In Easter 2015 we joined our two married sons and their families for a caravan weekend at Haven’s Reighton Sands Holiday Park in North Yorkshire.
It was the first time that we had set foot in a caravan for 40 years, so while we were looking forward to some quality time with our family, our excitement didn’t quite match that of our twin grandchildren!
North Yorkshire in the springtime is a lovely place, with great clouds of apple blossom, bright yellow gorse, hosts of golden daffodils and other colorful spring flowers. I swear that Yorkshire’s new spring grass is magically much greener than anywhere else.
But the Costa Del Sol it is not, so we packed plenty of woollies and winter clothes … just in case.
We set off from our home base in South West Durham on Good Friday morning in thick fog and torrential rain. Good start.
Our route took us past Roseberry Topping and the Cleveland Hills and down the coast road over the wild North Yorkshire Moors, past historic Whitby and sandy Scarborough.
As if by magic as we approached Filey, the rain ceased and the fog gradually lifted.
We broke into song at this point and fellow Silver Travellers might be familiar with Allan Sherman’s little ditty from the 1950’s that began:
“Dear Mother … Dear Farder … Here we are at Camp Granada!
The rest of whole weekend was bathed in warm sunshine without a cloud in sight with temperatures around 20 centigrade in the middle of April. One of the sunniest weekends of the year.
The facilities at Reighton Sands are more than adequate and much better than I anticipated.
Registration was reasonably quick and efficient due to predetermined booking in slots.
We had booked two, 2 berth caravans from Friday to Monday for around £200 each.
Each had two bedrooms. One twin and one double. A shower/toilet room with a large lounge which incorporated the kitchen. Heating and electricity were included. The double bed was quite large but the twin beds were rather narrow and short for a 17 stone, six footer like myself.
There were a number of specific activities for the little one’s during the day, but despite that, many seemed to prefer the atmosphere of the bar/restaurant, which is to be refurbished for the 2016 season. The food in the bar was reasonably priced, and the menu was comparable with some popular pub chains.
As well as a dedicated Kids Club, there is a nature trail, pitch & putt, theatre shows and a very spacious heated indoor swimming pool.
For golfers, there is a challenging 34 par, 9 hole course.
A dilapidated tractor train was a popular free facility, taking families to and from the attractive sandy beach.
There is something about a sandy beach which sends kids into a frenzy of wave jumping, castle building, kite flying and pebble throwing.
Reighton Sands has all that at the bottom of the hill, as well as a nice little cafe and shop with a good stock of necessary sand shifting tools.
When you’ve had enough there is always that tractor train ride back up the steep hill.
My grandkids loved every minute of our short time here.
On these occasions, Bank Holiday Monday comes around far too quickly and time for everyone to pack their gear into their cars to return home and say goodbye, until the next time.
