VisitScotland

WISH YOU WERE HERE – Brighouse Bay Holiday Park in Southern Scotland

Posted on February 16, 2022

WISH YOU WERE HERE

Picture postcards from Brighouse Bay Holiday Park in Southern Scotland…

 

Southern Scotland’s Brighouse Bay Holiday Park in Dumfries and Galloway has been named by the AA as the best campsite in Scotland. The family-run business near Borgue beat hundreds of other eligible parks in Scotland to the title when it was announced in November.
Awards given by the AA – based on guest reviews and a “secret shopper” visit by inspectors - are regarded as the Oscars of the holiday parks industry. The seaside park’s facilities, services and levels of hospitality all went under the microscope – and each was found to meet or exceed the AA’s highest standards on every level.

 

 

As well as welcoming campers and the owners of touring caravans and motorhomes, Brighouse Bay provides a number of other accommodation options. They include luxury holiday lodges to own and to hire, some with private hot-tubs, plus cosy glamping lodges which are especially popular with young families.
A member of the prestigious Best of British group of independent parks, site facilities include an 18-hole golf course with spectacular coastal views, and a leisure complex which features an indoor pool, bistro, bar and family entertainment.
Activities available on the park include a mountain bike pump track and, during the summer, pony trekking for all ages as well as an all-tide slipway for boat owners.

 

 

Not that Brighouse Bay is any stranger to awards for it has been graded 4 stars by inspectors from VisitScotland and won a number of environmental accolades. These include the David Bellamy Conservation Award at its top gold level, achieved for over 20 successive years in recognition of its many wildlife initiatives.
It also gained an additional award last year for its work to conserve hedges and woodlands, plus wildflower areas which provide vital foraging for honey bees and other pollinators. The park is also undertaking an ambitious rewilding project in areas of the grounds which will help provide additional wildlife habitats.

Brighouse Bay
Tel. 01557 870 267
www.brighousebayholidaypark.co.uk

Scottish Honours For Perthshire Park

Posted on June 29, 2018

Scottish Honours For Perthshire Park

Blairscottish honoursgowrie Holiday Park in Perthshire has been named as Scotland’s Best Caravan Site of the Year at the Scottish Hospitality Awards which took place at Crowne Plaza, Glasgow.
The annual awards highlight hospitality enterprises which offer exceptional standards of facilities and services, and take into account the feedback given by customers.
Wood Leisure started life just almost 40 years ago when husband and wife Colin and Margaret Wood acquired picturesque Blairgowrie Holiday Park. The couple invested much time, effort and resources to create what is now one of Scotland’s most highly regarded and multi-award winning holiday parks.
Building on their success, Colin and Margaret then went on to develop five other parks using the same business formula of combining high quality surroundings with excellent customer service. Their other parks are Corriefodly Holiday Park in Perthshire, Deeside Holiday Park near Aberdeen, Lomond Woods Holiday Park in Ballock, and Campsie Glen near Stirling.
The family’s portfolio was added to earlier this year with the acquisition of Callander Woods Holiday park - formerly Gart caravan park – in Perthshire. At Blairgowrie Holiday Park, guests have the choice of a wide range of accommodation options including luxury lodges with private hot tubs as well as touring pitches.
The Wood family are not strangers to receiving accolades for their parks, as all have been graded by VisitScotland at the top level of excellence

Hub Of Activity

Posted on January 26, 2016

Hub Of Activity

With a name that derives from the sparkling stretch of beach that runs alongside the park, Silver Sands Holiday Park is a traditional seaside resort located in Moray on the Scottish coast.

Silver Sands Holiday Park is a traditional seaside resort located in Moray on the Scottish coast.

Silver Sands Holiday Park is a traditional seaside resort located in Moray on the Scottish coast.

Welcoming more than 4,000 holidaymakers each year between March and October, the park is also a busy hub of activity during the winter with almost 300 holiday home owners who visit their properties most weeks.
“There’s a very relaxed, family friendly atmosphere on park and our clientele reflects this, with a mix of families, older couples and groups of friends, mostly drawn from Inverness in the north and Aberdeen to the south. We have a number of holiday home owners which means there’s a buzz about the park at all times,” comments general manager Rebecca Grant.
Silver Sands was the fourth holiday park to be bought by the Bridge Leisure Parks group in 2014. Since completing the acquisition, the new owners have already undertaken a Grant attributes Silver Sands’ success to the dedicated team that runs the park. programme of investment in infrastructure and new facilities, leading to a fourstar quality award from VisitScotland in November.
“As with any change of ownership, existing customers were wary of a new company taking control of their park,” explains Rebecca. “But we have shown over the past 12 months that we will deliver the improvements we promised and create a super destination for all our guests. I think we’ve won them over!”

