Devon with Kids: Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park Review

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Right on the gorgeous North Devon coastline, Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park (or should I say ‘parks’ as it’s actually three different sites!) is a brilliant UK staycation destination for the perfect family getaway – so keep reading for my full review. Not only is the beach on your doorstep but there are loads of kid-friendly days out nearby too – including places like The Milky Way Theme Park – more on that later! The Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks combine comfort with countryside and coastal adventures, whilst offering an impressive range of facilities and accommodation to suit all budgets. There are lots of accommodation options there whether you fancy camping, a caravan stay or a luxury lodge in North Devon.

Whether you’re after adventure or relaxation, Woolacombe Bay is a great base for a holiday in Devon with the kids. So, let’s get started with my review from our recent stay – here’s everything that you need to know about Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park – including photos, facilities, activities, our accommodation and more!

Visit: May 2025 (Gifted)

Where are the Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks located and who owns them?

The Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks are situated along the picturesque North Devon coastline, near the village of Woolacombe. The group comprises of three holiday parks: Woolacombe Bay, Twitchen House and Easewell Farm. Each park offers unique features and accommodations, yet all are within close proximity to each other – you can get from Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park to the Twitchen House or Easewell Farm sites within minutes along the same road. One of the standout features of these parks is the ‘3 parks for the price of 1’ concept. When you stay at any of the three parks, you gain access to the facilities and activities at all three so, wherever you stay, there’s so much on offer.

Whether you’re interested in relaxation or adventure and kids’ activities, there’s something for everyone. Rather than a big holiday company, the parks in Woolacombe Bay Holiday Village are owned by an individual, Rudi Lancaster, and I think you’ll be super surprised at the scale of what’s on offer – they might not be part of a big chain but these sites are huge and there’s so much to do!

Can you walk from Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park to the beach?

It’s about a 15 minute walk from Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park to the beach. And, from the Twitchen House and Easewell Farm sites it’s around 20 minutes. Or you can take a short drive there instead, there’s road parking along the seafront and a car park too. Woolacombe Bay beach is massive, sandy, clean and brilliant for bodyboarding, picnics or long dog walks. We had a wander along it one evening and there were loads of kids in wet suits taking a paddle-boarding class – so if you’re interested in that it seems like a good spot for water sports.

Where is there to do on-site at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park?

Swimming pools:

I don’t think I’ve ever done such a long swimming pool overview in a review before but oh my gosh the swimming pools at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park are awesome – and leave you really spoilt for choice – there are so many! My daughter Lola is obsessed with swimming so she was absolutely in her element! So, let me give you a bit of a breakdown and some photos. There are outdoor swimming pool options at both Twitchen House and Woolacombe Bay, so if you’re visiting over the warmer months then you’ll definitely want to spend some time there. We had gorgeous weather for our stay, despite it being mid-May, and spent one of our days chilling at the outside pool pretending we were abroad! 😂

The outdoor swimming pool at Woolacombe Bay was my absolute favourite of the pools – the view over Woolcombe Bay beach is just spectacular. There’s a beach bar, as well waterslides there too to keep the kids busy and a splash zone for little ones – these rotated on a 15 minute basis during our trip as the slides are lifeguard supervised. All of the pools were supervised by lifeguards during our stay, which offers an extra bit of peace of mind when you’re travelling with kids, and there are changing rooms for both the inside and outside pools on offer. We found the whole site to be very clean and well-run with extremely friendly staff.

The outside swimming pool at Twitchen House is in the centre of all the action near the restaurant area and by the playground. Again this was a lovely spot for a swim in the sunshine, offering waterslides and a splash zone too – as well as the Surf Rider wave machine activity (extra charge). Both offer a similar experience pool wise, but my kids thought the waterslides were better at Woolacombe Bay and you just can’t beat a swim with a view – so though we stayed at Twitchen House it was worth popping to the site next door. (I loved the orange waterslide too – though the water was freezing! 😬) The actual temperature of the swimming pools was great though – all of the indoor and outdoor pools were heated to a nice temperature.

With the indoor swimming, Twitchen Bay Holiday Park won that one for us – the indoor pool was lovely and there are two tube waterslides there which my kids loved. Being older now, they prefer bigger, faster waterslides and they really enjoyed one slide in particular – as did my husband! All of the changing rooms we came across were family-friendly ones, and lockers were £1. For the outdoor pools in particular you could just bring your things to the sun loungers. And, the inside pool had a seating area too for spectators if you’ve got older kids and don’t want to swim yourself.

