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Reviews of Alton The Star Camping And Caravanning Club Site
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Alton The Star Camping And Caravanning Club Site
Cotton
Stoke On Trent
Staffordshire (Browse area)
ST10 3DW
Tel: 01538 702219
Visit their website Check Digital TV coverage See Weather Forecast
   
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Pitches: 280
Open: 01/03/2024 to 02/11/2024
01/03/2025 to 02/11/2025
Rating: 
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 Small Campervans |
 Glamping Units |
 Holiday Homes for Hire |
 No Statics for Sale |
 Seasonal Pitches |
 Electric Hookups |
 Hardstanding Pitches |
 Fully Serviced Pitches |
 Show Full Facilities |
| Who's it for |
 Families Welcome |
 Not Members Only |
 Rallies Welcome |
 Not Naturist Site |
 Dogs Welcome |
 No Dogs Allowed |
 Groups Welcome |
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| Facilities |
 Toilet Facilities |
 Hot Showers |
 Washing Up |
 Bathroom |
 Baby Changing Facilities |
 Laundry On Site |
 Drinking Water |
 Disabled Friendly |
 Chemical Disposal |
 Battery Charging |
 Gas Exchange |
 No Recycling Facilities |
 No Kitchen Facilities |
 No Freezer / Fridge |
 Motorhome Point |
 Wifi Access |
 Shop <5 miles |
 Bar <10 miles |
 Restaurant or Cafe or Takeaway <5 miles |
| Activities |
 Kids Playground |
 No TV Room |
 No Games Room |
 No Evening Ents |
 Fishing <5 miles |
 No Wild Swimming |
 Indoor Pool <5 miles |
 Outdoor Pool <5 miles |
 No Horse Riding |
 Cycle Hire <5 miles |
 Golf <1 mile |
 Tennis <5 miles |
 No Beach |
 Watersports <10 miles |
 Boat Launch / Mooring <10 miles |
| Other Features |
 No Sea Views |
 Not Working Farm |
 No Campfires Allowed |
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 No Waterside Pitches |
 Public Transport <1 mile |
 Offroad Dog Walk On Site or Direct Access |
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Reviews:
173 in total, now showing 131 to 140
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| Date of Visit: August 2006 |
Unit: Touring Caravan |
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| Reviewer: Jay(mcr) |
2 reviews from this member |
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 A quick friendly welcome as we arrived, and shown to our pitch. The site is kept very clean, and quite, apart from the staff constantly mowing the field, i know it has to be done but he kept going over and over the same area for it seemed like an hour , I could recommend an electric one or service his tractor (very loud noise). My children enjoyed the park, The only problem was the lack of a shop on site, as I ran out of provisions and had to go to Alton village about 10 min drive.the other problem is the 2 showers in the gents that are always busy, and the pot wash area also very busy.I like the way they do have a security barrier to keep out the unwanted . A great base camp if your visiting alton towers. I know sites have rules but the list they gave us was written like your at school, they need to be re-wriiten with out sounding patronising. I would recommend this site, and I will return again.this time with plenty of food. 
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| Date of Visit: August 2006 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Silverweb |
15 reviews from this member |
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With its very close proximity to Alton Towers (5mins), this makes an excellent base for visiting the park. The surrounding countryside is beautiful. Very lush, very green (probably becasue it rains so much). This site is immaculately kept - very tidy, very manicured. However - practically all the pitches are on a slight slope, consequently, balancing cups on tables and cooking on the skew, was a little frustrating at times. The pitches are not marked and we pitched close to the hedge on the main field with plenty of room. The noise from the road was also quite noticeable. The female showers were good. 6 showers, 2 private cubicles and several loos. The mens block, I was told, was not so good - only 2 showers in the same block, next to the urinals. However, they also had a couple of portaloo showers aswell. The washing-up facilities are not sufficient for the size of the site - only 2 - so there was always a queue. The tent field which was above the main field - was very slopey and that too, had portaloo facilities. There wasn't a shop on site either, but you could buy milk or frozen bread from the reception office. The children's playground was very well maintained and provided entertainment for a range of ages. They have a strict noise policy and various other rules, but that suited us fine. It would have been helpful to have lighting around all the roads/paths as it was a fair walk to the toilet block plus to add a path across the grass to the washing up area - as the constant walking over the grass, made the area and floor very muddy. In summary - if you can put up with a slighly slopey pitch and want to be close to Alton Towers, this site is fine.
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| Date of Visit: August 2006 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Swatty809 |
1 review from this member |
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After reading some of the views on this site, I was a little apprehensive after booking, to say the least! On arrival the reception staff were not overly friendly, but were efficient. (And how often does one need a chat with the staff??)A strong point was made about the disposable bbq rule, despite having be told on the phone when booking! We were also given a list of rules, and a tag to hang on the tent with our dates.and a list of rules on the back!
We were asked to pitch close to the caravan pitches, therefore the field was not too sloping, thank goodness! We were also in fairly close proximity to the toilet block / washroom. The toilets were fairly well maintained (although I am not sure why award winning; have been in others of similar or better standard without awards; my husband told me the men were almost the poor relations as they had cramped showers and not enough of them. Also the men's showers were, he felt, unhygienically close to the urinals.
