Hele Valley Holiday Park

Into the valley – and onto the beach! Seeking seclusion and serenity as well as sand and surf on your north Devon holiday? We suspect you’ll be hugely happy with the location of Hele Valley Holiday Park, placed in a placid sheltered valley bordered by hills, but only minutes away from Hele Bay Beach, the South West Coast Path and the lively town of Ilfracombe.

Plonk yourself at this very friendly family-run park to delve into the best of north Devon: a seven-minute saunter will take you to the watersports, rockpools and beach of Hele Bay; 20 minutes on foot leads to more of the same plus art galleries, restaurants and an aquarium at Ilfracombe, and the three-mile surfing stretch of Woolacombe is within 15 minutes’ drive. Family fun at the likes of Watermouth Castle, the Milky Way Adventure Park and Combe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park are also easy to get to from here – as the kids will no doubt point out, a shorter drive means more time among the meerkats and ball pits…

Keep the smile on your visage when viewing the facilities at Hele Valley Holiday Park too, as the family owners have been running the park for over 40 years and strive to keep things pretty perfect on all accounts. ‘Immaculate’, second to none’ and ‘some of the best I’ve encountered’ are a few of the laurels lavished on the loos and showers, which have free hot water, disabled access and individual cubicles. Pitches are equally well-maintained, flat, sheltered and with a choice of electric hook-up, or maybe you wood prefer to bed down in the heated glamping pods instead?

The specialised nature trail on site will keep the kids busy spotting all sorts of species at the bird, bat and dormouse boxes, feeding tables and bird baths; afterwards, send them off to the play area, of a quality we adults are also tempted by (soft rubber bark is there to land upon if Dad takes a tumble around the tyres).

Hele Valley Holiday Park also has a launderette, washing-up area and wifi is available throughout the park for a small fee. Supplies are close by too: two pubs serving food within five minutes’ walk, and Tesco/Lidl as well as many independent shops a short drive away at Ilfracombe.