Sandhills Holiday Park

DFL (down from London), stressed and tired, we revelled in the quiet and peacefulness this beautifully maintained caravan park provided.

We stayed in a modern front-row luxury caravan with balcony for a week situated on the cliff-top enjoying wonderful views of White Cliff Bay and the ships sailing in the horizon and never felt crowded. It was a treat to have a sandy beach only a good stone’s throw away. However, the walk to the beach is steep and you need to be fairly fit to tackle it when coming back.


After a lazy day lolling on the beach, swimming in the sea or exploring rock pools in our aqua shoes (bought at the delightful Tuppenny’s beach café where we enjoyed several brunches) it was inconvenient to return back to base to find the site’s shop had closed at 5pm. On Sundays it closed even earlier. Although the store has a wide array of goods along with milk, eggs, cheese, and frozen goods etc, there was limited choice to what we could buy to eat for an evening or main meal as fresh vegetables, fish or meat were not available.

We don’t drive so our main means of transport was the local bus which only runs hourly. These rides weren’t entirely pleasurable as the roads are extraordinarily bumpy and the fare expensive. As Bembridge is the closest town with limited options for groceries, we did our main shop for the week at Tesco Extra in Ryde which is quite a distance from the site as it involves two bus rides there and back. We recommend if you do travel by bus on the Island you get a weekly travel pass - much cheaper this way - as a single fare is £3.50.

Our caravan was cosy, contemporary, new, well equipped with central heating. However we assumed from the online brochure that it was bigger than it actually was inside as it sleeps six people. The master bedroom containing the double bed was small with limited storage space. We made use of the cupboards in the other two rooms for our clothing and personal effects. We paid over £560 for a week stay in the caravan and at that price felt the bed should have been of higher quality, and a hair dryer, bath and hand towels provided. The mattress was a little lumpy and didn’t give a lot of support.

The living area was spacious and comfortable with DVD/telly, an electric fire, a drinks cabinet and more. The kitchen was a dream to prepare food in as it was better laid out and easier to cook in than my own. Ample light and fresh air would flow through the many opened windows.

Cool drinks are an essential on summer holiday and there were no ice trays in the fridge, or an ice making facility on site. We improvised and made our own ice trays out of fruit cartons.

We had a good time – were delighted with the overall experience of living in a luxury caravan by the sea and would consider returning next year to this park. The weather was kind to us. Next time we will be more prepared and order our groceries and condiments online before arriving. There is much to explore on the Island and some of it can be done by walking along the coast – at low tide - towards Bembridge where there is another beach café and a well known lobster and crab pub a little further on which we went to. We were sad to leave this holiday park - could have done with another week of chill time. Security and reception staff was laid back, friendly and unobtrusive, yet there when you needed them. Taxi service was excellent.