Magnificent Seven

Magnificent Seven

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Less than two miles away from seven of Newquay’s world famous beautiful golden sand beaches, Hendra Holiday Park aims to offer something for everybody. Located in glorious countryside, just outside Newquay in Cornwall, with 80-acres of landscaped parkland, Hendra welcomes approximately 1,000 to over 3,500 people a night during the peak season, in a range of accommodation options, including camping, touring, glamping, holiday homes and lodges. It may come as a surprise to many that for such a large park, Hendra has been owned and operated by the same two families for over 47 years. Hendra was started in 1972 with just camping and touring but grew and grew as time went on and now has over 300 luxury holiday homes of different types, sizes and styles and over 600 pitches ranging from standard grass ones to super ones with water, electricity and cable tv connections. Family holidays are Hendra’s passion. The second and third generations of the Hyatt and May families are both involved with the day-to-day running of the Park and the fourth generation are small children themselves. The families live nearby, and with everything, including administration, located on the Park this makes the day-to- day running of the business very efficient. Hendra’s guests span several generations too, many have been coming to Hendra since they were young children and now bring their children and grandchildren to the park – so they have grown with the business. Hendra is passionate about sustainable tourism and is committed to protecting the Cornish heritage and landscape by making sure providing family holidays has no impact on the environment!

SOLAR FARM
Hendra has its own solar farm, which provides over 70% of electricity to the Park, and two Biomass boilers which heat the Oasis Fun Pool using locally sourced wood chips. Hendra’s commitment to being a sustainable business has been recognised with the Gold Award for Sustainable Tourism at the 2016/17 Cornwall Tourism Awards, building on the ‘Winner of Winners’ award at the Cornwall Sustainability Awards in 2011. Hendramagnificent 7 pic 6 not only has great accommodation and a wonderful location, one of the things that keeps guests coming back are the facilities. The Oasis Fun Pools are one of the main attractions of staying on the park. The indoor pool has a river rapid ride to take your breath away, water cannon and geyser for a real soaking, then get drenched under the giant tap, fountains and waterfalls too.
There are three water flumes, the fast and furious high-speed aqua whiz flume, the exciting wet & wild 265ft super flume, and the fun for all gentle fun slide! There’s a brilliant toddlers’ pool for safe water splashy fun with a slide, squirty creatures, and lots of warm water to splash about in! In the summer months the outdoor pool is open, a perfect place for cooling off, with sun loungers around the pool for relaxing in the sun – bliss! There’s so much to do for kids, so t hey won’t be bored. The indoor play centre Henry’s Play Loft will keep little ones occupied for hours, a skate and scooter park for older kids to enjoy their skateboard or scooter in a safe environment, an outdoor gym, a play park and indoor amusements too. Families love the Hendra Safari Train, which goes around the park each morning. Hendra has a range of dining options, the terrace bar and restaurant is open early until late, and a coffee bar offering hot and cold drinks and snacks. There’s a fish and chip takeaway for a traditional seaside supper, or Mario’s Pizzeria for freshly baked pizzas served in its Italian themed restaurant or as takeaway. Both have outside seating, which overlooks the children’s play area. The fun doesn’t stop when the sun goes down. Lots of evening entertainment make a night in our Venue cabaret club a must. The evening starts with mascots Henry and Henrietta Hippo entertaining the kids and then the holiday favourite bingo, followed by live acts on stage including comedians, theme nights, variety acts, game shows, bands, karaoke, talents shows, illusionists and more. Hendra has won many accolades, in 2018 alone it scooped AA Platinum Award ‘elite park’ 5 Pennant rating, Gold 5 Star Visit England ‘exceptional’ quality grading, two South West in Bloom Awards, a Gold award for Tourism and Leisure category, The Bruford Cup for Best Horticultural Display, Platinum Loo of the Year Award and the Hoseasons Diamond Award. The awards show the Park's commitment to excellence as a top destination for family holidays.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE
magnificent 7 pic 3Hendra chooses a charity each year to raise money for, and guests kindly donating an optional 50p on each booking. This is small change but makes such huge difference and last year, together with collecting tine on the park, raffles and other fund raising events Hendra raised a record-breaking £13,398 for Macmillan Cancer Support. This year the chosen charity is the Alzheimer’s society, which is the UK's leading dementia support and research charity. Another way Hendra’s guests help to make their stay green and sustainable is by ‘freecycling’ a facility provided on the park so they can leave behind unwanted holiday items like beach toys, windbreaks and BBQs at the end of their break for other guests to enjoy. The park actively encourages guest feedback, via surveys, reviews and social media, which is always valued and responded to. It’s vital to continue to make Hendra the holiday destination for future generations too, so it’s important to keep improving, developing and maintaining the Park, whilst being sustainable. It is a challenge, but one that’s relished by owners and staff.

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On The Menu

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From high-class restaurants to family-friendly pizza cafes, the choice on offer at many locations is vast.

On The Menu

WITH millions of British holidaymakers heading for holiday parks in the UK this year, one of the major attractions for most visitors was that the cooking would be done for them.

Catering is the vital ingredient of the holiday park business menu. From high-class restaurants to family-friendly pizza cafes, the choice on offer at many locations is vast. Quality food and good surroundings are key to the restaurant enjoyment factor with staff service and excellent menus par for the course in these competitive times.

Butlins pride themselves on top-quality restaurants with a total of 58 eating and drinking outlets and venues at their three seaside locations – Bognor Regis (West Sussex), Minehead (Somerset) and Skegness (Lincolnshire). These range from pubs, bars, buffet-style restaurants, ice cream parlours, pizza and pasta restaurants, fish and chip restaurants and even a restaurant run by TV chef Brian Turner.

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Hendra Holiday Park’s takeaway was named ‘Seasonal Fish & Chip Operator of the Year’ at the Seafish National Fish & Chip Awards earlier this year.

As with other resorts, holidaymakers book either self-catering holidays or the option to buy a dining package, which allows guests breakfast and dinner in their buffet restaurants. With 1.5 million guests a year, around 600,000, equating to 45 per cent, choose to buy the dining plan option. “Catering is an area of the business that we’re investing in heavily,” says James Silverstone of Butlins. “Character meals are available at all resorts – for example breakfast with Billy and Bonnie Bear.”

Haven Holiday Parks, part of Bourne Leisure, have worked hard to make the restaurant experience a memorable one across their locations. Fish and chips shares a quintessentially strong association with the seaside, so with a great level of investment in their fish and chip shops, Haven have increased the quality and experience of its venues to help celebrate the seaside and the UK’s favourite dish. Theme events have also been added to provide choice. Haven’s mid-week and weekend carvery is very popular, whilst Curry Night and Steak & Grill evenings provide added variety.

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