Mixing It Up

Silver Sands’ accommodation offering includes a selection of static caravans and holiday lodges, plus pitches for up to 100 tourers, motorhomes and tents.
Leisure facilities on-site include a newly refurbished entertainment venue, a games room, an outdoor adventure play area and a Kids’ Club with a regular programme of activities. There’s also an indoor heated swimming pool, sauna and steam room, as well as a state-of-the-art gym.
“We’ve got such a great mix of facilities, many of which have been refurbished over the past couple of years,” says Rebecca.
“Our entertainment venue was recently used by Britain’s Got Talent to host auditions for the TV show, which was really exciting for the local area. We feature live bands and put on our own shows and cabaret through the season.”

To read the rest of this feature, subscribe here...

Pick Of The Bunch

Posted on April 16, 2014
The Thistle Holidays Parks initiative focuses on promoting the quality of Scotland’s best holiday and camping parks.

The Thistle Holidays Parks initiative focuses on promoting the quality of Scotland’s best holiday and camping parks.

Pick Of The Bunch

Recognising and promoting the very best holiday and caravan parks in Scotland is the core aim of the Thistle Holiday Park scheme.
By supporting its members with marketing initiatives throughout the year, the scheme provides holiday makers with above: The Thistle Holidays Parks initiative focuses on promoting the quality of Scotland’s best holiday and camping parks with information and advice, allowing them to make an informed decision when choosing a holiday destination.
Many holiday parks and attractions already support the scheme, including Discovering Distilleries, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Historic Scotland, the Forestry Commission Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland.
Thistle project manager Judith Sleigh, explains: “Good quality and good value will continue to be important to holidaymakers, and as we offer both, our members are able to profit. The challenge, however, in an era when cheap flights abroad to guaranteed sunshine, is that Thistle Parks continue to improve their product and establish themselves as being in the forefront of the industry.”
Recently, parks involved in the scheme have been able to take full advantage of the staycation trend which kicked in with the economic downturn, due to domestic visitors looking for holidays which offer both good quality and good value for money in Scotland and England.
By joining the scheme, holiday parks can benefit from a number of marketing tools to promote their park. All members are entitled to an entry in the Thistle brochure, which is distributed at over 10,000 information centres and is downloadable from the website. The brochure is also circulated at various exhibitions and trade shows throughout the year, and a further 600 copies are mailed out to those on the Thistle database. Members are also entitled to an editable entry on the Thistle website, which receives over 80,000 visitors per year.
To become a member, caravan parks must meet certain criteria; firstly the parks must be awarded four or five stars by VisitScotland. They must also have high quality lodges and holiday home caravans, and at least some touring pitches on firm ground, with links to services and facilities. David Halley, current chairman of Thistle Holiday Parks, says: “As the owner of a small park on Loch Lomond, I joined Thistle because of the extra promotion and also because I felt that the industry had to work together and Thistle offered the right vehicle for this by enabling us to get to the market, as a group, with the right message in the right way. Having Tourism Scotland as the project manager means that the promotion is professionally handled; the owners are running their parks and don’t have time to devote to marketing.”
The Thistle Holidays Parks scheme began back in the 1970’s and was a joint initiative between the tourism industry and the Scottish Tourist Board. The Board was one of the first to undertake a wide-ranging inspection of both serviced and self-catering accommodation in a drive to improve the quality of facilities and services. Caravan parks were able to have their holiday home caravans checked against a precise set of criteria, which included fixed heating throughout, mains drainage, and double-glazing.
In 2012, the Scottish Tourist Board, renamed VisitScotland, handed Thistle Holiday Parks over to the industry, to a committee which included owners and managers of parks of various sizes and types. The concept of Thistle Parks was extended to include touring as well as self-catering, but the criteria for inclusion continued to be based on high quality.
David Key, Regional Director of Parkdean Holidays has also been closely involved in the initiative since it began: “The industry was keen to work with the Scottish Tourist Board in order to raise the overall quality of the parks by encouraging them to invest in their product. We appreciated the fact that the board gave considerable funding to support the scheme in order to promote the high quality of the parks and their accommodation. Parkdean, with six parks in Scotland, felt and still do that being a member of Thistle is important.”

Tel. +44 (0)1651 806014
Email. Tourism.Scotland@btopenworld.com
www.thistleparks.co.uk