Golden Coast Holiday Village (Devon)

The Golden Coast Holiday Park is the largest of four holiday parks situated in Woolacombe, North Devon, within easy reach of Woolacombe, Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and Bideford and is open all year round.

The park is easy to find from the M5. Follow the A361 to Barnstaple and then signposts to Woolacombe. It will take approximately 1¼ hours from leaving the M5.

The park is situated on the top of the hill, before the descent ...
...will do a review when Ciao put up the category!)

There are various types of accommodation available within the park: lodges, bungalows, villas, apartments, caravans and camping.

We booked a Rose Special Villa for one week, which cost us £140 for two adults and two children. Entertainment passes, gas, electric and linen were included in this price. I must stress that we got a fantastic deal as we booked through The Sun ... more

The Golden Coast Holiday Park is the largest of four holiday parks situated in Woolacombe, North Devon, within easy reach of Woolacombe, Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and Bideford and is open all year round.

The park is easy to find from the M5. Follow the A361 to Barnstaple and then signposts to Woolacombe. It will take approximately 1¼ hours from leaving the M5.

The park is situated on the top of the hill, before the descent into the wondeful surfing paradise of Woolacombe (on which I will do a review when Ciao put up the category!)

There are various types of accommodation available within the park: lodges, bungalows, villas, apartments, caravans and camping.

We booked a Rose Special Villa for one week, which cost us £140 for two adults and two children. Entertainment passes, gas, electric and linen were included in this price. I must stress that we got a fantastic deal as we booked through The Sun newspaper and then upgraded. If we had booked through the Park, we would have had to pay £390 or £235 for a short break, so we really did get a wonderful deal. At the height of the season, a week in our accommodation would cost you a whopping £780!!!

On arriving at the park, we picked up our keys from reception and made our way to the villa, which was situated directly opposite the reception and bar.

The reception is open from 8am to 10pm each day. Many leaflets are available here, as well as the opportunity to book riding lessons at the local stables, for £8 per half hour, and trips to local places of interest. The staff were very helpful and if we needed anything, such as bin bags or light bulbs, we were given these immediately.

The Villas are very spacious and are set on two floors. The downstairs comprises of a front room, with comfortable sofa, dining table and six chairs. television and dresser. On arrival, we were greeted with a vase of fresh flowers, and a selection of coffee, tea and sugar.

The kitchen is reasonably well equipped with a basic fridge and ice box, a cooker, microwave, toaster and various cooking utensils. The utility room has a washer/dryer, ironing board, hoover, carpet sweeper and iron. There are launderettes available on the site if you are not lucky enough to have a washing machine in your accommodation. The bathroom has a shower, sink and toilet and was clean.

Upstairs you will find two bedrooms. The main bedroom has a double bed, which was made up on our arrival, and is decked out with pine furniture. The wardrobes have plenty of hangers for your clothes, which is always a good start. The second bedroom consists of two single beds and bunk beds. Both rooms had bedside tables, dressing tables and ample drawer and hanging space for your clothes.

The villas are centrally heated and are lovely and warm. Ideal for drying wet swimming costumes and towels while you are out during the day!

One of the great ideas on the park is that you can telephone your shopping order through before your arrive so that all your shopping will be waiting in your accommodation when you arrive.

Our villa was set in a square, in the centre of which was a wonderful grassed area, on which a congregation of children would form, to play football and other sports with their Dads. Luckily (?) Jack had taken his training cones with him, which he used for goals, and Steve and him used this area in the early evenings for a kick about.

TEN PIN BOWLING
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Ten Pin Bowling – this has only opened this year and is situated off the amusement section. The bowling alley has eight lanes and costs £4.50 per adult and £3.50 per child or an hours game costs £18.50 for a family, but the staff were very helpful and allowed us ten minutes extra free of charge to complete our second game. A bar and fast food section is available within the ten pin bowling section.

BAR AND ENTERTAINMENT
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There is a bar area and stage in the main complex. The bar was open each day from midday until midnight. Each evening a cabaret was put on, although these only seemed to last for an hour for the adults. We saw some great acts while we were there, but the majority of the entertainment was aimed at young children, with many party dances and dancing competitions. There is only so much of Agadoo you can take in one holiday, so we tended not to arrive in the bar until at least 9pm each evening. The seating area was always packed on arriving, but emptied at 10pm when small children went home.

SWIMMING POOLS
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There are two indoor and two outdoor pools on the park. All of these can be used free of charge. The outdoor pools, one of which has a flume, were not open during our stay, but would open at the end of May. The indoor pools were clean, and if used early in the morning, quite empty. The pools were open from 8am to 10.30 pm. No lifeguards were on duty in the indoor pools, so children have to be supervised by an adult at all times. Tokens are available from reception for the lockers for £1 which is refundable.

