Castle Howard Lakeside Holiday Park

Liked Great stay grounded pitch perfect and very tranquil area.

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Liked Closeness of wash block. Mature trees.

Disliked Characterless. Nowhere near any pubs, shops or services. No access to Castle Howard estate. Lakeside limited. Had corner pitch, so fine to sit out on evening, but some caravans playing music all day and generally an unhappy place. Not a pretty or family friendly site

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Liked A very nice place, worth recommending to any family with children. Toilets and showers are available, and hot running water is available at all times of the day. It's a great area for walks. And a highlight is Castle Howard, a 4-minute drive away. With its magnificent gardens and a fantastic playground for children, you can spend a wonderful day at a low price.

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Liked Fantastic place to stay loved the long walks

Disliked Unfortunately my pitch was under tree cover so in the shade all day

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From the manager: Thanks for your reveiw; we agree- the beautiful Howardian Hills are perfect for walks which are not too strenuous. If you do come to Lakeside again and would prefer a different pitch to the one you are allocated please ask in reception and, when possible, our team will do their best to arrange this for you.

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

Disliked Nothing

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From the manager: We're glad you found everything to your liking Andrew and thanks for letting us know.

Liked Bella sosta , castello stupendo

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From the manager: (Nice stop, stunning castle.) . Grazie per aver visitato Lakeside. Buon viaggio. (Thank you for visiting Lakeside. Happy travels.)

Liked toilets and showers were spot on

Disliked Had no wi-fi signal but but was good to get a break off it didn,t pick my phone up for 2 days

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From the manager: Hello, it's good to hear that the location and facilities met your approval and...... a bonus- two days without technology... a luxury for many in today's fast paced life! Do visit again.

Liked Lovely holiday with 6 grandchildren ranging from 5to16 all had a great time going back to basics playing rounders and football (no phones or computers) just making friends and laughing will definitely book again x

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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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From the manager: Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough review Tess and thank you for following our code of conduct advice. What a sad reflection on society that not everyone takes the advice seriously. We're pleased to read that there were lots of things you liked about Lakeside and will consider returning one day. We do hope you will.

To respond to just a few of your other observations and suggestions. Our rules state it is one tent per pitch and the size mentioned is just as a guideline as tents come in all shapes and sizes. Each pitch includes 2 people and any extras are an additional cost. The majoirty of our guests enjoy having the 'unallocated' pitches as they can get together with their groups and, when more than one pitch is booked, arrange themselves to suit. This wouldn't be possible if everywhere was marked out.

I'm sorry that you found the site less tidy than usual. Storm Floris had a lot to answer for but let me reassure you that regular checks and collections are carried out to keep the site clean.

Regarding the deep cleaning, noon is the time when guests must be checked out by and new guests can start checking in; onsite guests are generally out and about exploring so for our cleaning team it is the quietest and most sensible time to deep clean the facilities. The disabled toilet is opened for people to use when the cleaning is taking place. You only mention 4 to 5 showers and toilets but there are also the mens and the disabled shower room, nine showers in total, so for the majority of the time this is adequate.
Our FAQ's, which can be found on our website do state that there is no wi-fi on site. There is however free wi-fi up at Castle Howard which you can access in the Courtyard area where there is a cafe, shops and the ticket office.

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.