North Beach is a caravan and camper van park. It is not a campsite or camping park or campgrounds.
They get a star for the nearby beach, it's a fabulous location and setting here. It really is lovely, especially on the fantastic summers day it was last Saturday. And the caravan park grounds were neat and tidy. But that's where the plaudits end.
Their website stated that no large tents were permitted, so I phoned to confirm what defined a large tent and was told three man tents were the maximum they would allow. We packed our two man tent, but decided to bring our four man tent anyway to see if we could pay for two pitches (we bought the four man because you can stand up in it, a nice luxury when you go camping as regularly as we do).
Again when we checked in at reception, we were told three man tents were the max. Fine, we had to accept that the two man tent it was to be.
When viewing the camping section at the back of the caravan park, there was a choice of a narrow strip of grass that was overlooked by a row of static caravans - two with barking dogs, nope. Or there was a lawn that was surrounded by a hedge on one side and a wooden garden fence on the other. It was like someone back garden, no sea view... just no view. If we wanted to camp in someone's back garden, we could have pitched up in one of the many gardens of our friends and for free. The next thing we realised is you couldn't bring your car into this area, that was a first for both of us. We've been camping 20+ times over the last six years between the UK and Ireland and this was truly was a disappointing first. The third thing that really annoyed us was there were two tents already pitched that were the same size as our four man tent. Huh. This clearly flew in the face of what we were told twice already.
We went back to reception to see if we could pay for two pitches and were told by the son that it was all about space, not the money. He wouldn't want to disappoint any other campers he might have to turn away because the camping area was full. I didn't buy this bleeding heart story one bit as he also pointed out how it was the only camping grounds in the whole area. i.e. tough! I found the attitudes of both him and the older lady very uninviting. They really didn't care.
So we left. And we are very glad we did. read more