Camping at Kiln Park Haven at Tenby, Wales
8 October 2012
After my first camping trip alone with the kids at Gullivers campsite near Milton Keynes our next camping trip was to Kiln Park, Haven site at Tenby in South Wales. Tenby is near the most south west part of Wales and so was quite a drive for a short trip (3 nights), but it's a nice part of the UK. The site is priced per pitch for a certain number of people, and is fairly expensive. There is however a lot included in the site which is one of the reasons we chose this site rather than a cheaper site without as many facilities.
During the week prior to our holiday South Wales was hit by severe flooding. In fact Pembrokeshire was featuring heavily on the national news as one of the worst effected areas. I phoned a couple of days before and was reassured that the site hadn't been affected by the flooding which had been 15 miles away. At last I think I'd been reassured as 15 miles doesn't sound a very long way to me.
We arrived at the site to find that it had not washed away, but was predictably heavily waterlogged. We were directed to the camping field but told to find a suitable pitch ourself. When we got there there was a road running through the pitch, one side of which had a large number of pitches, but the other had very few tents pitched. We were going to pitch on the quieter side, but then was told by one of the wardens to pitch on the other side where it was harder to find a pitch. We ended up on a reasonable pitch which was very wet, but fortunately not too muddy (although walking to the car was very muddy).
Haven campsite after heavy rain - the wet area at the front of the picture is the edge of the car park.
It was still raining when we arrived, although it had already eased so that it was heavy showers rather than the continuous rain they had suffered previously. Fortunately the weather improved after the first night and in fact we had some hot sunny weather on one of the days.
This was a very large camping area, but there was only one toilet block. Although it was possible to continue to use it when it was being cleaned. The toilet area was divided into two (although not physically locked), but only side one was ever open at a time. The toilets are in need of refurbishment with some damaged toilets and the walls were in poor condition, although they were kept fairly clean. The toilet, washing up and shower block is near to caravans and motor homes (who may have had a lesser need for the shower block), but a long way from the camping field we were on. It would have been better to have the camping areas nearer the toilet block, or a second toilet block to accommodate those on the distant camping field. The showers were a good size with plenty of space for getting dressed after showering. The water point was also a long way from the camping field.
There was a little bit of concern about security as there was a noisy element during the evenings and someone near to our tent had their car vandalised one evening (keyed and some graffiti). There was no CCTV on the car park area that could have been used to identify the culprit.
There are two swimming pools on site, an indoor pool and an older outdoor pool. These pools were excellent. The indoor pool appeared to be fairly new and was in excellent condition. Whilst the outdoor pool was noticeably older it has been well looked after and was in good condition. The only thing (and it's fairly minor) was that the lockers for the outdoor pool were not very good. There weren't many lockers and a significant amount of them were in a bad condition or unusable. Fortunately we were able to find one that was working whilst we went swimming.
Swimming pools great (minor exception lockers in outdoor pool).
The evening Entertainment was good. There is only one entertainment area so we had to wait until after bingo finished, although that was fairly early. The kids enjoyed the children's entertainment, although we didn't stay particularly late as I tried to make sure the children (and I) had some sleep during the night. There is a Papa John's Pizza takeway and Burger King, which shared a small seating area. There is also a pub restaurant within the entertainment complex, although we didn't eat there. There is also a lot of arcades and Bowlingo (mini bowling alley).
Bowlingo (mini bowling)
The beach is only a fairly short walk from the site, although you need to walk a bit further towards Tenby for life-guard monitored area. The walk into Tenby is also quite reasonable, although I believe there may have been a quicker route, we took the only route that was indicated on the site map.
Photo of the beach near the Haven campsite, with Tenby in the distance.
This is a good site, good location, entertainment was good and pools are good. The two negative aspects were the distance from the shower block (that could do with refurbishment) and the incident when another camper's car was damaged.
We also visited Folly Farm - Theme Park and Zoo whilst staying in Wales
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