Kneps Farm Holiday Park Review

A quacking good site

After a browse on Google searching out caravan sites around the Blackpool area I came across Kneps Farm Holiday Park. At £20.50 per night it seemed a little expensive, but after looking through their website, which I have to say is excellent and very informative, seemed to at least give good value for money. The fee of £20.50 was for a pitch inclusive of 16amp electric hook up and and awning in the middle of the school holidays in August. In comparison with other caravan sites at this time of year it was probably one of the cheaper ones so on consideration their prices are reasonable.

It was a last minute decision to go away as the weather forecast had not been a very good one, although the weekend had proved the forecasters wrong and we'd had quite nice weather. We decided to go on the Monday morning, unfortunately when we got up it was pouring with rain - brilliant.  After much indecision we packed the camper for a couple of days worth of camping and decided as Blackpool is only about 50 miles from home we wouldn't bother ringing to book but would just call on the off chance. Luckily they had plenty of room when we arrived and I made the booking for two nights. Make sure you have £10 in cash with you if you go there as you'll need it as a deposit for a key to the toilet facilities, otherwise you can pay your pitch fees by debit card.

Once we went to pitch our camper we were not disappointed. The site is exactly as it's shown on their website. A fully hardstanding pitch on nice clean, bright gravel and completely flat. Any grass on site is purely for show, to the extent you are asked NOT to drive on the grass or to put your caravan or motorhome on any grassed areas. This means the grass looks good and is free from any muddy patches as it is never churned up by wheels.

Loo of the Year Award Winner
Once we'd parked up, next step a trip to the toilets before we put up the awning. This was something that had really appealed to me on their website, the toilets and bathroom facilities sounded really good. Again, no disappointment, they were even better than described. 10 private bathrooms complete with a bath, shower, wash basin and toilet. Fully heated, clean and roomy, oh and the washbasin actually had a plug! (See my previous review on Marton Mere site). These bathrooms are a brilliant idea. They are located in the amenities block for which you need your key to gain access. There are chairs in the corridor where you can sit and wait if all the bathrooms are in use when you go, but I never had to wait. At either end of the corridor are ladies and gents toilets. Mop buckets are outside each bathroom for you to clean up when you've finished and a cloth is provided in each bathroom for you to wipe up splashes and give the sink a quick clean around. Everyone seems to make use of them too as I never came across soaking wet surfaces around the wash basin or a basin full of some one else's toothpaste. It just goes to show if you're provided with a bit of luxury people are willing to look after it and leave it in the same way as they would wish to find it. It's no surprise then that they have won a Loo of the Year award for 6 successive years.

Other facilities around the amenities block include a laundry room which I didn't use but I think has a washing machine and drier. A dish washing room, again well looked after by campers and always very clean and tidy - nice and warm too.

Room for glampers too

Camping Pods

Whilst there aren't any pitches for tents it doesn't mean you can't camp. Kneps Farm has camping pods in two sizes, 4 berth and 6 berth. They looked really cosy and the families that were using them were sat out with their barbecue's until dusk. They have a TV, DVD player, lighting and electric sockets, you bring everything else you would normally use for camping except the tent.

If you fancy even more luxury the site has static holiday homes for hire too. These are dotted around the edges of the site in pleasant surroundings.

Holiday homes for hire

Around and about
The site is just outside Cleveleys - 3 miles - we cycled there. There is plenty of parking available at Cleveleys along the sea front, it also has lots of local shops and small supermarkets in the town. It wasn't too bad cycling there, the roads are not that busy and it's fairly straight forward finding your way there and best of all it's flat!

Within walking distance just up the road from the site is the Wyre Estuary Country Park where you can find walks of varying distances along the river. There is also a Tourist Information and Countryside Ranger service located there. See website for more information.

Blackpool itself is about 7 to 8 miles away. If you have a bike and good weather it's a very pleasant ride into Blackpool. Ours was a 16 mile round trip, setting off from the site, riding into Cleveleys and then it's completely off road cycling next to the sea along the promenade where you can cycle to St Anne's and beyond if you're feeling really fit. We went as far as Blackpool Tower and had a browse around the shops. Fleetwood isn't far away where you can visit the Freeport shopping outlet. There's plenty going on there during the school holidays to keep the children entertained while you pick up a few bargains from famous store outlets. We didn't get chance to go because we were only there for two days which is a shame, haven't been there for years.

Weather on Best Behaviour

All in all we had a really nice two day break. It did rain all of Tuesday morning and the great thing about the good quality gravel pitch was there was no mud, no water running into the awning, no mess. The rest of the time we were there saw blue sky and sunshine, something we've been very short of this year. We had a nice leisurely morning of packing up on Wednesday as we didn't have to leave the pitch until mid-day, which is quite unusual these days. I can never understand why campsites don't let you take up your pitch until around 2.00pm but want you off by 10.00am, it's not like they have to clean the room or anything, so 10 out of 10 to Kneps Farm for cutting their visitors a little slack when it's time to go.