One beef was the limited amount of washing up sinks - just two that we could find; which meant a queue could easily form at peak meal times.
My seven year old loved the play area, which she said was great fun. The lack of any other facilities made careful food planning a must. They do not even offer a freezer block service, so it is very limited what can be kept fresh.
The whole site was clean and well maintained, and the quiet rule after 11.00pm was well received by us!
The location was fantastic for Alton Towers, which we visited twice, for the theme and water parks. We also planned visits to Birmingham (Cadbury World) and Nottingham during our stay, so it made an excellent base.
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| Date of Visit: April 2006 |
Unit: Touring Caravan |
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| Reviewer: Allsopp89 |
5 reviews from this member |
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I didn't like it on this site. Don't get me wrong it was very clean and looked lovely but there are too many rules.
I love to go on holiday and have a quite peaceful time but they are too strict here. There is a nice park for the children but I not sure they could play much till the warden would be out telling them to be quite.
We were very close to the wardens site and they hounded us.
We are not rowdy at all, in fact we are quite the opposite we are very considerate to others. We have a dog and they said that we were not allowed off the site because the dog would bark when we left, but we know for a fact that he will only bark when there is someone walking very close the van, he is far too lazy to spend the day barking.
Also they wanted everybody in bed by 11:00pm. They had gates on the site which are about 8ft high and they lock them at 11:00pm without delay which I find quite bad. There is no warden that stays on site and they only leave you with a number to ring. I find this quite bad and kept thinking what would happen if something had happened and someone needed to go to the hospital, or the ambulance had to be called and they could not get in because the gates were closed.
There is a very nice pub just 5 minutes walk and mu husband and his dad decided to go their on our first night, before we were aware that they closed the gates at 11pm. When I realised that they were closing the gates and mu husband was not back I told the warden who just said that it states in the in the rules about the gates closing, and he closed the gates and went off, without waiting. My husband and his dad had to climb very, which I found very embarrassing.
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| Date of Visit: August 2006 |
Unit: Touring Caravan |
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| Reviewer: Navy Boy |
1 review from this member |
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The whole of the time we were there, the park and its facilities were kept spotlessly clean, no noise, no rowdy behaviour and overall very family friendly. Our children made new friends on the playpark which was very safe and kept them occupied all the time.
Having read other reviews posted on this website, there is one lesson to be learned by all reading this, the hard and very strict rules about noise and behaviour, bbqs etc. Were put in place by the owners to prevent our experience from happening there.
The Star is not a place to go if you want to stop up late because if you do make a noise after 11.00pm they will evict you (as we beared witness too).
Would we go back to The Star? - Really there is no other choice for decent law abidig people.
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| Date of Visit: June 2006 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Kelp |
4 reviews from this member |
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We visited the Star for just one night as it was our first camping trip with children in tow. The site was well maintained and the tenting field really big which gave my kids the chance to run off their energy. The play park was good and there was no trouble with noise after about 10.30. I did hear one group being told to turn their music off which is always a bonus when you have young children.
It's a bit of a pain that you are unable to use disposable bbq's but I suppose that rules are there for a reason. We didn't get to use the award winning toilets as the only ones on the field we pitched on were portacabins and nothing to rave about. Overall the site is worth a visit especially if on a visit to Alton Towers just around the corner. The only gripe I had with the site was the lack of a shop but as we only stayed the one night it wasn't a problem.
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| Date of Visit: June 2006 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: DebbieT |
1 review from this member |
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What a fantastic campsite. Situated in lovely countryside and having Alton Towers approx a mile a way, I thought this a fantastic choice for families. The shower blocks were spotless and you could plug in your own hairdryer - always a bonus!
There is a lovely old pub which is about a two minute walk away, serving great food. I would heartily recommend this. As a tip, don't take disposable bbqs as they are not permitted, but bbqs with legs are.
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| Date of Visit: May 2006 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Ellies Mum |
2 reviews from this member |
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Lovely site, friendly staff, kids playground and sparkling clean loos . what more do you need?
We spent two nights during May half term as we were visiting Alton Towers. Great to think that after 9 hours on the rides we were only 5 mins away from a sit down!
Pub at the end of the field had a good varied menu but we found service very slow.
Would even recommend this to my mum - and she's really fussy about the facilities!
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| Date of Visit: May 2006 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Monkey75 |
1 review from this member |
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A little bit of Stepford in sunny Staffordshire!
My boyfriend and I stayed at the Star Camping and Caravan park for one Saturday night in early May. Having just bought a new tent to replace a well-worn one, we were eager to pitch it, and chose the campsite because of its close proximity to our home - perfect for a quick getaway - and recent good reports in the press.
The campsite is extremely clean and well looked after but I would warn that the price you pay for this is a lack of atmosphere and 'soul'. The campsite is probably ideal for people not used to camping and who want a relatively inexpensive stopover when visiting Alton Towers, but not for those who enjoy the 'outdoorsy' aspects of camping and are looking for a stress-free break.