The pool has a deep and shallow end and changing facilities, which are mixed.

BILLYS BISTRO
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Billy’s Bistro is situated in the main bar area, and offers fast food. All food is cooked to order and was reasonably priced, as well as large portions. There are meal deals available and the prices will not break the bank. Amber ordered a child’s portion of chicken nuggets and chips one evening, and struggled to finish it. The staff are friendly and polite.

AMUSEMENTS
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These are again situated in the main bar/reception area. There is a wide range of slot machines, which keep the children amused for hours.

SUPERMARKET
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Interestingly called “Fresco”. The supermarket is well stocked and is the cheapest I have ever seen on a holiday park. Open from 8am to 8pm every day, there is really no good reason to have to visit a supermarket anywhere else. I wish I'd realised how cheap the supermarket was, as we had stopped in Barnstaple on the way through to buy provisions!

SAUNA AND SOLARIUM
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Another free activity on the Park. Each sauna session will last 40 mins and requires you to pay a refundable deposit of £1. The sauna is open from 8am to 10pm.

The solarium is open from 8am to 9.30pm and each session lasts for 20 minutes.

THE OLD MILL
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A pub/restaurant within the park, offering its own entertainment and gorgeous carvery on Sundays and /Wednesday evenings for £5.95 per head, but in the summer, this is available every day, as well as barbeques. The pub was originally a 17th century mill and was converted into the pub in 1985. Bar snacks and real ale are served here. We ate here at the beginning of May and it was packed out. There is an adventure playground to keep the kids amused after their meal, or for the little ones, there is a small ball area inside the restaurant.

BILLY BEACHBALL CLUB
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For the younger children, a chance for them to meet Billy, and play games and other free activities during the day, including face painting, treasure hunts and balloon modeling. While we stayed, for £2.50 children could meet Billy and have breakfast with him. A bit of a rip off I thought, as normally these sort of things are free. However, Billy seems to be popular, although our two were a bit old for him.

PLAY AREA
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There is a play are situated within the park, which consists of wooden play equipment. Amber used this a kot, whilst I was preparing meals in the evening!!

TENNIS
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The tennis court is available until 10pm in the evening and is free, apart from leaving a £1 deposit for the key to the court. Jack and Steve played in the evening, as it was easier to book a slot. Racquets were available to hire for £2, but we took our own.

LAKE
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The park has a well stocked lake, which was situated outside our accommodation. Anglers are advised to put any fish back into the lake after fishing. During our stay, there was an abundance of goslings and ducklings around the lake, who quickly got used to the people who would feed them on a regular basis and one of the adult geese would knock on our door in the morning, to get his ration of bread!

FACILITIES ON OTHER PARKS
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Facilities on Woolacombe Bay and Twitchen Parc could also be used, such as spa, saunas, plunge pools and steam rooms, not to mention golf courses, on showing your park passes. We did not take advantage of this, as we had days out, and found that there was plenty on our park to do, to keep us amused.

SNOOKER ROOM
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Although we did not take advantage of this facility, it seemed to be well used. The snooker room opens from 9am to 9pm and can be booked for one hour after leaving a £1 refundable deposit. The snooker room was situated in the Sports Bar, which housed large screen television, and broadcast football most days. There is also a table tennis table and pool table situated here.

CINEMA
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The cinema is situated in the main complex and shows a film three times per day. This is free of charge. Our villa was supplied with our own video channel on the TV, so each film that was shown in the cinema was also shown on our TV! The films were shown from 8am to midnight every day.

BALL PARK
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There is a ball park within the complex and there are set times for different age groups to use it which I thought was a brilliant idea, to prevent the smaller children getting hurt by the rougher ones.

BUS SERVICE
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A bus service runs from the Park into Woolacombe, which is approximately 1 mile from the park to the beach. You can purchase a ticket from reception for £1 which will be valid for the whole of your stay. The first bus runs from 10.20 am from the park. A good idea, but we preferred to take the car as we had tons of stuff for the beach to take!

CRECHE
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This is a service available for the under fives and is available in the mornings and early evenings. The crèche was open six days per week and each session was for one and a half hours, costing £2 per time. Obviously we didn’t use this service, but I wouldn’t have done even if my kids were younger.

HAIR AND BEAUTY SALON
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The salon is situated within Frescos and offers a wide range of treatments. The salon did not seem to be very busy while we stayed at the park but I am sure this would change in the summer. Hair extensions, manicures, tooth jewels, waxing and facials are among some of the beauty treatments available.

If you would like more information on the Park, ring 01271 870 343 or visit www.woolacombe.com. I can’t recommend this Park enough. Our stay was brilliant, and there are so many places to visit and things to do in the surrounding area.
 

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