Over the past few years we have visited a number of Haven holiday parks around the country, Cornwall, East and West Sussex, East Anglia, Kent and Tenby and shown our children some of the beautiful beaches and countryside the UK has to offer. This year we decided to do something different and combined stunning beaches with some city trips too. We spent our first week in North Wales, for the outdoor experiences and then the second in Blackpool for the explosion of fun, fairgrounds and bright lights.

As it is a long journey we stayed a night at Trentham Gardens in Stoke. This was a lovely stop with easy access to the shopping and dining experiences, a beautiful warm evening walk and conveniently close access to the motorway. It was the best en route stop we’ve done and helped us be fresh and ready for our caravan stay. We had an early check in and started the holiday straight away, whilst I collected our food shopping the children were already in the pool, exploring and making new friends.

When we were planning our holiday, one of our priorities was a trip to Liverpool as our football made son wanted to do the Anfield tour, this needs to be booked in advance and the date available was the first full day on site, Tuesday. It did feel a little strange to unpack and then spend the first whole day away on a little adventure, but boy was it worth it. For me it was one of the best days of the holiday. We travelled through to Liverpool on the train, it is really simple and took about 90 minutes. This may seem a long trip on a holiday, but for us, who live in a very rural part of the country, its a typical journey time for a day out. Nothing is close to home! Whilst I am a football fan, I knew it wasn’t the ideal itinerary for my daughter so after breakfast together, the boys and girls split up, with the girls heading off to do a walk to some of the key sights in Liverpool before doing the Beatles open bus top tour. The bus tour was amazing. When I was planning our day it was the trip which kept on being highlighted for its 5 star rating and I had booked us on. My daughter was initially bemused by the trip, but was won over within minutes. We had a brilliant guide, who not only showed us the sites significant to the Beatles story but gave an excellent social history of the city too. Beatles music is played throughout the tour, with the guide playing relevant songs and also taking requests from the passengers, it is the ultimate feel good trip with lots of singing. We also alighted the bus at Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields for the tourist shots! I had dressed to complement the tour too, wearing my favourite long, pink and red skirt and strawberry straw bag, it was a fun thing to do and sometimes I think you need to embrace the moment. Following the tour (for which I did do a trip advisor 5 star post) we headed over to the Liverpool Eye, another great and enjoyable activity. The views on the eye were amazing as we were treated to blue, clear skies and could see lots. My daughter was keen to hit the shops and spend her birthday money, I was really impressed by the shopping in Liverpool and a very successful shopping trip ensued! We then met up with the boys who were so happy with their day too and headed back on the train. I loved how happy we all were about our Liverpool trip, it really was the best day.

After the busy day in Liverpool we then took some days to enjoy the holiday park. There were lots of activities swimming, the ‘Big Jump’, crazy golf and on Saturday we hired bikes to ride from Presthaven to Rhyl, a 13 mile return journey along the prom. I liked the simplicity of the holiday, wholesome activities enjoyed outside in the sunshine. We were so lucky with the weather, after the most miserable start to the summer holidays, we had two holiday weeks of blue skies and sunshine. Although we stayed mainly on the park, we popped through to Prestatyn a couple of times, headed into Rhyl on Friday night for a cinema trip to see the Haunted Mansion and then on Sunday drove through to Llandudno and Conway. Llandudno was gorgeous and I liked the cuteness of Conway with the castle, the smallest house in Britain and delicious Welsh cakes.

As the children are now older, we did use the evening entertainment too, the highlight being a stunning Tina Turner tribute. We also discovered that the local fish and chip shop did battered Mars bar and we surprised the children with one as a supper treat. I chose not to try it but the verdicts were positive!

I found North Wales to be a stunning place, the beaches were wild and natural and there was lots of outdoor activities to enjoy, a peaceful first week of the holiday before the fun of Blackpool.