Would I recommend this site to a friend?  Definitely, they are very deserving of their AA 5 Pennants award, though to be honest I think I would rather keep this site a secret so there's always room for me.

Perfect Pitch

Marton Mere Touring Site review

We've stayed on a couple of Haven touring sites before and been happy with both of them. Out of season, or I should say outside of the busy school holidays they have some excellent offers for both touring caravans and rental holiday homes. We've stayed at Filey in Yorkshire both in a tourer and last year in a satic and in Wales at Hafan Y Mor on the Lleyn Penninsular and had a good time at them all.

In April this year we had booked a 4 night break at Marton Mere Holiday Village in Blackpool staying on the touring site with our campervan.  A couple of nights before we were due to go I googled the site just to refresh on the details of arrival time etc. As you know when you start typing words into google other stuff comes up - like reviews. Oh well, may as well have a quick look. Wished I hadn't in the end.  There are some unfavourable reviews of Marton Mere, some criticising   the touring section, others the site in general and many not happy with their rented holiday accommodation. We weren't too sure after reading all the doom and gloom of what to expect when we got there.

Space at a premium

We needn't have worried. We arrived around noon as you can't go on to the site until 12.00. We were directed to the touring site by security on the gate, you then book in at the arrivals office. First impressions were that it looked neat and tidy and the statics were all attractively laid out with extensive landscaping.  Yes you could see that there was ongoing work being carried out, which was one of the complaints on the review sites, it did look a little untidy in that there were large statics apparently abandoned by the roadside, somewhat in the way but it's obviously not their intention to leave them there indefinitely. A couple of times when we went out a road that we had been up the previous day would suddenly be shut to allow them to carry out work and an early warning sign or a diversion sign would have been really helpful but it wasn't a big inconvenience. I certainly wouldn't describe it as a "building site" as one of the reviewers put it.

After booking in and being handed our information pack we went off to find a pitch. We had a super pitch booked but there were also premier pitches. Apparently a premier pitch has 20% more space than a basic pitch, although they do seem to call them Euro pitches which actually includes a TV hook up too.  I don't think the Premier Pitches at Marton Mere have the TV hookup but they have a nice little fence around the pitch for demarcation and just generally look more attractive than the super pitches.  Unless you have a large caravan or motorhome I wouldn't have thought it was worth the extra pitch fee - if you want a fancy fence stay at home.

On a Super pitch you get a hardstanding for the caravan or motorhome and a gravel section next to it for your awning. Wasn't entirely impressed with the dirty looking gravel but I suppose if you don't have a ground sheet which we never do it's better when the grounds wet than soggy grass. With a Super pitch you get 16amp electric hook up, your own water tap (yay, no trailing across wet grass looking for a tap in the dark) and your own grey water disposal point (a grid). The lap of luxury for us really.

There were criticisms on the reviews I read that the pitches were too small and there was very little room between pitches. I have to agree with this. For us it wasn't too much of a problem, our campervan is easy to get in and out on the pitch and our awning isn't that big but for anyone with a biggish caravan who isn't that confident with manoeuvring you're going to struggle a bit. You also have to make sure you stay on pretty good terms with your neighbours, you'll be bumping into them quite literally whenever you step out the door.

Superloos - cosy too!

There is a brand new toilet block specifically for the touring site complete with undercover and sheltered washing up facilities. The washing-up sinks are massive. Make sure you take your washing up bowl with you as it would take you forever to fill up the sink, they're big enough to have a bath in. When we were there they were always clean and tidy, none of other people's dredges of fried egg and cabbage loitering around like you tend to find on other sites. Who eats cabbage on holiday anyway? The toilets have a secure code entry gadget thing on the door so you need a 4 digit code to get in. I think it's a good idea. It means you don't have people using the toilets on the way back from their evening entertainment to their static caravans and is probably also designed to stop children messing around in the toilets on their own. Why do children find toilet blocks such a magnet, they always seem to end up playing about round toilet blocks on caravan sites. Reviewers have found fault with this idea though. Some people are just not happy unless they have something to complain about. It is a bit of a pain when you first arrive because until you've learned the number you have to remember to take the number with you otherwise you can't get in. They're lovely and warm, clean and have about 3 or 4 showers. Sadly though around the sinks there is nowhere to hang anything, sometimes you just want a quick wash rather than a shower. There are blown air hand dryers and a dispenser for antibacterial hand wipe which magically dispenses when  you stick your hands under it - no need to touch anything which I thought was a really good idea and went that extra mile to avoid spreading germs.

