My family and I had the opportunity to review the popular Hopton Haven holiday park on the second week of the summer holidays, and here is what we found.
Hopton Haven advertises itself as a family-friendly escape to the Norfolk Coast. With two swimming pools, a packed activity itinerary and direct beach access. Hopton is attractive to families hoping for an entertainment-filled holiday. Our previous holidays have never fully embraced an entertainment/child-centred approach, and my two and five-year-old were absolutely buzzing for it. Having never stayed at a caravan park before, we were intrigued to see what it was really like.
Shortly before your trip begins, you are invited to download the ‘Haven app’, this is a one-stop shop for all the information you will need about your holiday. It is well-designed, easy to use and a great tool to enhance your holiday. You can use it to book activities, make meal reservations, order food and access essential information about your stay.
Arrival and Check-in
The arrival and check-in process were streamlined and efficient. The receptionist clocked our car’s registration number as we drove up and after a quick name confirmation, we were directed to our caravan. I didn’t even have to get out of the car!
At this point, we were handed our play passes, which would give us access to the restaurants, entertainment, activities and main facilities. Make sure to keep them with you because we were asked to show them at various points of entry to the buildings. Although the play passes are added with an additional fee to your booking, I think we got a lot out of them, especially if you are savvy and attend the free activities on offer. The programme is packed with meet-and-greets, craft sessions and sessions with the ‘Seaside Squad’- which were all free with the play pass and great for kids under five.
Accommodation
We pulled up to our Gold Caravan, the top-range option at this particular park, and immediately noticed that the balconies in our area overlooked each other. We initially worried that this would compromise our privacy, which was a shame because one of the features of the Gold caravans is a large wrap-around balcony.
On entering the caravan, we were seriously impressed with its cleanliness, facilities and design. Soft, luxurious carpets and large comfortable sofas in the living room. The bedrooms had comfy beds and high-quality bed linen. The kitchen was completely functional, modern and stylish. Apart from the cooking and dining equipment, the accommodation is completely self-catering, so paying attention to what we needed to bring (found on the Haven website), made our stay much easier.
Staying in the gold caravan was a real bonus to our experience. The extras such as an additional bathroom, hairdryer and towels were all useful at different points of the trip. We were amazed to find ourselves forgetting we were even in a caravan, and our initial worries about privacy were soon diminished because of the well-designed privacy curtains.
We were lucky to have amazing weather during our stay, but the caravan didn’t feel stuffy at all, despite not having air-conditioning. There were so many windows, including some on the ceiling and huge sliding doors onto the balcony. One of the nicest features was being able to open them a crack, whilst keeping them locked for security. The caravans were surrounded by a nice lawn and privacy bushes, which were clearly well-looked after.
Amenities and Activities
On our first evening we headed to The Garden House, the onsite restaurant, which I had pre-booked. After being handed sticky menus, our hopes for a nice meal started to fade. The food was inedible and unattractive.
We ordered a mixture of food from the starters, mains and kids menu and it was all displayed on the plate without much care or attention. Although the menu offered a great range of vegan, vegetarian and other options- the food came out unseasoned and chips were soggy. A single layer of nachos were unlovingly splashed with cheese sauce with dips on the side. The quality of ingredients and presentation needed some work. The lovely staff tried their best, and service was good, but the food was a total disappointment.
We also tried the Papa John’s takeaway pizza, which was an improvement from the restaurant, but still below the quality I would have expected. The meal was salvaged by eating it on one of the picnic beaches overlooking the sea. I would like to see a massive improvement to the food quality and presentation before eating there again.
The bar and restaurant were open throughout the day so we could grab a Costa Coffee or cold drink. Service varied from person to person, and it was clear that most of the team had not had proper training to make the hot drinks on offer. It seemed that these issues could have been resolved by preparing the staff for peak season, and I couldn’t help but wonder if these issues might be ironed out by the end of the summer.
Hopton has an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, which looked slightly more impressive in the pictures. The indoor pool is more suited to kids with a slide, baby pool and some water features. The outdoor pool tended to be occupied by adults and older children, but was slightly more spacious. We had great weather but a holiday here in the rain would have been totally bearable, with so many indoor activities on offer. Haven uses a booking system to ensure that activities aren’t too packed, which seemed to work really well because nowhere felt overly full.
Our trip was last-minute and because activities could be booked 12 weeks in advance, we worried we wouldn’t get a space on some things. This didn’t seem to matter too much as you could enquire on site, and they would do their best to slot you in.
We had the chance to experience a wide variety of the activities on offer. Easily bookable via the app, each activity has a specific age range which helped narrow down which activities would suit our children. The activities were all well thought out, entertaining and worth the money (ranging from free to £22 per child) The staff couldn’t have been nicer, and it really added to the experience. I was pleasantly surprised by the smallish group sizes (even in the middle of the summer holidays) which gave an intimate feel.
We attended the Seaside Squad Make-A-Bear Party, Inflatable Arena, Dinosaur Fossil Adventures and Magical Makers and Balloon Modelling. Our favourite activity was the Magical Makers and the kids have been entertained by their take-home kit for hours. It was a brilliant family activity we could all try out.
I would say that the lower-cost activities seemed to sell out quickly. Try not to worry too much if this happens to you as there are plenty of activities available on-site that you don’t need to book.
Hopton Haven has the benefit of direct beach access, which we made the most out of during our stay. The beach was stunning, with multiple access routes down to the sand. I would strongly recommend bringing beach toys with you, but don’t worry if you forget as there are toys on sale at the site mini supermarket. The main play area inside the Activities hub was small and a bit tired-looking, but a short walk across the site to explore the other play areas was worth doing. We found some gorgeous play areas sheltered under the shade of the trees and we enjoyed exploring the different landscapes of the park.
The site felt safe, clean and well-maintained. We had a small issue on the outside of our caravan, and someone came to fix it immediately after calling them, even out of hours. Staff were keen to help and took the time to explain things or give directions.
Final verdict
Overall, Hopton Haven offers an excellent family getaway. With so much entertainment for the kids, parents can have a real break and our whole family was relaxed and happy following our visit.
My tips for making the most out of your stay? I would avoid the food options onsite and save your money for the activities as they were all brilliant fun.
Geraldine Bauer is a registered nurse specialising in oncology and palliative care. She is a mum of two children (aged 5 and 2) and spends most of her time balancing her passions and enjoying time with her family. As a freelance journalist, she specialises in health and wellness, fitness, and all things motherhood.