Polmanter Touring Park

POLMANTER TOURING PARK TAKES GOLD AT VISITENGLAND AWARDS 2025

Posted on November 12, 2025

The 2025 VisitEngland Awards for Excellence celebrated the very best in UK tourism, with the coveted Camping, Glamping & Holiday Park of the Year category highlighting outstanding parks across the country. This year’s Gold winner was Polmanter Touring Park in Cornwall, with Rebecca and Phillip Osborne proudly accepting the award on stage at the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange.

Joining them were VisitEngland Advisory Board member Allan Lambert and compere Peter Hancock. Polmanter Touring Park has long been recognised for its exceptional customer service, welcoming atmosphere, and outstanding facilities. Its award-winning status reflects a commitment to quality, innovation, and creating memorable experiences for visitors.

The Osbornes’ dedication to both the park and the wider tourism community was evident in their heartfelt acceptance, with many praising their attention to detail and passion for the holiday park sector.

Silver was awarded to Mendip Basecamp in Somerset, a site known for its adventurous glamping offerings and family-friendly activities, while Bronze went to Hippersons Boatyard in Suffolk, which impressed judges with its combination of traditional charm and modern facilities.

The VisitEngland Awards for Excellence continue to showcase the innovation and dedication that make the UK holiday park and glamping sector one of the most competitive in Europe. Winning parks, like Polmanter, set the standard for service, quality, and guest experience, inspiring operators across the country to aim higher.

For holiday park professionals, the awards serve as a benchmark for excellence, proving that attention to detail, creative offerings, and a focus on visitor experience remain the keys to success in this growing and dynamic sector.

The awards serve as a benchmark for excellence, proving that attention to detail, creative offerings...

TRIPLE TRIUMPH FOR BEST OF BRITISH

Posted on August 6, 2021

TRIPLE TRIUMPH FOR BEST OF BRITISH

SOUTH LYTCHETT MANOR won the overall gold title in the Camping and Caravanning Park of the Year

The family owners of three Best of British holiday parks are celebrating after winning top honours in the year’s South West Tourism Excellence awards. The awards drew hundreds of contenders from across Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and the Isles of Scilly.
South Lytchett Manor in Poole, Dorset, won the overall gold title in the Camping and Caravanning Park of the Year category.
In the same hotly-contested category, Polmanter Touring Park in St Ives, Cornwall, took the silver trophy for the standard of excellence it provides to holiday guests. Owned for over 50 years by the same family and run today by husband-and-wife team Phil and Becki Osborne, the seaside park provides spectacular views along the Cornish coast.
In the Holiday Park of the Year category of the awards, Ladram Bay Holiday Park in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, came away with one of the main awards. The Carter family has owned the park for over 60 years and, like the two other BoB winners, has received many regional and national awards for its high standards and welcoming atmosphere.

Family Values

Posted on August 29, 2014

Family Values

Family-Values-2

Park directors Phillip and Becki Osborne collected Polmanter’s Campsite of the Year for 2014 award at the recent AA awards.

With views of the Cornish coastline from St Ives Bay to Trevose Head, Polmanter Touring Park has been a popular destination for families and couples looking for a base from which to explore the West Cornwall peninsula for more than four decades.

“We are fortunate to have an enviable location within walking distance of the stunning seaside town of St Ives, with sea views from many pitches,” says Phillip Osborne, director at Polmanter. “This, coupled with the high standards of the park ensures that a significant proportion of our visitors return year after year.”

Park owners, John and Sheena Osborne, have always been supported in running and developing the site by their four sons, of which Phillip and his wife Becki now run the site, living there with their two young children Kerenza and William.

Phillip provides day-to-day site management and continues to develop the park, with the aim of maintaining the high standards set by his parents. He comments: “We have a great team of permanent and seasonal staff who enjoy their work and provide a great level of service to our customers.”

Family-Values-Sunset

Polmanter boasts 295 camping and toring pitches, accommodating 11,000 guests each year.

With almost 300 spacious pitches on site, all with individual hedges and many with a sea view, Polmanter pride themselves on providing a quality camping and touring experience for their guests.

Philip adds: “We offer the opportunity for returning guests to book a specific pitch, and the online ‘pick a pitch’ facility on our website allows less familiar visitors to select their preferred pitch before arrival – which has proven to be an effective marketing tool for us.”

The Osborne family first moved to Polmanter in 1968, when the site was predominantly a dairy farm, which had offered basic camping facilities for the previous six summers. In the early days the family ran the farm and campsite simultaneously, selling milk produced by the dairy herd to campers in the on-site shop.

In 1982 the family decided to sell the dairy herd and focus solely on the touring business. Improvements were made to the amenity blocks, two tennis courts were added, and shortly afterwards a swimming pool with changing facilities and a sun terrace were constructed in the old farmyard.

 

UK Campsites Celebrate

Posted on May 7, 2014
campsites

The winners of the AA Caravan & Camping Awards 2014 were presented with their awards in a ceremony at the Aztec Hotel in Bristol.

UK Campsites Celebrate

A selection of the UK’s best campsites have been honoured at this year’s AA Caravan and Camping Awards ceremony.

Representatives from campsites across the country gathered at the Aztec Hotel in Bristol to recognise the front runners within the camping and caravan park industry. Although the awards have been running for over two decades, this was the first time the winners have been celebrated at an official lunch.

Receiving top honours, Polmanter Touring Park in Cornwall was named as the overall Best Campsite of the Year. The five star graded park offers a mix of hard standing and grass pitches with modern catering and leisure facilities, close to the picturesque fishing port of St Ives.

Phil Osborne of Polmanter said: “We are delighted that Polmanter has received this prestigious award. We are the third generation of the Osborne family to run the site, and we always listen to our customers and think about what they would like.

“This, along with insight gained camping with our own young family, has helped to inspire the provision of individual shower rooms, baby bath rooms and a weekly party for younger visitors in school holidays; alongside our ongoing commitment to provide a warm welcome, spotless, modern facilities and spacious pitches.” Phil added: “Our team take great pride in the site and taking care of our guests, and we are really pleased that the high standards that they help us to achieve at Polmanter have been rewarded.”

Cairnsmill Holiday Park in St Andrews, Fife scooped the award for Best Campsite of the Year in Scotland, and the Best Campsite of the Year in Wales went to Tyddyn Isaf Caravan Park in Dulas, Isle of Anglesey.

The awards ceremony also marked the official launch of the AA Caravan and Camping Guide, now in its 46th year. The guide has details of over 900 fully inspected and independently graded camping parks across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

To read more on this story, subscribe online today.