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Reviews of Golden Sands Caravan Park

Q: Is Golden Sands Caravan Park child friendly?

YES, it accepts children & has a playground View all facilities

Q: Where is the nearest shop to Golden Sands Caravan Park?

There is a shop on site View all facilities

Campsite Search > UK > Northern Ireland > County Londonderry > Limavady > Golden Sands Caravan Park > Reviews

Golden Sands Caravan Park
26 Benone Avenue
Limavady
County Londonderry (Browse area)
BT49 0LQ
Tel: 028 777 50324
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Pitches: 54
Open: 29/03/2024 to 31/10/2024
29/03/2025 to 31/10/2025

Rating:

7/10 from 15 Reviews

Tent Pitches	Caravan Pitches	Motorhome Pitches	Small Campervans
No Glamping Units	Holiday Homes for Hire	No Statics for Sale	Seasonal Pitches
Electric Hookups	Hardstanding Pitches	No Fully Serviced Pitches	Show Full Facilities

Who's it for
Families Welcome	Not Members Only	No Rallies	Not Naturist Site
Dogs Welcome	No Dogs Allowed	Groups Welcome
Facilities
Toilet Facilities	Hot Showers	Washing Up	No Bathroom
No Baby Changing	Laundry On Site	Drinking Water	Disabled Friendly
No Chemical Disposal	No Battery Charging	Gas Exchange	Recycling Facilities
No Kitchen Facilities	No Freezer / Fridge	Motorhome Point	No Wifi Access
Shop On Site	Bar <1 mile	Restaurant or Cafe or Takeaway On Site
Activities
Kids Playground	No TV Room	Games Room	No Evening Ents
Fishing <1 mile	Wild Swimming <1 mile	Indoor Pool <1 mile	No Outdoor Pool
Horse Riding On Site	No Cycle Hire	Golf On Site	Tennis On Site
Beach <1 mile	Watersports On Site	No Boat Launch
Other Features
Sea Views	Not Working Farm	No Campfires Allowed
No Waterside Pitches	Public Transport <1 mile	Offroad Dog Walk On Site or Direct Access

Reviews: 15 in total, now showing 1 to 10 Previous 10 Next 10

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Date of Visit: May 2024

Unit: Touring Caravan

Nights stayed: 2

Travelling as: Family with young children

Reviewer: Clifford106447

2 reviews from this member

I have been going here over a period of 25-30 years. As a kid I loved this place going with my dad. We have been all over the north if Ireland and I always loved here

My wife and I bought out first caravan and this was the first place we went.

Its just as how I remembered it

The park is very big for the kids to play in and kick a ball around and there is a lot of kids around for the little ones to make friends with

The facilities are all grand, the toilets and showers were all clean

The shop at the entrance has all the essentials, your not gona do a weeks shopping in it but drinks, food for cooking bit o breakfast and lunch and snacks there all there.

Touring pitches were decently spaced out, all with electric and waste water on the hard pitch

Now at night there can be a little noise if there were people near by having a drink in a large group outside but it didn't bother us, like everyone is there to have a good time and that's how they want to enjoy there stay by sitting out late and having a drink round the BBQ, its not like they were having a rave lol

I know there may have been some bad press about issues here lately but it wont put us off going, I loved the place 20 odd years ago and still do now

The beech is close by, great place for taking a bicycle to get around from park or shops or beech. There is also a outdoor swimming pool 5 min walk away that's great for kids

Date of Visit: July 2018

Unit: Tent

Reviewer: Fara

1 review from this member

The camping area was a great size and the owners gave each site plenty of room for tent and car. Very family friendly and even allowed dogs as long as they are well behaved. Its a lovely part of the world with an absolutely stunning beach 5 mins walk away. We couldn`t fault it. The only thing we would say is that there aren`t really enough toilets and showers plus the fact they close at 11. 00 so you have to queue for 2 porta loos after this time. I know they close for an hour for cleaning mid afternoon which is fine but with kids it might be better if someone was cleaning on an hourly basis at the height of the season. Forby this brilliant relaxed atmosphere great place.

Date of Visit: August 2013

Unit: Tent

Reviewer: Wkender

2 reviews from this member

There is a large field with its own toilet and shower block specifically for tents. Toilets and showers are clean - showers cost 20p - but gives you plenty of time - and hot water.

Large playground for kids if you want to keep them entertained.

Very close to the beach - you can hear the waves at night - just lovely.

There is a hot food bar - in case you don't feel like cooking, and a shop, for those items you may have forgotten and the morning papers.

Staff are very friendly and helpful. I am planning to go back to this site this weekend - I enjoyed my stay there so much!

The weekend cost me £10 - absolute bargain!