Round-up

I can't comment on other facilities on site such as entertainment, shops, cafe's etc because we never had time to take a look. Touring site reviewers again commented on noise from the club at night. I did notice it, it was a little intrusive, mainly you could hear the base beat from the music which was quite loud but it did finish between 11.00 and 12.00pm. I wouldn't have thought it would disturb children's sleep but adults who like an early to bed, early to rise regime might be a bit irritated by it.

Marton Mere

All in all we enjoyed our 4 nights there and would definitely go back again. It's handy for Blackpool, there's a supermarket up the road, a pub within easy walking distance and apparently Blackpool Zoo and Stanley Park are just around the corner. On the site itself is Marton Mere, a Nature Reserve and lake of special interest to bird watchers which used to be the town's tip and has footpaths and birdwatching hides. Not to be confused with Martin Mere (I always thought they were one and the same) which is actually near Southport.

The Kampa Travel Pod - Review

Putting it Up
So now you know how we came by our nearly new drive-away awning, it's time I said what it's like to actually use.  Personally I don't think it's that bad to put up but my husband is of a different opinion.  The first time we used it was back in June when we went on a tour around north and mid Wales.

It was me who sorted out how to put it up.  I was well impressed with myself, not usually being a practical kind of person, but I just think it's very much like a dome tent. You start out with two telescopic poles.  Spread the awning out on the floor and proceed to thread the poles through the loops on the awning, pretty much the way you do with a tent.  One thing that the person who we bought it off went on and on about was making sure we put the little cover over the mesh vent right at the top of the dome shape because he said once the awning is up it's very difficult to reach high enough to get the cover on.  Yes, he's quite right.  Most of the times we've put the awning up we have remembered but there's always a first time.  Rather than take it all down again, Kevin stood on the caravan step and used a stick to stretch the cover over and secure the hooks through the loops, not an easy feat but quicker than taking the whole thing back down again.

Once you have the poles threaded through you just kind of pop it up off the ground. This is the fun bit as it's like handling an unwieldy drunk.  It kind of lolls around in a very unstable manner and I must admit we've been very lucky in that it's never been very windy when we've used it.  I'm really not sure how it would fair in a brisk gale, I think maybe it could end up turning into a bit of a wind surfing sail type thing taking us with it. If you ever see a couple doing a spot of random hang gliding from their awning around a campsite near you, give us a wave because it will probably be us.

Once you have it in an upright position, one person needs to hold it up while the other goes round pulling the poles taught and making sure the webbing around the bottom is rigid and forms a square shape then push each pole end into the hole to anchor it down.  Then it's just a matter of positioning it so that the back end flap can be fixed on to the van guttering via "figure 8" rods.  You then have pegging points all the way around plus a couple of guy ropes to give it some more strength.  All the ropes and pegs are in fluorescent yellow so that you or your neighbouring campers don't walk into the ropes or trip over them.  When you are going out in your camper you just detach the tunnel bit from the van zip up the back door of the awning and it sits there all day looking just like a very tall dome tent keeping your chairs and anything else you don't want to take with you dry and out of the rain.

It's Up's and Down's
Here's some good advice, don't bother using it as a toilet tent.  Firstly shutting all the curtains (well rolling down the curtains) every time you need to use the loo is a pain and unless you're happy for a silhouette projection of your ablutions to be up there for the whole site to see once it's gone dark you're just going to have to have a wee without the light on.  I'm glad to say that with a minor adjustment our portaloo is now completely usable on-board the van.

Quality is pretty standard and not really any better than most run of the mill tents. Unlike a tent it lacks an inner tent or double skin.  This means that in early and late season condensation tends to be a bit of a problem.  You get up in the morning, open the roll up curtains and door and get soaking wet from the condensation that's formed on the inside, still it saves the hassle of going for a shower. It soon dries off but if you're hoping for a quick early get away to pastures new, I suggest you take the awning down the night before, otherwise you'll have a fair bit of drying off to do before you can put the awning away.  The awning fastens to the poles by way of plastic hooks that clip on to the poles.  For some reason you can guarantee that the hooks manage to line up with the thick sections where the poles slot together, if you try to push the hooks on to the thick section they snap and we now have about 3 or 4 snapped hooks in total.  With due care and attention this can be avoided but why does the damn thing always manage to line up in the wrong place.

All in all for the price we paid for it, it serves it's purpose and I do like it.  The zips and velcro fasteners are pretty sturdy and for the days when it's sunny the front zipped opening door lifts up to form a sun canopy for you to sit under and shelter from the ravages of the sun!  There was plenty of room inside for our table, two chairs and other bits and bobs that get in the way in the van and it all packs up neatly into it's own bag.  I'm not over confident of how it would stand up to stormy weather but hopefully we won't have any of that kind of nastiness and if we do, I'll be sure to let you know how it performed.