Castle Howard Lakeside Holiday Park

Liked Quiet spot. Clean toilets & showers. Friendly & informative person in reception.

Disliked Nothing

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Liked Bella sosta , castello stupendo

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Liked On-site shop, on-site showers and toilet block, very friendly and informative staff at reception.
Washing up facilities.
Very close to Castle Howard, the main reason for our stay - 3 mins drive or walking around 30 mins, and uphill unless you are very young and fit.
Very close to a large lake, it's lovely to walk around.
Gorgeous sunsets.
Everyone camping was friendly.
Generally, clean facilities that are deep-cleaned.
Discount on Castle Howard entrance to gardens.


To Summarise, (as not enough characters in the summary box,) a great location if you are visiting Castle Howard. Well-stocked shop. local pubs to visit. Lovely lake to walk around. Friendly staff. Clean facilities.

Disliked These points can be easily rectified:

Pitch Areas:
Told that they were fully booked that weekend, and understood that when we pay for a pitch, we assumed we could use the whole pitch, and have two tents in our pitch. The area is huge for a pitch; however, the pitches are not marked out or clearly defined, so you can pitch anywhere on the field.
We had to share a tent, while this wasn't a big deal, it would have been nicer to have two tents. This was not very clear; it also seemed that if we had paid for two pitches, which would have been very expensive when we only needed one pitch for the site. Then we could have put up two tents.
This then seems to me that you are paying for per person/tent rather than per pitch.
Our 'sleep' areas were for two people; my big tent sleeps 6; however, two tents still would have equated to the same two bedrooms/ sleep areas?
The pitch areas were not marked for a specific space; it seemed that everyone else just pitched up anywhere. So if we had paid for two pitches, other people could still have put their tents essentially in our 'PITCH AREA,' as there were no clear markings, where one pitch ended and another started.

Rules:
We followed all the rules; however, it would seem other people did not, as there was a lot of rubbish being blown about, whether that was campers from the previous week or that weekend, I couldn't say. I just know there was rubbish everywhere. We kept our rubbish in a rubbish bag and disposed of it correctly.
Open Fires are not allowed, BBQs are as long as off the ground:
Other people had open fires, even though it states no open fires, and they had them very close to their windbreaks.

Noise:
Very noisy children, who were constantly blowing very loud whistles, until dark and first thing in the morning! I appreciate that children make noise, and when they are playing, they don't realise how noisy they are. I get it; however, maybe constantly blowing whistles is something the parents could have told their children to stop!

Toilet Block and Shower Block,
This was located in the campervan area, so it was a walk from the tent pitches, a small suggestion would be to add another shower and toilet block in the tent area, as nearly all people in the camper vans have toilets and showers.

While we appreciated the deep cleaning, having two hours in the middle of the day when you couldn't use the facilities was not helpful. Another suggestion may be to split up the cleaning or add more facilities.
As there was only one block for a fully booked site, I would say 4 showers / 5 toilets were not enough showers and toilets.

No wifi availability, if there was, we didn't know or weren't told about it.

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Liked We have stayed at this campsite twice before in our tent box and loved the peace and tranquility of the site.
However we have only stayed before in winter months so we were not prepared for the difference in how many tents are squashed on the site in summer

Disliked We arrived at the site at approximately 8pm after a day sightseeing in the local area.
The reception was closed
However there was a welcoming message on the door telling us just to pick a spot in the tent field.
We drove into the tent field and were absolutely shocked at how busy it was.
There was hardly any space for us to park and pitch. Tents lined the field with little space between and then two rows were down the middle.
We decided this wasnt the relaxing peaceful camping trip we had hoped for and needed after a busy working week.
We decided not to stay
Wasted our money
But found a much quieter campsite a couple of miles away on Cotril Farm in Terrington.
My ratings reflect our experience on this occasion
For the winter months camping Id give full stars
But way too many tents crammed on in summer
Id stay again in the quieter months but avoid peak times in summer

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From the manager: Hello Sarah, It's good to read that you have stayed at Lakeside previously and enjoyed yourselves and also that you will return. However it's a shame that you arrived in the evening and then chose not to stay. The field, as you will know from past experiences is a large field and even when we're at our limit there will still be room. Inevitably, popular sites will be busier than usual in the summer holidays so perhaps there was less choice than you were expecting? We shall look forward to seeing you again in an off-peak period.

Liked Beautiful friendly staff and clean bathroom would highly recommend and will be staying again

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From the manager: Thanks Emma. We shall look forward to seeing you again.

Liked Lovely place , lovely staff would definitely go again

Disliked Nothing

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From the manager: Thank you Liam; do come again if you can, there is so much to explore in this lovely area and we make a great base for travels further afield.

Liked Great location, with great facilities, toilet and showers clean, we only stayed for one night this time as we were going to an event at Castle Howard but would definitely stay again.

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From the manager: So pleased to read that you enjoyed your time with us Dale. We hope to see you again.

Liked Lovely site, friendly staff, nice pitch, clean facilities

Disliked Can be quite rowdy in the club on site in a Saturday night
Paying for showers that only have lights on in the 2 min time you get

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From the manager: Hello Molly, we think that you may have mixed up our quiet rural site with another that you have stayed at recently. We don't have a club and our showers have consant hot water and lights which are included in the pitch fee. We can see from your booking that you did spend two nights with us in July; these were a Wednesday and a Thursday evening. (Sounds like you had a good time wherever you were!)

Liked Beautiful surroundings. Toilets and showers were nice and clean. Great field for then kids to play in.

Disliked No WiFi

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From the manager: Thank you Alice. We certainly are a great place for children and adults to get away to enjoy the rural countryside and fresh air. We hope you'lll return one day.

Liked The lovely open feel of a field. The facilities were excellent. Friendly greeting on arrival.

Disliked Traffic noise.

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From the manager: Your review is appreciated. We're sory that traffic noise disturbed you on this occasion but I note happily that you would come again which is great. Thank you.