Date of Visit: August 2013

Unit: Tent

Reviewer: Jbarr

1 review from this member

Took our first ever family camping trip to Golden Sands.

It's been a very long time since I pitched a tent never mind doing it with my wife and two kids, so, my review can only be very basic as I have very little to compare it to.

We arrived on a Friday afternoon (between half 2 and 3pm. The first thing I noticed before we entered the site was the sheer number of kids, all age ranges (though not too many teenagers). This could be a plus or minus depending on your personal outlook, having 2 children of my own I'd view it as positive.

There is also a chippy and a small shop just outside the entrance of the campsite. We did not use the chip shop and my wife bought milk from the shop, it was small with a few convenience items, if you want meat/veg you will need to bring it or go to one of the towns if you don't want to travel with it.

After booking in (service fine in my opinion), I was told to pick anywhere to pitch but if possible to remain near the edges of the field as the center could get a little waterlogged.

We drove around (on the grass), picked a suitable looking spot (there were about 12 other tents already pitched)in a large field (near the edge)and proceeded to pitch our tent. The ground was fairly flat (nothing I would complain about)and although wet from the rain not sodden.

After pitching the tent I had a look at the camp toilets (a small mens/womens set of toilets at one end of the pitch) basic, clean, with Pay (20p) showers, there is also 2 steel sinks with hot and cold water at the back of the unit. In my opinion acceptable. The one down point here is that those toilets are locked down at 10pm until 7am, meaning after that you have to walk to the main site toilet block (we never viewed it so cannot comment, though, it looked like a fair distance to walk in the dark/rain if you needed too!).

There is also a large area closed off for a play park for the kids, it looked OK, but my wife took our kids so I didn't get a good look, she didn't mention anything negative about it though, so I'll assume it was fine.

Our first night was pretty awful, we had a long day (i get up at 5. 30am to go to work) so come 9pm it was pretty much time for me to relax, we put our kids to bed, thinking it was a reasonable time, the kids from the static caravans were however still running around shouting quite loudly at 11pm, that would be my first major gripe. There seemed to be no patrol/ranger to quite people down, by about 11. 30pm it had pretty much gone quite. Except for the fact that I (a personal mistake) had pitched our tent near 3 very drunken adults, who partied all night (by 3am my wife who had never been camping before said 'I'm never camping again').

Apart from talking loudly with every other word being a profanity, were still awake (and drinking) at 7am Saturday morning, this was also accompanied by the sound of gunfire in the distance (there is a prison and a military training ground several miles away), I found the gunfire less of an issue or irritant.

On Saturday we left the site and meet friends staying in the Benone Leisure Complex, a few minutes walk away. In comparison their tent pitch was allocated, with road access down the middle, the ground seemed a bit drier, though, tents being allocated meant that you couldn't carve out a bit of extra space away from others if you wanted to. The toilet block seemed a bit more dated/grubby.

I did not see a play park area for the kids.

We headed to Benone beach which, if it's not raining (we had very light on/off showers until 2pm, dry after that)is lovely. Drive on beach with plenty of space. The water is clean (and cold), but that only phased me the kids didn't seem bothered and had a blast.

Would definitely say if the sun was out and it was a hot day, it would rival any beach in the Med (except when you want to brave the water).

On Saturday evening we went our separate ways and we headed back to our tent at Golden Sands, but not until after visiting the Mussenden Temple in the fading twilight (excellent experiance).

We were greeted by the sight of our drunken friends staggering about beside their tent.

We put the kids to bed around 9pm again, the rest of the site seemed quite and peaceful compared to the previous night, and we were able to sit outside the tent and enjoy the semi silence until the rain started just after 10pm, we watched the rain for about an hour before we decided to turn in (luckily the rain also seemed to dampen our drunken neighbours spirits and they were fairly quite by midnight.

Sunday morning was nice weather, and we ate breakfast around 7am, lots of other families were up and about and being respectful of the early morning noise level.

I could see dark clouds coming over the hills behind us, so I packed up the gear and tent fairly early, around 9am (having only had one practice run at it that nearly ended in divorce)I wanted to get the tent away fairly dry.

With the tent and car packed the heavens opened up and the rain was torrential, so it was time to leave. I handed our toilet block key (£2 deposit) back, and had a fairly pleasant goodbye, though, not asked did we enjoy our stay or would we come back, and headed towards home.

In all, I would return to Benone. I'm not sure which campsite I would choose. I certainly wouldn't rule Golden Sands out, we didn't have an unpleasant stay, though, it was only a weekend and we didn't spend much time on site.

I don't want to sound negative, because we had a good stay, I just don't want to say it was great because I have nothing else to compare it to.

