Love2Stay review. Love2stay certainly splits opinions. You just need to look on Facebook, or TripAdviser to get opinions. It’s a very strange one. On the one hand you have “traditional” caravaners; the idea of caravanning for them is have great holidays outdoors and not necessarily break the bank doing so. Caravanning is a cost effective way to have family time, on holiday, with all the comforts of home. On the other hand you have people who may be fairly new to caravanning, husband and wife earning good money, they might have a couple of kids and a dog. They’ll have a new or nearly new caravan, using a new Volvo, or Range Rover as a tow vehicle. They’re not so much worried about how much things cost, they just want the best.
Now, that’s a horrible generalisation I know, but it aims to explain a point. Who are in Love2Stay’s demographic? Of the two above I’d 100% say the second, this is what appeared to make up at least 80% of the people at Love2Stay when we visited. But again, I’m making generalisations.
What about us, where do we fit. Well, I’d imagine somewhere between the two. However, we are certainly not in what you might call Love2Stay’s target audience. We didn’t take any kids with us, ours are grown adults.
I explain this because any views we might have are pretty irrelevant as far as Love2Stay are concerned. Of course, they wouldn’t say that, they’re far too nice, however, the fact remains, it doesn’t really matter if we liked it or not.
First of all the caravanning stuff…
Love2Stay Review – Serviced Pitches
All 120 odd pitches are fully serviced and as long as you’re using the green toilet chemical, you can also empty your cassette toilet on the pitch. I don’t mean “on” the pitch of course, there’s a suitable drain. Water and waste can be connected. We purchased as Whale water connection and a Colapz flexible drainage pipes as well. We’ve been on fully serviced pitches before but never had all the gear, so have used our Aquaroll and waste container previously. Now we really are “all the gear and no idea” people. But, what a game changer! Wow, I can’t believe that in 13 years of caravanning we’ve never actually properly used a fully serviced pitch.
Pitch sizes are very generous and all hardstanding. Awning pegs went in quite easily, which was a bonus!
Love2Stay Review – Facilities
Toilet and shower block is very modern and use card entry to gain access. We were never entirely sure why, as only people staying on site would use them, they’re not near anything else for passers by to be able to use them. This is when the first thought of “style over substance” started to enter my head. Why use an entry card? (I’m mainly moaning about this because I lost a card and it cost me £2.50 🙂 ) Although they were clean, some shower rooms were in need of maintenance, with some wood at the bottom coming away from the wall (missing sealant in places added to a tired space in need of a spruce up) The shower rooms themselves, although reasonably sized were an odd design. The drainage channel was near the door. This meant water from the shower gravitated towards where you would stand to get dressed. Showers were on a timer, once you pressed they didn’t stop until they were ready. This exacerbated the problem of water build up where you’d get dried and dressed. See our YouTube vlog for details on this.
Again, my fear was Love2Stay would be style over substance, this is certainly how I’d rate the toilet / shower block.
Love2Stay Review – Outdoor Activities
Taking kids to Love2Stay is where you’d get the most benefits. As a couple, we didn’t use any of the additional activities that Love2Stay offers. There’s a whole host of things for kids to do, but beware, these things cost money. Or should I say, most of the activities cost money. This is where you need to budget, if you have a couple of kids in tow you could easily spend an additional £30 per day just for a couple of activities.
There is a really weird swimming area. They’ve gone for some kind of a “pond”, that’s how I’d best describe it. I think it’s some kind of eco something or another, which might appeal to some people, but it’s not a traditional swimming pool. Again, you can see this in our vlog, which will be posted below.
To one side there is what they describe as a “beach” which is really a sand pit. I’m being a bit harsh I guess, but I wasn’t overly impressed by what they’ve done with this whole area. For me, the cafe is too small, having said that during our visit there never seen to be too many people in there, even though the site was full.
Prices
Subjective, objective, whatever-tive.
For us, the pitch prices themselves are a little over priced (see below). Other things like coffee and pizzas are priced ok. I mean they aren’t “great value” but pretty much what we’d expect. Activities are between £6 – £10 per hour, I don’t know if this is reasonable or not, it’s a personal thing I guess and dependent on how much you use it.
Conclusions
If I’m brutally honest, which I can be, as it’s my review ? I’d rather take the kids to Haven (although Love2Stay is more upmarket and cleaner). I was really disappointed there wasn’t a bar, as such. They did sell bottled beer in the cafe, but the whole “poolside” area was a let down for me. The site is nice a clean, the landscaping needs to mature more, not Love2Stay’s fault of course the site is only a few years old.
It was a little style over substance (Sorry to keep mentioning this). I know they are not aiming the site directly at us as a “middle aged” couple. Middle aged if I live to be 112 – you never know ?
The pitches are GREAT, I mean some of the best we’ve been on, spacious, tidy, fully serviced loveliness, even better now we have all the kit necessary to make full use of on pitch services – should have done it years ago, but I’ve never got around to getting a suitable waste pipe.
Have you ever seen the TV programme “4 in a bed” ? Where B&B owners stay at each other’s B&B and rate them, they also pay what they think the room is worth. So, they can over or under pay. Well, if I was on 4 in a bed I’d underpay. You see, we checked how much Brighton CAMC site would have been for a fully serviced pitch and it was about £100, so £78 cheaper. Love2Stay does have additional activities, but on the whole they are at additional cost. So I’d pay £100 for our 3 nights stay, instead of the £178 charged.
We did enjoy it, it is undoubtedly a good site, however, for us, it’s overpriced. For you, if you have kids, and went with another family, it would be great. I noticed there was an area for you to have out door BBQ’s, so a couple of families would have a great time there.
If you fancy spoiling yourself, and fancy a little pampering, this could well be what the doctor ordered!
Love2Stay YouTube Video
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