A family holiday to Devon Cliffs

Location: Devon Cliffs, Sandy Bay, Exmouth, Devon, EX8 5BT. Less than 3 hours from Birmingham.

Open: 9th March – 5th November

What a holiday! We decided to book a last minute deal and found Devon Cliffs on the Hoseasons website. One caravan was remaining (I think from a cancellation) and we rang up at 9am to secure the booking. Hoseasons were fantastic on the phone and even gave me a cheaper deal, with insurance than I had found online.

We booked Friday to the Monday, during the school holidays, for the four of us (two adults and two children), entertainment passes included, a 3 bed caravan (which was clean and had the comfiest beds ever) overlooking the sea on Europe’s biggest caravan park with its own beautiful beach (Sandy Bay) with private access. It was perfect. And discounted to just £248. What a bargain!

What do the entertainment passes include?

To demonstrate what great value the holiday was, I thought I would highlight what was included within the entertainment passes;

• Swimming: Access to all of the swimming pools. One very large indoor pool with multilane water slides, two flumes, a hot tub, a children’s section with two slides and a splash section. Two outdoor pools which looked recently refurbished. We had a great time here playing on all of the slides and in the water. The girls were not happy when we wanted to go.

• Free Daytime Entertainment; Including fun sessions with the Seaside Squad. The girls really enjoyed storytime with Polly. And the full Seaside Squad Show where the girls were introduced to all of the squad and had a chance to have photos taken with them. The entertainment included fantastic shows, interactive story experiences and hands on activities including glitter, paint and crazy science experiments. The Seaside Squad also made trips to visit families whilst having breakfast. The girls loved this on our last day at The Mash and Barrel restaurant. There were various outdoor sessions which were part of your passes too, including Nature Rockz which had things like Leaf Art, RNLI Coastal Explorer, Stick Creatures and a Pirate Treasure Hunt to name just a few.

• Free Evening Entertainment; Held in Capone’s and Bugsys. All production shows were held in Capone’s which had a large bar and lots of seating. Entertainment at night for both families and adults. Everything from the Seaside Squad, to Jersey to Mowtown, Bingo and a disco. The shows change frequently, I think my husband noticed a wrestling show on one of the nights for the following week. So it varies a lot.

• There is also an indoor soft play, play arcade (lots of 2p machines) and lots of play areas situated around the site.

• The Beach; The main selling point for me. A private sandy, beautiful beach. We went every day to the beach and had a lovely time. Building sandcastles, jumping over the little waves in the sea, looking at the rock pools. This beach had everything that you could possibly want and with the weather being superb it was like being abroad.

Activities that cost a bit more

The girls did the Mini Aerial Adventure for ages 2-6. It was £5 each and included 3 times around the assault course. Safely secured in their harnesses and wearing protective head gear, they swung around like monkeys, one metre above the ground. This was great fun and definitely great value for money. The adult course looked really good too and was priced at £70 for 4 people.

The girls had two goes on the Bungee Trampolines (£5 each). Attached to bungee cords, the girls bounced really high in the sky overlooking the sea. Adults can also have a go on this.

We found the pottery shop and the girls decided they wanted to have a go at the Pic n Paint Pottery. You can choose what you want to paint (prices range from £5 to £45) and you get to sit with approximately 40 paints, a paintbrush and given time to paint your item. When you finish, you leave it over night at the shop and they glaze it for you. The girls painted a dog and a dragon in the 2 for £16 section.

The site also had Adventure Golf but we didn’t get chance to check this out (even though it looked great) . Jemima (aged 2) would be too likely to run off with everyone’s balls.

Food and Drink

The site had lots of places to eat and drink in. My personal favourite was South Beach Cafe which overlooked Sandy Bay beach. We stopped here a lot for drinks, my favourite drink being the smirnoff raspberry cider and hubby really liked the Thatchers Haze. They had a nice menu too, but it was slightly on the expensive side for us (the cheapest main course being £15). So we decided not to eat here and instead tried some of the other food venues.

Most often the Traditional Fish and Chip van, the Mash and Barrel, Burger King and we also self catered using the Mini Market which was well stocked with meat, veg, fruit, cooked items and everything that you might need on a holiday.

Excursion to Exmouth

We caught the bus from the holiday site into Exmouth where we had ice creams and a boat trip. The bus cost £14 return for the four of us.

We all had a really lovely time and are already hoping to go back to the same holiday site soon. I’ll take my proper camera then too as these pictures were all taken on my (not so great) mobile phone.

Any questions, please do ask.