You can just rock up for outdoor swimming but indoor swims need to be booked beforehand – they’ll send you an email with a link for this. Sessions are then supposed to be an hour for the indoor pools but it wasn’t busy we when visited so there were no restrictions. No-one checked the booking either – I think they just have that system set up for peak times like the school holidays. If you have younger children, there’s a big indoor pirate ship / play pool at Woolacombe Bay – we didn’t use that indoor pool but I did get a quick shot of it so you can see what’s on offer and it looked like a toddler’s dream!

Activities for families and kids:

Now here’s where Woolacombe Bay excels. Activities across the parks cater to kids, teens and adults – many are free, whilst others are reasonably priced, and you can tag on some pricier activities too if you want to (these are easily booked online) but if you didn’t want to spend a penny more there’s honestly plenty to do without tagging on anything costly! Aside from the Segway Safari, which Finn and Lola loved, we didn’t add on any paid activities. I’ve added a list here of some of the activities on offer at the Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks, with the prices too, so that you can get an idea of the costs.

Free activities include: swimming, soft play, playgrounds, orienteering, foot golf and the ranger ramble. You can also do a few cheap activities like the bug hunt and pond dipping for £2. Here are some of the pricier activities and their costs:

Climbing wall: £7
Segway safari: £25
Wave rider: £30
Fire lighting skills: £9
Golf: Around £20 – £30
Gym: £6
Spa: £15 for 90 minutes
Cinema: £8 adults, £7 children, early showing: £4.50
Pottery painting: £10

The entertainment on-site is also included with your stay – so any daytime shows (like their panto) and evening entertainment can be accessed at any of the sites for free. The only thing we did see a charge for was cash bingo. We tried to join in with this one evening but it’s linked up so the book sales closed in advance – make sure you get there early enough if you want to have a go! We did attend the gameshow at Twitchen House which was good fun and free.

What’s the accommodation like at Woolacombe Bay?

There are a range of accommodation options across the Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park sites – I’ll give you some info first about the different types and then add in my review and photos of our particular caravan. There’s something for everyone here – from camping, to budget-friendly caravans, to their posher hot tub caravans, and the Woolacombe Bay luxury lodges with hot tubs. (They were super posh – so if you’ve got the budget and you’re after a little bit of luxury they’re probably the fanciest lodges in North Devon!)

We stayed on the Twitchen House site in a Diamond Beach Haven caravan with a hot tub – and loved the location and the accommodation – we had the best view of the sun setting over the sea every night too! If you fancy camping, there’s a lovely camping area just along from where we stayed on site with a large building for pot washing / showers etc and great views!

The main living area in our caravan had a well-equipped kitchen with a great size fridge freezer, a dishwasher, a microwave, an oven and everything else you need for a self-catering holiday. It was all very clean and spacious. The dining table seated four, and there were radiators throughout and an electric fireplace – handy if you’re visiting in the colder months. (We also popped our swim suits on a rack near it and they were dry in no time!) There was a local food welcome pack with a few bits like biscuits and a bottle of wine, as well as a kitchen pack with items like washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets and a sponge etc.

The caravan came with pre-made beds, and a large sack filled with towels. We brought our own towels for the swimming pools and used the ones at the caravan for showering and the hot tub. The main bedroom had its own little toilet room, a TV and a little dressing room area, which was a nice touch, and having two loos is always handy with the kids!

The kids’ rooms both had two beds in each – so the caravan slept 6 – though one room was slightly smaller than the other. My kids both popped the beds together in their rooms, essentially making themselves each a double bed, so they thought that was great and they slept really well all week. The only thing I would say is that the curtains didn’t block much light so we popped bin bags up at the windows – I always come prepared just in case – but that was the only thing we could fault about it really. There was also a shower room with a decent shower and a loo off of the main corridor.

Is the Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park dog-friendly?

The Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park sites do welcome dogs, but they have specific pet-friendly accommodation designated for it so you’ll need to book the appropriate type when sorting out your stay. All three parks offer dog-friendly accommodation and they welcome up to two dogs per booking. Dogs are welcome year round on Woolacombe Bay beach too – just make sure you stick to the designated areas. There are also plenty of countryside walks around as well.

Local area – what is there to do nearby?

