly for adults. There was no staff in the arcade area Sunday night, we was told they finish at 7pm so we could not exchange the ticket vouchers the children saved up so that was money wasted. If all that wasn't bad enough my son then tripped over a metal tube left sticking out of the floor where the sand pit used to be in the play area, as shown in the pictures attached. If i had the money i would of got an earlier train and come home Saturday. I am really disappointed as we only go away once a year as it takes me a while to save up the money for a little family break. This year it turned out to be a disaster from start to finish, the staff didn't seem to care as either way as they wasn't losing out on anything. After speaking to someone on the phone from park resorts weekend we come back who offered us a 25% discount on a 2018 holiday and they will email confirmation we thought was fair but over a month later we are still waiting for an email that matches what we were offered over 5 emails later we are still being offered different things from 25% off 2017 holiday now to a £40 off a 2018 holiday all we wanted was the offer we accepted and they cant even do that...

In July, after a hectic year and major surgery I decided to end the summer with a positive experience for my family, a few friends and I to enjoy. I began my search for a last-minute staycation venue that would make the end of my recouperation tolerable. Having had regular updates from the company to remind me of my booking date and encouraging comments about looking forward to our arrival, I began feeling optimistic it would be a good experience and so, on August 15, 2022, I made the mistake of going to Martello Beach Holiday Park. We drove through a rather questionable area to get to the venue which had us second guessing the navigation systems directions. Alarm bells! Upon arrival my reservations about the venue kicked in again. At the locked gates we realized that we were expected to park outside, collect our keys ant the tiny reception office before gaining access to the grounds. Keys in hand, we drove around in circles until we discovered that while my friends secured accommodations by which they could park their car, we had to park ours three or so rows away from our accommodations. This was a problem as post-surgery, carrying bags was a ‘no no' for me so I was not able to offer much help to my family. Our arrival to the caravan had us all gagging. Firstly, I had precarious steps to tackle then the stench of wet dog and pee all over the carpet and sofa dominated. The accommodations looked nothing like what I had looked at online. I raised this with reception who informed me this was what their Gold Plus was like. When I informed her that our friends’ accommodations looked different and the tiny beds would be a problem for my teenaged son approaching 6ft and teenaged daughter 5ft6 ½ inches, she then informed me that they had covered themselves by saying in the fine print that some caravans ‘may not look exactly’ as shown on the website.

She sent us someone to clean the shower stall (turns out it was too far gone in its poor state to remove the marks) and had some come to clean the stains off the carpet and sofa the following morning. This meant we had to spend the first evening in our friends’ caravan as ours was so smelly it was impossible to remain there.

Their entertainment venue was a joke and to get something to eat meant visiting their sister site St Osyth Beach Holiday Park, which was marginally better to purchase food or even use a reasonable games arcade. The grounds are chaotic and makes locating accommodations an unnecessary guessing game after a 3 hour drive from the Midlands. My teens were bored by day two, as were we.

After the cleaning of the carpet, we again had to vacate our caravan as it needed to dry out. So, two days of our break spent ‘scrounging on others for accommodations as our paid for accommodations were not habitable.

While I had considered demanding a refund and returning home, we had to consider our friends as well and so we toughed it out. As we disclosed our complaints to the person at reception, it became clear that the other receptionist had not bother to air our grouses though she had said she would. They assured us that someone would call regarding the countless issues encountered and we would discuss this further. It’s been weeks now and no call has come. So, if you ever consider this venue for a vacation, cancel you booking now. Note the...