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I am fairly new to caravanning as I only got a caravan about a year ago although I work with trailers for a living and I don’t like anything with the word Alko on it and a caravan has it all over the running gear and coupling (this needs changing). Although I have serviced it and it is in better order than I would have ever expected.

I have had 2 trial runs with the caravan 1 weekend locally (clumber park ) and 1 week that was a disaster as I have 2 very young children and I went to Hunstanton out of season with everything closed and gale force winds where my kids could not stand up ( only 1 was walking at the time) and it was too windy to put the porch awning up as it was beginning to tear in the wind before we exen got it up. This meant that we spent most the time in the caravan that was crammed full of things that should have been in the awning.

We have booked 10 days at primrose valley as it has a lot to do on site for the kids including indoor things for the kids in the English weather we get.

Now I am looking I think this may have been a bit of a mistake as I am hearing that the tourers are out of the way and the facilities for the site itself do not seem to be the best.

I have ended up spending a small fortune kitting the caravan up for this it is the most expensive holiday I have ever had and I have not set off yet.

Fortunately I keep my van on my back garden so I have been able to work on it. I have fitted 2 12 volt power outlets (cigarette lighters) I have got a full awning and tall annex then found out I cannot use the annex at this site + 2 LED strip lights for the awning that I plug in to one of the 12 volt supplies and Velcro to the poles, a mattress topper for our bed, Halogen oven, carpet for awning, more plates and cutlery, mains water kit for the aqua roll.

My aim is to go away and not struggle have I missed anything that may make my life easier or more comfortable.

The only things I have thought of that my van does not have is a locker in the side of the caravan in to the awning with 12 and 240v power outlets, I tried to get a locker this morning but could not get one until Tuesday and I go on Wednesday I have also thought of aircon but his is an old van that probably does not warrant the price.

I must admit I have spoken to a few people that have been, read their website a bit more and read the reviews on this site and I am already begining to regret booking this site as I had not realised that it was so far to the main centre I do not have an arial that works properly in the caravan and the site does not provide an arial point, there is no close by play ground (insite of the caravan) both sites I have been to before my eldest child wanted to wander to te playground all the timewhich we were not keen on as he was only 2 at the time but if he did manage to escape he did not have to cross a road and we could see him whilst we tried to catch him or supervise him.

any way I leave tommorow see how it is.

We just booked the haven site as there is a large entertainment center and my son wants to see roary the tiger as his cousins have. also my wife worked at primrose valley, reighton and blue dolphin through the 90's and she loves them. why she did not point out that the tourers are so far away next to a main road with no play ground I dont know.

I think next time I take the van out I will look for sites that are more designed for tourers than statics with a small area for tourers that seems to be an after thought.

Really for small kids I dont think that they need all the entertainment that haven offers they would have been fine with a small site with a playgound / climbing frame close to the beach.