Chances are, given the weather, I'd go back, Unlike Benone Leisure Complex, if the weather was good and you decided last minute that you wanted to go with the tent, you'd probably get accommodated. Which was what happened with us.

In my opinion, it's not a bad site, we just had a few (minor) issues with it.

Date of Visit: August 2012

Unit: Tent

Reviewer: Sails

2 reviews from this member

We pitched our tent in a large field area. It was flat so good for camping.

There is a new toilet block in the camping area which was good and clean but closed at 10pm. The main block is about 5 mins walk away, so people used their cars to get there during the night, adding to the noise. There are no baby bathing facilities.

Playground large and good but despite it's size still very busy. There is a shop and chip shop. We didn't need to use either.

Local area beautiful but if you are kept awake until 3am you don't have the energy to enjoy it. The campsite is very large and extremely busy. We were unable to sleep until the drunken crowds around the campsite settled for the night. There were a lot of small yappy dogs barking at night, but most of the noise was from drunken campers. If you want a peaceful night you would be more likely to get one by pitching your tent outside the city hall in Belfast.

Date of Visit: April 2012

Unit: Touring Caravan

Reviewer: Kendo51

1 review from this member

This was our first trip as a family with our caravan, we decided to go here because of the beach and its location we where not put of by the previous reviews and went with it.

The site was very busy loads of coming and going children running mad when we arrived, site was clean staff we found to be friendly and helpful although was disappointed that they had no switch/debit payment facilities, so we had to hook up then drive back out to nearest town to lift money from ATM, not a lot of assistance for getting pitch etc instruction was basically drive until we found one.

Toilet blocks are dated and not enough showers/ toilets for the size of the site which has been recently extended, in saying this they where very clean and maintained few times a day.

Washing machines and dryers where £3 each tokens bought at the office, there is a timer that lets you know when it would be finished, my wife and myself came back about 10 mins after wash was due to be finished to discover someone had dumped our washing out of the machine on top of the drainer even though other machines where free, thought this was quite ignorant. Dryer was no better came back to find someone had opened the door which knocks of the cycle so we had to hike to office again to get another dryer token ( a machine in the was room would save a lot of hassle) so all told cost £9 for wash and dry.

Play park again dated but safe and secure.

All was going well on first day until darkness fell, the toilet block seems to be the hang out for youths revving car engines, playing night-time football etc, it was not pleasant, squealing and shouting up around the caravan which was quite frightening for our 8 year old daughter, noise settled around 1am. Reported this next day to be honest think the staff cannot control it although feel they did do their best.

Next night was no better, just the fact we had the added bonus of caravan getting knocked and rocked by teenagers when I went out to speak with them, the cheek was unreal. Things calmed around 12:30

We had booked and paid for 5 nights and I could not see us sticking it, 3rd night was more of the same 12 midnight 4th night in we had enough and packed up that next morning. No refund was given only a credit note for another night some other time. As our first caravan holiday experience it was awful, on edge in the evenings, not being able to relax.

Date of Visit: July 2011

Unit: Tent

Reviewer: Dibsmc

1 review from this member

Pitched up here for a night last week as had never really visited this area before having always opted for Donegal in the past. Was very impressed by the facilities and the atmosphere. £16 per tent per night with £2 deposit for toilet/shower block during night. A large area for tents(price is for tent any size) - one tent per car as per slip handed to us on arrival also stating no parties or loud music after 11pm which for us was great with a toddler with us.

Toilet and shower block beside the tent area which closes at 11pm and reopens at 8am - hence the key for the main block during the night. A shop and hot food takeaway beside the main gate - which was great-saves us taking milk etc all the way with us in the car. A friendly site and good for families with the large play area for kids, beautiful beach 5 mins away and tourist complex with fun facilities close.

We found it peaceful at night although in daylight hours there are a lot of kids on bikes racing around but good if the kids are yours and enjoying themselves ! A shop also in the office supplies camping gear - disposable bbqs/windbreaks/bodyboards etc. The usual stuff for enjoying camping. We were there when the weather was fine but I dare say there is plenty to do even if it rains hence we are planning to go again this weekend for a few nights - would highly recommend this site as I found little fault with it - toilets/showers were clean and never short of loo roll !

Pets are also allowed - dogs to be kept on lead and everyone seemed to adhere to this - No bbqs after 10pm and no gazebos. Apart from that there weren't too many restrictions and we felt safe and secure with the main gates closed from 12-7am. Looking forward to a nice weekend there again - no matter the weather !

Date of Visit: April 2011

Unit: Touring Caravan

Reviewer: Pigsy73

1 review from this member

A Tale of Extremes our Easter 4 Days @ Golden Sands.

The area is stunning! Blue Flag Beach in the Shadow of Binevenagh Mountain - Simply Majestic.