On entering the site, we were advised by a member of staff that we wouldn't be able to use a disposable barbecue. No problem we said, we do have a disposable barbecue but - as always, being conscious of any damage we may cause - we have a stand with us to avoid scorching the grass, so in essence it would be just the same as the proper barbecues that are allowed by the site. However, this was not acceptable to the staff member, who said that disposable barbecues were not permitted because people throw them into the skips and cause fires. Despite our protestations that we were not intending to do this - we're both responsible adults - and that the hot coals from standard barbecues could be thrown into the skips, we were told that if we were spotted using the barbecue and stand a bucket of water would be thrown over it. This seemed a harsh response to say the least and we did contemplate moving on to another site. However, the weather was closing in and we wanted to pitch before the rain came down and so we decided to go ahead and stay at the Star. One thing that did irk us somewhat was that we had to pay a £4 supplement for staying just one night, which we could understand over a busy Bank Holiday weekend when pitches are like gold dust, but not on a rather damp and grey Saturday afternoon, when there were only a handful of tents on the site. Also, strangely, the man at the gate seemed very keen for us to pitch right by his hut, on a fairly uneven piece of ground, which we could only assume was so that he could stand guard all night, bucket of water in hand! After some persuasion, he allowed us to take a pitch on the camping field, which is nice and large, but unfortunately right next to the road, so not really that exceptional.
After pitching our tent, we went for a wander round the site, keen to check out its 'loo of the year' 2006. Firstly, we were absolutely amazed at the number of warning/restriction signs that we saw posted on our 10-minute walk - it seems as though if there's an unadorned bit of wall, fence or planter, the site management will stick a notice on it. We know that we live in a litigious society nowadays, but does each piece of apparatus on the children's playground require its own safety restriction notice or each tap in a row of several require a 'caution this water may be hot' sign?! The overall effect was very unsettling and if I'd been there with children, I would have felt on edge the whole time, for fear of one of them breaching the rules and us all being evicted. I appreciate that rules are necessary on a campsite to keep it clean and functioning for all guests, but I do feel that the Star goes overboard in their quest to remind their patrons that there are rules in place - there's a rather gloomy feeling that 'big brother is watching you' the whole time you're there. The award-winning loos - while being very nice and clean - were nothing exciting and pretty much what we've encountered in a lot of other camp sites, as well as being a good walk from the tent field (an indication I feel of how well-received under-canvas campers are at the Star).
And so to dinner. The disposable barbecue debacle had somewhat quashed our appetite for a meal cooked out in the fresh air, and the thought of frying our food over our petrol stove rather than grilling it didn't really appeal. So we headed off down the hill to Oakamoor village centre, to check out the local pubs and find something more appetising for dinner. The Lord Nelson Hotel was our first port of call - definitely a 'local's pub' but welcoming all the same. Next was The Cricketers Arms, which offered more appealing surroundings but still with a menu that didn't tickle our taste buds. Finally, we found The Admirals House bar and restaurant, which provided a 2-course meal of wild boar and pheasant pie, followed by pecan and toffee pudding, which was absolutely delicious. The climb back up the hill to the Star helped rid us of any guilt over our calorie-laden dinner and we popped in to Ye Olde Star Inn for a nightcap.
In summary, the Star Camping and Caravan park is very clean and well kept BUT - and it's a big but - not that welcoming. I would imagine that if you are maybe elderly or enjoy very quiet static caravan holidays, then you would probably like staying within its well-manicured Stepford-like boundaries. However, if your ideal camping experience is sleeping under canvas, watching your children run around in the fresh air, cooking your dinner al fresco over hot coals, then star-gazing late into the night round some glowing embers, and just generally chilling out, then the Star is probably best avoided. We definitely won't be back and won't be recommending it to any of our like-minded friends - in fact, if it hadn't been for the nice meal we were forced to go out and find, we'd have had more fun pitching our new tent in our back garden!
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| Date of Visit: September 2005 |
Unit: Tent |
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| Reviewer: Bee1983 |
1 review from this member |
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My boyfriend and I stayed at this site last September on a trip to Alton Towers and the Museums through Telford and surrounding areas. We found the site excellent. It was beautifully clean and quitet, without the usual tourist 18-30 rabble. Being only 22 & 25, my boyfriend and I found it relaxing, and it was nice to see children and their families able to play happily without loads of drunk and stoned teenagers milling around. We are both quite loud people in our own environments, but really appreciated the serenity of the camp site. The rules are there for a reason, and it makes camping a lot easier when the rules are followed. We are going back to Alton in April, and our first choice would have been the Star; but as there is a group of us going, we have to respect the rules and find somewhere else to stay.. Perfect for a base for Midlands tourism and Alton Towers, and an ideal place for families or "mature" couples!
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173 Reviews in total, now showing 131 to 140
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Common Questions
Is Alton The Star Camping And Caravanning Club Site child friendly? YES, it accepts children & has a playground View all facilities
Where is the nearest shop to Alton The Star Camping And Caravanning Club Site? There is a shop within 5 miles View all facilities
Is Alton The Star Camping And Caravanning Club Site dog friendly? YES View all facilities
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