For many, caravanning is inextricably linked to
childhood. For me, such holidays meant, boundless freedom, racing around and making new friends. For my parents it meant time in which to sit back and relax, while we burned off all our excess energy in a safe environment.
Seeing kids having a good time lets us adults have fun the lazy way, without leaving the comfort of the camping chair. But sometimes things turn sour and the devil can make work for idle hands.
While most children enhance the caravanning experience, bored kids can create mischief, mess and mayhem. If the idea of spending your well-earned holiday with these angel-faced rapscallions fills you with fear and dread, the adults-only site offers a haven.
Advocates of adults-only sites are sometimes given a hard time for their exclusive approach. The Clubs don't even entertain the idea: "We operate an 'open to all' policy and do not single out any group of whatever age for special
treatment," states the Caravan Club. "We're the friendly club, who offer something for
everyone," insists the Camping and Caravanning Club. So who are these miseries who seek
a world without children, and do they really believe that all
juveniles are delinquent?
A MATTER OF PREFERENCE
"In most cases it's quite the
opposite," says Tony Taylor. Tony is the owner of Waterrow Touring Park in Somerset and chairman of Tranquil Touring Parks, a group that promotes peaceful caravan parks just for the grown-ups. He says: "We get a lot of our business from teachers and caretakers, people who love working with children but who need a bit
of respite from them."
In fact, Tony started out with the strict intention of offering great holidays to families - not just adults: "Watterrow Park used to be a family park and it was
a hard decision for us to change to adults-only," he explains.
"I used to like having the kids around. We had some really nice kids come and stay and they would even help around the park."
But with the best will in the world, children are not always cherubs. "And I don't expect them to be," says Tony. "They're on holiday and it's understandable that they're going to get excited." Waterrow Touring Park, or 'The Garden in the Valley' as the Taylors refer to it, has been lovingly landscaped, and exuberant kids and manicured borders are not happy bedfellows. When the park admitted children, carefully cultivated plants and bushes were being destroyed by something as simple as a mis-kicked football. The kids had to go.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
The member parks of Tranquil Touring run a strict over-18s only policy, but not all sites want to banish children completely. Widdicombe Farm Park in Torquay, Cornwall, consists of four fields, one of which welcomes families. "We realise that many people want to see their families on their holidays - grandparents often like to spend time with their grandchildren," explains Mrs Glynn, owner of Widdicombe Farm.
The site has a clubhouse where families can eat together, but the bar is no-go area for children, so adults can enjoy socialising of
a more grown-up kind. Children get their own entertainment in the form of a play area but it's
a part of the family field, far from the adult areas.
Mrs Glynn says: "We think we've got it sussed - this is the best of both worlds. We don't want to turn people away but equally we don't want to be
overrun with unruly children." And that's why the park operates a strict no-nonsense policy. Family pitches take a maximum of six people, and if anyone is found to be too noisy they are given a refund and asked to leave.
But hang on a minute - this sounds more like boot camp than holiday park. Are adults-only sites like lending-libraries, where
visitors must abide by strict codes of silence? "Far from it," says Tony Taylor. "In fact you'll find adults-only sites have fewer rules and regulations than family sites. Children need rules to tell them where they can and cannot go - without the children you don't need the rules."
SAFETY COMES FIRST
Often, these rules are in place not to keep children under control but to keep them safe. Jane Norman, who runs Stroud Hill Farm in Cambridgeshire, told us about
a child who died on one family site, by straying from the main touring area and falling into a septic tank. The site owners were held to be liable for this terrible accident. "
"We have nothing against
children," she explains, "we have two toddlers ourselves, but our site has a fishing lake. We didn't want to put signs up everywhere, and in any case a warning sign to a child is often like a red rag
to a bull. We live on this farm and we love this farm; we don't want it to look like a prison camp."
Because you don't have to worry about securing silence before the curfew, the grown-ups can let their hair down on an adults-only site. When we spoke to Jane, she was in the process of recovering from "a bit of a late one". The previous night, staff and guests at Stroud Hill had celebrated Valentine's Day in style, which meant bleary eyes and sore heads all round.
IT'S QUALITY THAT COUNTS
Teacher John O'Donavan was relaxing in his Elddis Odyssey 482 and recovering from the festivities (complimentary red rose in pride of place on top of his dinette table) when we came calling. John likes his classrooms to be "so quiet
I can hear the sun shine", so he and his wife Janet (also a teacher) were instantly impressed by the quiet of Stroud Hill.
But it's not just the peace that impressed. "We are Caravan Club members and I have nothing against kids - in fact I find their presence on holiday quiet pleasant. But it really bothers Janet that you have to be off the pitch by midday, it just feels like they're processing people. At this site there's no nonsense about arriving and leaving at certain times
- it's so much more relaxed."
However, Stroud Hill truly is
a special site: it's the Caravan Club's only adults-only site. So how did it slip under the radar? "Stroud Hill is an exception to the Club's normal policy, since it was an opportunity not to be missed, offering as it does a fantastic site with superb facilities in a great location for many members,"
says the Club's Fiona Bewers.
Stroud Hill boasts a cafe and bar and a 40-seat à la carte restaurant, while the shower room is heated and spotlessly clean. These are the type of facilities you'd expect to find at a members-only health club, rather than a caravan site. And it's partly this high quality that partly makes adults-only sites so popular.
"Children, being children, tend to make a mess. Wardens spend a lot of time cleaning up after them," says Tony Taylor, "instead, we can spend time ensuring that all areas of our site are of the highest quality."
EACH TO THEIR OWN
Also enjoying the peace and
top-quality facilities at Stroud Hill Farm were grandparents Brian and Diana Longmore, who were enjoying the site's dog walk with canine companion Sally. Brain explained: "Club sites nowadays are very family oriented and they accept everyone. But when we were first members, pitches were bigger so you didn't feel like you were on top of each other. Also, now that caravans and cars are bigger, kids can bring all manner of toys and bikes, which can be disruptive."
However, they understand that there are misconceptions about adults-only sites and the people who stay at them. "We love dogs," says Diana, "and wish that we could take Sally to every site we visit. But we realise that not everyone shares our view, and for those people there are sites that don't allow dogs."
So it's really a case of each to their own. The Longmores, and thousands of people like them, are perfectly happy for kids to enjoy energetic, fun-packed
caravanning holidays - just so long as it's not near them. |
