Going on holiday when you’re my age, can be a pain in the arse. Can we afford going abroad? No, we couldn’t, for starters, I didn’t have a passport, so that is £70 straight away. Could we afford renting a house or something? Yes, but no-one would rent to us for the week due to us all being 18/19. So, with options running out, my friends Jam and Kay, spent an evening frantically looking for something to do.

They eventually found this place, Rose Cliston Holiday Park in Newquay. It was going to be 8 of us going, and a mental week had been planned, however, as the date got closer, nearly everyone bailed, and it ended up being just Jam, Kay and I.

About Rose Cliston

Rose Cliston is a Holiday Park, located just outside of Newquay, and it is designed for people aged 16-30. It is basically a huge camp site, where you go and pitch your tent, or caravan, or if you wish hire a huge tent thing from them. You could then spend all your time at the campsite, or head of into Newquay. So, it fitted our needs perfectly.

Pricing

Price wise, it is excellent. A four night break is just £35 per person, or a week stay is £60-£65. Not bad eh? If you want to take a car with you, then it costs £3 per night per car, which again is pretty decent value.

You can rent a Eurotent, for £480 a week from June 20th – August 29th. They sleep 6 people (so is £80 per person) and are pretty much the fancy way of camping, since it includes Electric lighting, a Kettle, Microwave, Picnic Bench and general electric sockets. You can also bring a car for free.

If you go with friends, and wish to pitched with each other, you have to arrive at the same time.

Getting There

Getting to Rose Cliston is very simple. If you are driving, then it is a case of sticking in the postcode to your SatNav, or reading the directions you print off the computer, and heading down. That was originally our plan, but my car wasn’t on the road, and my friend Kay had had a car crash a few weeks before, and didn’t fancy driving for 6 hours. So, we took the train, getting advance tickets from London Paddington to Newquay for £53 each return. Jam’s dad drove us down to London.

From the train station, you need to get to Rose Cliston. We just jumped in a Taxi, which cost us a Tenner (although the guy said it should have been £15, but he had said a tenner to start with so..). You could if you wanted use the Shuttle Bus (explained later) which would work out cheaper.

Signing In

The first thing you have to do, on arrival, is go to reception. There, they charge the rest of your fees (having paid a £10 deposit each), and a £20 returnable behaviour deposit. That basically means you get it back, as long as you don’t break any of the rules, such as visiting the pool after hours, or having a fire on the ground etc.

They then take you to your pitch, where you set up your tent. Your holiday has began.

Facilities at Rose Cliston

First off, is the basics, there is a few toilet blocks, located a short distance from the different camping fields. These are all kept pretty clean, though, I did notice a slice of bread in one cubicle for about 2 days. The have toilet paper in them most of the time, but to be safe, it is worth buying a roll from the shop.

There is then the Showers, which cost 20p. Your 20p gets you a decent length shower, at least long enough to wash down. Obviously, it is longer if you put in more than one 20p. There were two shower blocks, and they were both fine to use. Not super glamorous, but clean.

Washing now. We did one load whilst we were there, which cost us £2.00. We then needed to get a washing powder tablet from the shop, which I think cost us another £1.50 (for 2). The wash didn’t take too long, but was boring waiting for it. Drying is then 20p, but I think you need a bit more to actually get it dry, since ours came out still wet, and we just hung it on the tent to dry in the sun.

In the washing room, there is work top, which the girls used for getting ready, straightening their hair and all that. You can hire straighteners and hairdryers for £10 (returnable). There are also sinks outside the toilet areas for washing up.

The Shop had all the essentials in. Though, we noticed that most of it was Lidl products, resold at a higher price. They had everything from frozen burgers, flip-flops, toilet roll to cans of Dr. Pepper. We used the shop every day, mainly for getting drinks for the hangovers. They also sell toast, tea, coffee, Panini’s and a load of microwave food, at a decent price. You could cook your own food on BBQ’s as long as they didn’t touch the ground, blocks were available for that.

There is also a Bar! We only ventured in it once, to buy some Desperados, before we went out, but it seemed to be priced the same as local bars. Also in there is a load of pool tables, and arcade games, which we played on a few times whilst waiting for the shuttle bus.

For just 50p, you can charge your phone or iPod. As long as you have the cables for the phones. Bargain!

The Swimming Pool is open from 10:30 – 7:00 every day. You pay £2 (again, returnable) for a key, which lets you into the outdoor pool area. We kept the key for our entire stay, and returned it the last day. The pool is 5 ft deep in the deep end, so you cannot dive in, but we did some awesome cannonballs! It was quite a social place, where we spoke to a number of people. The main purpose I used it for, was hangover reduction. Each morning, when I had a bit of a hangover, I just jumped in the pool. It was awesome. The only complaint I have, is that since it was open, it did collect a lot of shit in it, such as leaves and bits. But really, none of us were fussed.

