The summer holidays are a great time for a caravan holiday at a Haven Park. Discover Haven Cleethorpes Beach (aka Haven Thorpe Park) in Lincolnshire and see what we got up to during our holiday!
Arrival day: Monday
It’s quite a long drive from Norfolk to Lincolnshire, especially when you factor in stops along the way. We arrived in Cleethorpes at around 1pm and went straight to our favourite place for lunch. Steels is somewhere we have been going to for years for fish and chips and I honestly think there’s nowhere better. Having lunch as soon as we arrived meant that by the time we were done it was time to check in at Haven.
Getting settled in
You can pay extra to choose where your caravan is, and also to upgrade if you want to, as well as paying more for an earlier check-in time. We paid that bit extra to check-in at 2pm and also for where our caravan would be and this was money well spent. Our bronze grade caravan ended up being a short walk from all of the main facilities and it was in the perfect location for us.
We spent a bit of time unpacking everything in the caravana before heading out to explore the Haven site. This one in particular was a lot bigger than what we’re used to in Norfolk but thanks to our caravan location, we were able to get around easily and quickly. Most things are in the centre of the site, such as the restaurants, play areas and swimming pool.
Evening entertainment and bingo
For our first evening we chose to spent time in the entertainment complex, starting with cash bingo! There are loads of seats in the Marina Bar but if you want to sit at the front, you need to get there at around 4pm when the doors open. We had quite a wait for bingo because of this but it meant we had a great spot for when the children’s entertainment started.
The great thing about the Marina Bar is that you can use the Haven Serve App to order drinks or food to your table. When you have kids, this is great as you don’t have to get up much and you can have dinner while the entertainment is on if you want to.
Tuesday
A morning swim
Tuesday started with a swim at 9am. You have to book swimming slots in advance and they’re released so many weeks before your holiday. We were lucky to get 9am slots all week, which were perfect for us. The indoor swimming pool is huge, and there’s loads of space to spread out. Actually, there are 2 indoor pools as well as a smaller area for young children. Outside you’ll find a lovely lazy river, magnificent space bowl flume and huge water slide. If you don’t fancy swimming the whole time, there are sun loungers outside too, which are perfect for the warmer months!
As well as the indoor pool, there are outdoor splashzones just outside the pool entrance. This is perfect, weather permitting, for children to run around and have some water fun without needing a swimming slot. Grown ups have plenty of space nearby in the outdoor stage area to sit and have a refreshing drink too.
After swimming we headed back to the caravan to have showers and get ourselves ready for the day. Even on short breaks, we like to have some down time and relax a little bit between activities. This allowed us to make some plans for the rest of the day!
The hardest mini-golf ever!
We spent the afternoon playing a super fun nine-hole golf course. This can be booked on-site or via the Haven app and it costs £4 per person. Although we only booked on the day, we were able to get a good time slot easily and had plenty of options for times. Mini golf is in close proximity to other outdoor entertainment such as the Ranger Station and high ropes course. This golf course was maybe the hardest we’ve ever played and we all struggled on quite a few of the holes. Although the overall score was much higherer than we’d all hoped, we had a terrific time. This was something for the whole family and a cheap-ish activity!
Dinner at the Carousel Restaurant
Dinner was at the Carousel Restaurant, in the main entertainment area. I had booked this in advance on the Haven app howvever, there was always lots of tables free. You can either sit inside or on the restaurant terrace. Haven usually have some good offers in the restaurant for food, such as kids eat for £1. Unfortunately, the meals weren’t as good as we’ve had at Haven before and I even had to send mine back. There are much better dining options on-site compared to the Carousel Restaurant.
Evening at the beach
After dinner we headed into Cleethorpes for a couple of hours at the beach. There are miles of golden sand here but it does get busy depending on where you go. Instead of heading towards the pier, we stayed further up nearer to the Leisure Centre. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves and it was a great place for us. Unfortunately, we timed it wrong and after a walk out on the beach, the tide started to come in quite fast so we had to head back. I would have loved to have spent more time on the beach, collecting shells with Erin and maybe having an ice cream!
Wednesday
Carvery lunch
After the usual morning swim and getting ready for the day, we headed out of Haven for lunch. There’s a great pub called the Trawlerman just across the road from the Cleethorpes Beach Holiday Park. You can walk the distance quite easily from the Haven site or you can drive instead. The Trawlerman serves both a daily carvery as well as usual pub type meals and children’s food. It’s not the first time we’ve eaten here so it was nice to have somewhere to go that we already knew would be nice.
Boating Lake and Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway
For the afternoon we decided to explore the surrounding areas a bit. Although me and Mum are from this area, it’s been years since we’ve been home properly and done some of the tourist attractions. The weather forecast was great so we parked near the boating lake and fed the ducks for a while. You can buy bags of food here for not a lot of money and it will keep the kids occupied for ages. You can also hire a variety of boats here as well as going for a nice walk around the lake and get some fresh air.
A short walk down the street is the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, something I’d never done before. You don’t have to book in advance and trains run every 40 minutes in the summer. This is a lovely way to see a bit more of Cleethorpes Town, but on a fun steam train!
Slim Chickens for dinner
Mum went out for dinner with family so me, John and Erin headed to Slim Chickens on the Haven site. Although we have eaten at a lot of Haven sites now, we had never been here before. Obviously, this is mainly a chicken restaurant but there are some plant-based meals too. We had a selection between us, including a classic strips meal, a children’s meal and a salad. The food was delicious and we got a lot more than we thought we would. It made a change to eating at the chip shops or Burger King!
Thursday
Thursday was much more of a chilled day, starting with swimming like normal. Instead of going into Cleethorpes again, we stayed on-site. Spending the whole week doing adrenalin-fuelled activities is exhausting. This was a good opportunity to explore the Haven site some more, watching dogs have fun on Haven’s doggy obstacle course, play on the outdoor adventure area and spend more money than I would have liked on the arcades!
Papa Johns pizza delivery
Something we do on every Haven holiday is to get a Papa Johns pizza. This time we opted to have it delivered to the caravan as we wanted to stay in and play games that evening. I love having the choice to have food delivered, because sometimes you just don’t want to go out. Papa Johns is quite expensive for pizza however, there are always some great offers on. We always get 2 large pizzas with 2 sides and 4 drinks for around £40, which saves quite a lot.
The last day: Friday
Sadly, Friday was our last day. I was able to book a swimming slot for 9am though, which meant that John and Erin could go again before we had to leave. You have to check-out by 10am but you can leave your car in the car park to make sure you make the most of your last day.
Before driving back to Norfolk we spent a bit more time in Cleethorpes and just had to go back to Steels for one more fish and chips lunch. It’s my favourite place to go when I’m home and it never disappoints. This was a great way to end our family holiday to Cleethorpes! We had such a blast at Haven Cleethorpes Beach and Erin is already asking when we can go back.
Find out more about Haven Cleethorpes Beach
- What to eat at Haven Cleethorpes Beach
- Staying in a Bronze caravan at Haven Cleethorpes Beach
- A summer holiday at Haven Cleethorpes Beach
