Presthaven Sands Holiday Park--- Second report below--- Fishing site
Gronant
Prestatyn
Flintshire
North Wales
LL19 9TT

We took both kids to the Haven site at Presthaven Sands, North Wales for last October’s half term as a treat. We arrived on the Saturday, after having booked a pitch approximately 6 weeks before. We were given a pitch number but told that if someone had already taken the pitch just go to another one!

The tourer field is situated at the entrance of the park, which is surrounded by the main line rail track for North Wales on one side and the site entrance road to the cabins and statics on the other. If you find out it is going to rain when you misguidedly go here be sure to be closest to the road, as when we were there it rained heavy for three days and the people not as lucky as us were bailing out their awnings from 2 feet of water!

By the Tuesday both kids, then aged 3 and 10 (boy and girl, by the way) wanted to go home as they had had enough of the half a mile walk from the tourer site to the swimming pool, outdoor and indoor play areas.

There is a pub adjacent to the touring site, it is the only thing that is. Children were allowed in when we were there, but only if they went and sat away from the bar.

The toilets on the whole were cleanish. The showers were of the type where you had to keep pressing a button for warm water that lasted approx. 1 min, not enough time to lather your hair, and it was absolutely freezing as the toilet/shower is not heated at all.

The thing we liked best of this site was the security, a prime example of this was when a couple had left the door of their caravan wide open, this was duly reported to security who did absolutely NOTHING about it. They didn’t even go and check that everything was ok.

The main road through the site does have a speed limit of approx. 5-10 mph, but if you can find anyone doing this, then you are a better man than me gunga din! The average speed was approx. 25-30, so don’t let your younger kids wander out on their own, guard them with your life!

There is a train that runs to the leisure complex, which includes the adult only bar, and two kids bars, the only problem with this is that it stops running at 5 pm, so be prepared for a long stagger back to your van.

Other than that we really enjoyed ourselves, NOT, we definitely will not be going there again, it is a running joke in our house that if the kids are bad we threaten to take them back there, they soon behave after that :o).

I nearly Forgot to mention the distance to the beach from the touring site. We gave up on that when we passed Sir Ranulph Fiennes walking back depressed because he didn’t complete this expedition.

I hope this is useful or useless information for someone.

Lee and Phil. CLIC. April 2000

Presthaven Sands Holiday Park--- Fishing site
Gronant
Prestatyn
Flintshire
North Wales
LL19 9TT

Location:
The site sits in Gronant between the railway line to it’s east and the Beach to it’s West, which has a Nature conservancy award.
The rail line is to Llandudno and Anglesey from Chester so lots of traffic mostly passenger but the few freight that do pass through really make the caravan shake and the beach on he West is a long way from the edge of the dunes.

The site:
Only a tiny part of this HUGE site is laid out for tourers (less than 40 pitches). The most part are new hardstandings with a small area (8 pitches) of grass standard pitches with electric (16amp). Hardstandings of which four have water and drainage, laid out between large wooden pitch dividers (they look the same size as telegraph poles). The standard (Basic) pitches have no markers or dividers.
There are two water/Waste points for the rest of the site these have th e, what seem to be Haven standard, push on taps which switch off immediately you let go of it...not great when you want to fill a 40L Aquaroll.
The toilet/shower facilities were basic, clean with toilet paper supplied and loads of hot water but not up to CC standards.

All pitches:
It is impossible to park at the side of your caravan in fact we were pitched next to a continental Hobby (on seasonal) and our awnings almost touched, we were not impressed... the guy next door even less so! but think how much HE was spending to be pitched all year.

Weather:
Not the usual report but the prevailing wind appears to be from the sea which is just a couple of sand dunes or three away to the West and considering our visit was May this wind was freezing cold and strong. We had used the lightweight sunshade awning which we removed after 1 night as the sail effect of the awning was so strong the van was lifting at times.

Facilities:
The site facilities were standard Haven all together...650+ metres away from the touring pitches, although there is a pub and shop at the touring end.. but as we visited in low season (MAY ???) the shop only opened for 2 hours a day and the pub only at weekends. The result...a DRIVE down over the 19 speed bumps to the main attraction area with the bars (only one open) pizza shop, Burger King, swimming pool, amusement arcade, three funfair rides, and sports areas and supermarket.
The site was ideal for kids with huge amounts of cash to spend though, as usual standard Haven style, you accessed the entertainment through the amusement arcade.
The complex has two rooms for shows but in low season only one is open and as the site was almost full it got rather cramped and of course being Haven you had to sit through Bingo and the Rory the Tiger and Bradley the Bear, kids entertainment together with their friend Anxious the Elephant. Oh Joy of Joys NOT even the boys were amused especially with the prizes on offer in the competitions which of course all cost even more money.
It was interesting to see the number of folk crowded just outside the doors smoking, sometimes so many you couldnt get in for them. Bar prices showed the fact, it was a captive audience at £3 a pint or £9.58 for a four pint jug.

Security:
In place is the Haven standard flash card system, a Haven card to get into the complex or drive in the gates...even a card from the Hafan Y Mor site from last year worked so what price security anyway.

Fishing:
Well.. the beach was so far away and was a flood beach. It was a haven for wildlife but even down at Talacre fishing would be of the mobile sort and you would definitely need to have a companion with you and both wear chest waders as the tide flooded at around 25-30mph as well as rising through the sand in places!

We went to Llandudno Pier for a more safe style of fishing especially with high tides being around Midday. The pier now cost £3 to fish in the day until 6pm (instead of £1.25 for 4 hours) and more after 6pm for private access. Compared to the last time we fished there - now you can only fish the small concrete platform off the end of the pier. The fishing shop is still there though now no longer run by Paddy. The only fish caught by the guys there, including me, were Spotted Dogfish.

Graham Wilson. CLIC. May 2010

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