Ladys Mile Holiday Park

We have just came back from a week in a tent on ladys mile near dawlish and we found it a really nice place. It was one of the busiest weeks of the year and not a empty pitch in site. (we asked about staying on a few extra days but was fully booked) As other people stated the club on site is not very big and most of the seats for kids shows were taken by people without children who want a seat for the bingo so this was something that can be improved. Don't be put off by some of the reviews as it was brilliant. We had our 5 year old with us and there was plenty for her to see and do. She really did not want to come home and neither did we. the towns nearby were all nice enough with plenty of little shops for any bits you might have forgotten or need. The little shop on site was fantastic with all the extra stuff you might need at very reasonable prices.( sometimes even cheaper than supermarkets. The site itself was very clean with at least two members of staff collecting rubbuish during the day. Also the glass collector was the most efficiant i have ever seen. No sooner had you finished your drink he was there taking them away. We had almost been put off by some of the reviews we seen but are so glad we gave it a try. Of course there was noise of peoplke havig fun but hey thats what you go on holiday for isn't it. Hope this is helpfull to anybody looking for reasurance about the site.
Ladys Mile Holiday Park, Dawlish, Devon

We stayed here in September 2007. This was the first time we had camped at this site. We found it with no trouble. The site layout was user friendly. We managed to get a pitch close to the shower and toilet block, which were spotless. We had a level pitch with electric hook-up and were very happy with it. The site was very well maintained. Very hot water for washing dishes. Indoor and outdoor pools were clean and well maintained. Launderette if you needed it. Although this is a family site, it was very quiet at night. The site is very close to Dawlish Warren, which we walked to. Lots of facilities there, go karts, amusements, everything for the family if you wanted it. Very good restaurant too. Overall we had a very enjoyable stay at The Ladys Mile.

This has got to be the worst site I have ever been on. We had to park on a hill with a 20% incline, which was not good for caravans let alone my trailer tent. But let me start at the beginning.

I along with a friend decided to take our 5 children, 4 boys, 16, 15, 11 and 4 and a girl 12, off for a week camping with my rather large Trailer tent. We arrive after a slow 6 hour journey on what was one of the busiest weekends in August (this should have been only 3 hours), to find that we had a mile queue to get into the camp site, so after yet another ¾ hour we eventually reached the car park. Hurray!!!. But had another 20 minutes waiting to be checked in by what I can only say are the most unhelpful staff ever. Told to go to the Corpse field, if you are told to go there just don’t, we knew no better so off we trot. By now it is approx 5pm and the children had been in the car since 9am. It was starting to rain……, we found what seemed to be the best pitch left in the field and started pitching.

Now remember we had a 4 year old with us, so off we go in search of the toilets, we look around the field and cannot find any, eventually we find a small porter cabin with 4 toilets and 3 showers per sex hidden just inside the field next to us. I have to say these were clean but the 3-4 minute walk was not always reached by our 4 year old.

Showers… as I have said there were three for each sex in the porter cabin, the water temperature could not be control in these, so if it was hot, it was hot and it often was from all reports, like so with the cold. We worked out that they had a total of 7 showers per sex for 3 fields. The 3 fields had approx 300 pitches in total, we gave an estimate of 4 people per pitch, that’s a total of 85 people per shower per day, no wonder it was a 45 minute wait for a shower no matter what time of the day, saying that I did not try in the early hours of the morning.

Washing-up facilities - there were 5 of these for the same 1200 people, and for us another 5 minute walk there and back. It is the first time ever that I have had to wait ¾ to wash up.

As you can see much of our time at Ladys Mile was spent waiting for showers, toilets and washing up facilities. More of it was spent trying to level our trailer tent, cooking meant two of us holding the hot pans on the cooker to stop them from rolling off. Dinner and drinks often ended up on the floor as they rolled off the unsteadily propped up table.

We did complain to the Owner, who was more worried about his problems, in that he had requested a toilet block but could not get planning permission blah blah blah. After us complaining at least three times, they did eventually offer to move us and even help us move, but they were not able to find us another pitch until Monday evening, when it was to late in the evening to do anything. We did not know if the pitch would take our tent plus the two cars and as we were wasting so much time waiting for showers etc we did not want to waste another 4 hours re-pitching the tent, so in the end we stayed were we where.

Now on the plus side, I am sure the club house would have been OK if there were not so many people about, if you were not there by six you could forget getting a table from which you could see the stage. The Showers, toilet etc were clean considering the amount of people that had to use them. The children had a great time in the pools. There was a very nice park but this was for children of all ages, and mixing teenage boys with young toddlers was not a good idea. Our four year old learnt many words he had not hear before, in the end we had to stop taking him there.

Lastly the staff, many of who were Europeans, were not at all friendly and seem to be there under perseverance. When asking for the chips to be re-cooked as they were raw in the middle, the counter staff replied with the dirtiest look every, and I am sure would spat on them if I was not watching closely.

Overall the camp site was over full with not enough facilities, and using the field that had been used for sheep the year before was not a good idea. There was only just enough room to get the cars between the pitches, and the ground was very dusty, which caused everything to be covered in it. The fields were packed so tight it was really quite unsafe for the younger children to be about on their own. We will not be going there again, and many of the people I spoke to would also not be going back. Some of these people had previously been returning to Lady’s Mile for years.

I'm a single parent with 3 children (6, 9, 16), and Lady's Mile was exactly what i was looking for.
It had something for the children to do all of the time, The play park was ideal and it also had a 10:30 curfew which is great especially as it was enforced nightly by the brilliant security staff.
There was also a disco which was brilliant for all 3 of the children, and you could tell that the children were thought about as the entire disco was a no smoking area.
All the staff were extremely helpful, and did everything they could to make sure everybody holiday went smoothly.
I definately recommend it.