Highly Commended Visit England Award for Excellence

Cornish Resort Gains Five Star Status

Posted on October 20, 2015

Cornish Resort Gains Five Star Status

Pentewan Sands Holiday Park recently gained a five-star Quality in Tourism award.

Pentewan Sands Holiday Park recently gained a five-star Quality in Tourism award.

Pentewan Sands Holiday Park in Mevagissey Bay, near St Austell has been awarded a coveted five-star Quality in Tourism award for the first time since the site opened in 1945.

Following significant ongoing investment in the park, Pentewan Sands gained the highest level of five-star status this month, becoming one of only a few large holiday parks in the county to secure the top rating.

Visit England’s Quality in Tourism rankings recognise the best holiday parks in the UK and assess not only the overall quality of the site, but take into account factors such as individual pitches, the arrival service, recreation and leisure facilities and cleanliness.

Graham Brown, general manager at Pentewan Sands said: “This is a fantastic award to recognise the ongoing investment that we have made to keep up with our customers’ needs.

“We know our guests want quality accommodation and facilities, so we’re constantly responding to that by upgrading and replacing the facilities on our site. This year for example, alongside our ongoing investment, we have greatly extended the play area on the beach, refurbished our tennis courts and created a new, Cornish themed pub.”

Triple Success For West Midlands Park

Posted on November 24, 2014
triple

Graham and Tracy Leggat are celebrating a trio of awards at the Borders Hideaway Holiday Home Park.

Triple Success For West Midlands Park

Borders Hideaway Holiday Home Park in Herefordshire is celebrating two national gold awards this autumn – plus a gong for its first-class loos.

Run by husband and wife team Graham and Tracy Leggat, the park is among just ten out of more than 2,000 caravan and camping parks in the UK to be awarded the prestigious Five Star Gold award given out by VisitEngland to its highest rated parks. Its second glittering prize was a David Bellamy Conservation Award, presented to Borders Hideaway by the world-famous conservationist at its top gold level. The accolade recognises exceptional achievements by tourism businesses to protect and enhance the natural environment, and to encourage indigenous flora and fauna.

According to Professor Bellamy, park managers Tracy and Graham Leggat have created a “wildlife wonderland” with a range of inspired initiatives. Completing the hat trick of honours for Borders Hideaway this year has been its gaining of a 2014 Loo of the Year award for the high quality standards of its washrooms.

Tracy Leggat said that everyone at the park was thrilled at news of the awards, including its conservation accolade: “Although many of our guests do come here to enjoy a traditional family holiday, we can also offer a wonderful environment to explore and make wildlife discoveries,” said Tracy.

“It’s a real privilege to live and work in this beautiful part of Herefordshire, and it’s great to be able to help preserve its very special character with the support of someone like David Bellamy. “I also hope that the national spotlight thrown on Borders Hideaway will benefit other tourism businesses by showing what a wonderful place this region is for a holiday,” added Tracy.

East Devon Park Leads Green Tourism

Posted on November 29, 2013

The multi-award winning, family-run, Oakdown Holiday Park is the only holiday park in East Devon to hold an AA Five Star pennant.

East Devon Park Leads Green Tourism

In the past year alone, Oakdown Holiday Park on the Jurassic Coast in East Devon, has received seven coveted awards – among them a Highly Commended Visit England Award for Excellence 2013, Practical Caravan Magazine’s Best Green Site 2013 and a 16th consecutive David Bellamy Gold Environmental Award.

Oakdown is owned and run by the Franks Family; Doreen and Roger, Alastair and Andrianna and their team of dedicated staff. It is the only holiday park in East Devon to hold an AA Five Star pennant 2013/2014 – the equivalent of a top star rated hotel.

Oakdown Holiday Park is located between Branscombe and Sidmouth on the East Devon Heritage coast and lies within East Devon’s designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its owners, The Franks family, have farmed the area for five generations, introducing the first static holiday caravan to the farm in 1951 and opening as Oakdown Holiday Park, catering for campers and touring caravans as well as statics, 21 years later.

Now, with 16 luxurious caravan leisure lodges, 150 landscaped pitches for touring caravans, motor homes and tents and 55 privately owned caravan holiday homes, the 20 acre park welcomes several hundred guests during peak season weeks and 2013 has been a very busy year for the family run park with the beautiful British sunshine making an all important appearance.

The Franks continue to work hard to maintain a consistently high level of customer satisfaction and strive to be top of the game in all aspects of holiday park life. The driving factor behind what they do came from the vision to become a ‘green’ holiday park - a vision that was established before the concept of green tourism was even invented. Oakdown was the recipient of one of the very first David Bellamy Gold Environmental Awards in 1997 – an accolade it has continued to be awarded every year for the past 16 years.