The site is friendly with a handy mini mart and a great wee chippy, super park for the kids and great green spaces. In short they had a ball.

Now Then ! Simply put a tale of too many, too much and not enough!

Too many Touring Caravans, too close for both safety and comfort IMHO, and they just kept coming and coming. Every available piece of land was fair game and had a tent, motorhome or tourer on it! The poor family backed in beside the bins must have had a ball!

Great work has seen all the pitches concreted but just too many, Caravan, Awning and Car fought for space and recently completed there was not enough grass and too much dust, covered in the stuff although had it rained we might have needed a crane!

Not enough Power! At one stage I turned off everything to get the kettle boiled and the trip switch was up more than down!

Not enough Showers! 4 in total to cover what we reckoned were about 150 touring units. Simply not enough with that many people using those facilities.

All things considered we had a great break. I will be back to the area but I don't think I'll be back to Golden Sands.

That is a shame because a little more thought on facilities and less on revenue would give this site a much better rating!

Date of Visit: August 2010

Unit: Tent

Reviewer: Hotrocs

2 reviews from this member

Visited this site in August 2010 on a Sunday to a Thursday. I had a large family tent. I could pitch it anywhere in the camping area. When I arrived it was very busy being a Sunday but still plenty of choice of sites. Unfortunately, the pitch I decided on was not the best. The rain came and was very heavy and the field soon flooded in parts. Although my tent did not leak and thankfully I had a brilliant bath tub ground sheet, I did not get wet. Where I was pitched was like a pool and the tent was sitting on around 2 inches of water. It felt like you were on a waterbed. The next day most tents disappeared, but I chose to move the tent to a dryer place in the field which was really good. There were for a number of days large pools of water in the field and drainage is an issue.

The site is well situated to the beautiful Benone Beach a matter of minutes away. Kids enjoyed body boarding etc. The sports copmplex next door has tennis, golf, swimming and it is good value for day passes. There is a chippy and small shop on site. The toilet block is ok and keep clean and the previous comment about the showers I agree and disagree with. The first shower in men's coming in door are not the best as described by previous reviewer, but there was hot hot eventually. In contrast the two other showers further in (around the corner)were great, lots of hotwater, switches a good height etc and seemed to be newer. Good children's area the kids loved it and want to go back. My wife though hates camping and hated the rain and flooding issues. Overall a good site.

Date of Visit: July 2010

Unit: Tent

Reviewer: Pandpdugg

2 reviews from this member

Before I start I must mention that we have only ever camped in France prior to this experience and are open to the fact that this may well be how camping in Ireland is. If I was to be polite I would merely say that this site was too lively for my family and I and just leave it at that, but as I choose this site from reviews I felt it important to write this. There were several issues.

The tent pitches were quite a distance from the toilet/shower block which was an inconvenience and although the site was well lit caused problems if a little one wanted to go to the loo during the night. The shower block was locked and a key supplied on arrival for a £2 refundable deposit which is fine. We found that for a family of 5, in different places at different times, 1 key was not enough per party. The block itself, although relatively clean had four showers each of which had the usual push in button mechanism to allow the water to flow. The button was high, approx 5 feet off the ground. Each push of the button gave exactly 11 seconds of water before needing to be pushed again. Hot water came for approx 1 and a half mins before going stone cold. I would have preferred to pay £1 for a decent shower than 20p for frustrating experience. Again the children could not reach the button which meant I had to get in with them and get soaked! One shower block for the size of this camp site was far from enough.

The site is massive. When darkness fell we naively thought that the site would calm down as it is really busy. The gates close to cars at midnight but this did not stop people driving around the site well into the early hours, I clocked the last one at 1:30am. People were milling around until almost 3am and had no respect for others. Our tent got walked into several times during the early hours, each time to shrieks of laughter. There was shouting and loud supped up cars exercising their exhausts throughout the night. We had booked 2 nights but couldn't face a second and left after 1.

The plus points of this site are the great adventure playground for the children which was well fenced and provided hours of entertainment for them. There was a chippy and small shop for use by campers.

The most amazing beach I have ever been on is a approx 8 minute walk from the front gates of the site. It was patrolled by 3 lifeguards and had specific areas for swimming, jet skiing, dog exercising etc. There was a lovely complex called the Benone Complex close by which offered golf, tennis, bowls and 2 small swimming pools. It also had a cafe. This is a breath taking part of the country and well worth a visit

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Common Questions

Is Golden Sands Caravan Park child friendly?  YES, it accepts children & has a playground  View all facilities

Where is the nearest shop to Golden Sands Caravan Park?  There is a shop on site  View all facilities

Is Golden Sands Caravan Park dog friendly?  YES  View all facilities

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