The Shuttle Bus, was a taxi service, which operated from Rose Cliston into Newquay. You had to ring ahead and book your place on it, since it was only a mini-bus. Single journeys cost just £1.50. The standard journey is Rose Cliston into Town, though some people booked it to Fistral Beach, to the Train Station (as we did on our last day), and I think someone even booked it to Truro, which cost them £10 for a return journey. It then costs another £1.50 to get back. Some days, we would go into Newquay in the day, then come back and go back out again in the evening. The last bus leaves Newquay town centre at 4am – so you have all night to go out!!

The shuttle bus service is operated by Royal Taxis, and they were all very friendly people. The best driver was Nigel, who was the only guy we met with a Cornish accent. He was really jubilant all the time, and was entertaining. If you are going, then the number is 07977 220280, which is worth remembering if you want collecting from the train station. We all had it stored in our phones, since we rang them every day.

Our Time in Newquay

Our time in Newquay was amazing. We all miss being there. The first night, Kay fell down some stairs, sprained her ankle and ended up in an Ambulance. But a true trouper, that didn’t stop her the next night from dancing. Her ankle healed pretty quickly. We spent a lot of time in the pool during the day, and ventured into town a few times. Not once did we get to go to the beach, which I was annoyed about. Food wise, cooking at the campsite proved a failure. So the best meals were in town. It was a week, where we spent every night rather wasted. Going around all the different clubs and pubs in the area, I think he only one we missed was the Gentlemans Club, and that’s just because we didn’t have time..

Places I recommend:

Walkabout

Located over the beach, it is an Australian Bar. By day, they serve food, and it looked nice, though we had eaten before we went there. At night, it was great, we spent most of the time on the smoking area, which overlooks the beach which was cool. They have a good range of drinks, but no Desperados.

Corkers

We spent loads of time upstairs in Corkers in town, for two reasons. Firstly, Jam was trying to pull the barmaid, he failed. Secondly, they play awesome music, and we had her putting on all sorts, from Million Dead, Deez Nuts and such. There is a pool table there and its generally cool. Desperados is on sale at £2.85 a bottle- the cheapest we got it anywhere.

Newquay VIP

This is a wristband which costs £5. We got one on the Wednesday of our trip, and should have got one before. It gets you a few perks, such as free entry to places before certain times, and discounts on drinks, and in some places a free shot with your first drink. We used ours at a few places. You can get these from Rose Clistion I think, but they are sold by people all over town.

Bar Help

We went here on the first night, had a drink then left. But on the Wednesday night, we met a friend of Kay’s who lived near Newquay. To start with, we each had a cocktail, since they were £3 with the VIP wristband, rather than £5. I had a Sex on the Beach, which was really nice. Kay had a White Russian, which was weird, and Jam had a TVR, which was horrible. They sell Desperados for £3.00.

Love Shack

If you are hungry, then go there. They have the worlds most amazing burgers. It had gotten to the point in the week, where we felt tired and ill from not eating properly, and so went out to find a proper meal. A woman pounced on us, and asked us if we were looking for somewhere to eat, and with no argument, we ended up in Love Shack. Real, homemade burgers. Mine was a little peppery for my taste, but Jam loved his, so much he made us go back the next day for lunch! Kay had had a Prawn Cocktail. At lunch, Jam and I had the Chicken Burger which was amazing. Kay had a breakfast, which she couldn’t finish, and I had a go at too! It was huge!

The Local / Bargain Booze

Just go in there, and grab a bottle of Cornish Scrumpy. It comes in different sized bottles, and is lovely stuff! I polished a two litre bottle of the 7.4% stuff of over two nights when coming back from being out. It was lovely!

Get Around!

Visit as many of the different clubs and pubs as you can. We went through most, from the Mexican Bar, the Whetherspoons, every club we saw, we went to. You’re bound to find a place you like above others, like we did with Corkers and Walkabout, but you won’t find out unless you get around. There is so many different places, and they aren’t far away from each other.

Leaving

On you last day, you need to leave by ten. We were hungover to an extreme amount – me especially, since I made the most of our last night, and drank way loads, so much so, that I even picked up a Corona off the street, which was opened but not been drank, and had that. I managed to fall out the taxi when we got back, much to the amusement of many. Some Liverpudlians whom we had made friends with, came into our tent at five to, and woke us up – so we were late leaving. This can cost you an extra days fees, but they were fine with us. Only thing, was we had lost our behaviour deposit slip – so they charged us £5 each for that, meaning we only got back £15 each. I found, later that day, I had kept it safe in a book, so it couldn’t get lost…

Recommend?

Yes!

It was an awesome week. It is so cheap staying there, and was so much fun. The campsite is great, and since it tends to be people 16-20, you can make friends really easily. We spoke to loads of people over the week, and had them back at our tent for impromptu gatherings. Kay just shouted “PARTY” at our tent one night, and we had people come over. Simple. That same night, we had got back, Jam and I walked around the camp site, and someone had made a slippy slide. A huge tarpaulin, covered in washing up liquid. Suffice to say, I stripped to my boxers and had several slides. It was great.

You do eventually have to shut up, one night we were told to turn our music off, but that was at about 5am. We all had a great time, and if you are looking at doing something next summer, then consider going! It really is awesome.

Visit: www.rosecliston.co.uk