Not only is Devon such a gorgeous place to visit, there are also some brilliant days out for the kids on offer – aside from the stunning beach at Woolacombe Bay that’s on your doorstep. Devon seems to have tons of family attractions and theme parks and, in North Devon in particular, there are some great days out to be had within an hour’s drive of the holiday park. For outdoor adventures, you can wander the South-West Coastal Path or hike in Exmoor National Park. And here are some of the attractions that you might want to pop onto your family holiday itinerary during your stay:

The Milky Way Adventure Park: To get from Woolacombe Bay to Bideford takes around 50 minutes – and it’s worth the drive to spend a day at The Milky Way. It’s a super quirky adventure park with loads of activities for kids all ages – make sure you check out my review for more info.

Combe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park: Just a 20 minute drive from Woolacombe Bay, Combe Martin Wildlife Park offers animals, play areas and a step back into the Jurassic Period.
North Devon Wake Park: If you fancy an afternoon of fun on the lake then the North Devon Wake Park (right next door to The Milky Way) is great fun. Opt for the obstacle course or try your hand at wake boarding! Check out my review for all of the details.

The Big Sheep Farm and Theme Park: Another popular family attraction – The Big Sheep Farm and Theme Park is about an hour’s drive and offers lots of fun for families with younger children.
Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway: Hop aboard the UK’s only fully water-powered funicular railway and experience the magic of the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway – about a 40 minute drive from Woolacombe Bay. We had a lovely morning there, I’ll add a guide to the blog soon. Or, take a steam train along the coastline on the The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.

For even more fun days out in Devon, check out my family holiday itinerary with my article: The 10 best things to do in Devon with kids.

What facilities are on-site?

As well as all of the other bits and bobs I’ve mentioned already – the Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks have a number of facilities. We didn’t venture to the Easewell Farm site but both Woolacombe Bay and Twitchen House both had their own launderettes, shops, restaurants, entertainment venues, playgrounds, pools and big amusement arcades. One thing I will mention is that the internet signal at our caravan was awful, both for the park’s own wifi and our phone data – I’m not sure if it was because we were at the edge of the site but we had to sit outside to get any internet. 😂 It was lovely and sunny so it wasn’t a big problem, but it was annoying for the TV as we usually plug in our Roku for the streaming services and we weren’t able to use it during our stay.

Which is the best Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park?

Each park offers its own unique charm. Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park is known for its proximity to the beach and lively atmosphere, whilst Twitchen House offers a more relaxed environment with beautiful woodland surroundings. Easewell Farm provides the most tranquil setting of the three, ideal for those seeking peace and quiet – and I think it’s more set up for campers too. The right choice will depend on your personal preferences but, personally, I think it’s best to make your booking based on the accommodation type that suits your family and your budget – since you can use all of the swimming pools and facilities at all of the Woolacombe Bay Holiday Parks anyway.

You can easily drive between the sites in just a few minutes – they’re all along the same road. There are also signs for walking between them too – we tried to follow a path to walk from Twitchen House to Woolacombe Bay for a swim but ended up heading in the wrong direction towards the town and beach. 😂 We realised shortly after but carried on for a while when we saw the view we were walking towards! Have a look below – there are definitely worse places to get lost eh, what a lovely spot to stumble upon. However, I must admit that, after we headed back, we hopped in the car instead as we’d already trudged a fair way in flip flops with our swimming bag and it was a warm day.

How much is a stay at Woolacombe Bay – is it good value for money?

Prices obviously vary depending on the season and which accommodation type you pick, but you can often grab a 3 – 4 night break from £200 – £400 in low season. Our stay at Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park was gifted (though this has not impacted my review in any way, we genuinely loved this place!) but I’ll give you an idea of cost for our particular trip had we paid. The value of our Monday – Friday trip mid-May was £550 for a their top Diamond Beach Haven Caravan with a hot tub at the Twitchen Bay Holiday Park. Factor in all of the free activities, the hot tub and access to three parks and it’s very good value. I have to admit that I hadn’t even heard of these holiday parks before they asked us to visit, which seems bonkers given the scale of the parks!

Our trip was hard to fault – we loved our accommodation, the views were insane, the staff were all so lovely, the holiday parks were clean and well run, and the swimming pools and facilities on offer were fantastic. If you’re looking for somewhere to stay for a fun family holiday with the kids then I’d highly recommend it. With the lovely weather, we felt like we were abroad sunbathing and swimming at the outdoor pool, it was bliss! I hope that my review of Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park is useful – and if you’re debating whether to stay at Twitchen House, Easewell Farm or the main park it’s hopefully helped you to figure out the best option for you. For even more fabulous holiday park options for your getaway check out this article too: Family holidays in Devon – the 12 best places to stay with kids! Happy holidays! 😊