A Family Break In Cornwall With Hendra Holiday Park

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited along to spend 5 days at Hendra Holiday Park in Cornwall.

Living in Devon, we are very familiar with our neighbouring county of Cornwall - it's always our go to destination for a family day out and we have often been known to head there for our summer holidays too.

 It's full of stunning beaches, beautiful scenery, and lots of fantastic family attractions too - so it really does make an ideal holiday spot. 

Funnily enough, this was not our first visit to Hendra Holiday Park... in fact it was actually the place that we enjoyed our first ever family holiday 6 years ago, when our eldest son was just 9 months old.

I remembered it fondly, and was keen to see how much it had changed since. 

Our Accommodation

We were staying in one of Hendra's premium Porthminster caravans and I have to say - it was by far the most impressive caravan we have ever stayed in!

 We've done quite a few caravan holidays over the years (9 off the top of my head!) and some of those had been really lovely, but without a doubt...this caravan was the best of the lot!

 It felt so light and airy inside, thanks to the large windows and light wooden floors throughout the living room and kitchen area. The decor was clean and modern, with plenty of mod-cons including a flat screen tv with dvd player, an Ipod docking station, and a lovely fireplace complete with mood-lighting in your choice of colours! Very fancy!

The kitchen had everything you could possibly need, including toast racks and egg cups. I was most impressed by the size of the fridge freezer - we usually find that we have to make do with tiny freezers in holiday accomodation but this was the same size as our fridge freezer at home. You could easily store a weeks shop if you wanted to self cater.

The bedrooms were also lovely - with two twin bedrooms, and a king size bed and smaller flat screen TV in the main bedroom. All of them had plenty of storage space, and the caravan was kept to a very high standard of cleanliness throughout.

The five of us were very comfortable there for the week, it didn't felt cramped in the slightest.

On-Site Amenities

Hendra has lots on offer to keep you busy during your stay - including regular Kids Activities run by the Entertainment team, an indoor Soft play area, a skate park (which my eldest was delighted with!), a playground and a HUGE wooden Pirate play ship which is where we spent the vast majority of our holiday if I'm honest - the kids couldn't get enough of it!

The Venue plays host to nightly entertainment including Bingo (with some impressive cash prizes!), Mini discos, bands and live music as well as the childrens entertainment which was a big hit with my three. Henry The Hippo was the camp mascot and he kept all of the little ones entertained with mischief on stage as well as plenty of good old party dances.

There are 3 arcades on site which we really enjoyed - none of them are huge but they are certainly big enough to offer plenty of choice, and the 2p falls machines gave out lots of tickets which was a bonus - we managed to save up enough for some nice prizes at the end of the week which the children were delighted with.

There's a land train that drives around Hendra each morning which is completely free of charge - and Henry or Henrietta Hippo usually join the journey too, which is great fun for the children.

As for food - there is a well-stocked on site supermarket for all of your essentials, as well as a Pizzeria and a Fish & Chip shop too. We didn't get around to trying the pizzeria unfortunately, but the cod from the Fish & chip shop was lovely!

And last but not least of course, is the incredible Oasis Swimming Pool that Hendra has to offer. This is a small additional charge (although there is an outdoor pool which is free for guests to use when weather permits) but is worth every penny - it features a selection of water slides (including a tiny one in the kids pool which mine adored!), and 3 pools together. We spent two full afternoons in there, and the children still cried every time we had to leave - they just loved it!

In The Area

Newquay is an ideal location for a family holiday as there is such a great choice of beautiful beaches  (the famous Fistral beach is absolutely stunning, although Lusty Glaze is our personal favourite!)   as well as some fantastic family attractions too.

We had a few lovely days out during our trip, including a visit to Newquay's own Pirates Quest.

This is a walk through pirate experience lead by actors  - it was not only great fun, but was really educational too - teaching the children all about Cornwall's history. The staff were fantastic with the children, I would highly recommend a visit if you have any pirate fans amongst you.

We also dropped in to the Headland Hotel for a spot of afternoon tea - this was the filming location for the movie version of Roald Dahl's The Witches which my children love, so they were really keen to see " the real Witch hotel!" - after we mentioned this to the door man, he hurried off and brought over some information all about the hotels experience with stars of the movie and secrets from behind the scenes - it was so kind of them to indulge the children's interest, and it kept them nice and quiet while Jon and I tucked into a nice Cornish cream tea!

We also enjoyed a lovely afternoon out in Boscastle, which is a quirky and charming little village about 45 minutes drive from Newquay. It's home to the Museum of Magic & Witchcraft - which is absolutely tiny but very interesting! It also has lots of quirkly little shops, too. It made for a lovely afternoon and I'd certainly recommend a visit.

But there is just so much to do in Cornwall that the problem is fitting it all in!

Our Favourite Things About Hendra
To round off this write up, I've asked all of the family to share what their personal favorite thing about Hendra was...here's what they said!

Tyne (age 6) - "My favorite part was the skate park! It had loads of places to do jumps, and I got to practice lots! I also loved riding my scooter around the caravan park too"

Noah (age 4) - "I loved the swimming pool best of all, it had a fun water slide and the giant tap that pours water on your head is really funny too!"

Sailor (Age 3) - "My best bit is the big massive pirate ship! I like playing Jack Sparrow on it"

Jon - "

And my own favorite thing? I'd have to say the evening entertainment - I love a proper traditional British holiday and the entertainment is a big part of that for me. A game of bingo and a glass of gin is all I need and I'm happy - and they made a really good G & T!

Special Offer
If you book a holiday at Hendra during 2019, please quote the code HAYB to enjoy free family swimming for the duration of your holiday. (1 swim per family member per day, Please check the swimming rations before you book’).

There are also some great special offers available here: https://www.hendra-holidays.com/newquay-cornwall-camping-holiday-park-offers/

To find out more about Hendra Holiday Park or to book, please visit: 

*We were invited to stay at Hendra Holiday Park free of charge for the purpose of this review. Hendra had no editorial control over this content and all words/opinions are my own. All attraction entry and extras were purchased out of our own pockets.
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