Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases on this site. This post might also contain some additional affiliate links. At no extra cost to you, I may receive a commission from these links to help fund this blog.
Butlins and Haven are both budget friendly and popular UK holiday parks. We spent 4 nights at Butlins Bognor Regis in West Sussex and 4 nights at Haven Cleethorpes Beach in Lincolnshire. Both within about 6 weeks of each other. So with that in mind, I decided to write a comparison post of my experiences. Butlins or Haven – which is better?
Some things to note: both stays occurred outside of UK school holidays. Butlins was at the end of April after Easter holidays. Haven was at the start of June after the May half term break. Both stays were from Monday until Friday. This post is entirely based on my own experiences at Butlins Bognor Regis and Haven Cleethorpes Beach. Should I visit any more Butlins or Haven sites in future I will expand on this post but for now this is a direct comparison.
If you like this post you might also like my Center Parcs vs Forest Holidays comparison post.
Butlins Accommodation
Butlins accommodations come in the form of rooms, apartments or hotels – all with varying grades. Our apartment was a Comfort Apartment in Oyster Bay which could sleep 4 people. It includes a small kitchen, bathroom and lounge/dining area. Note: bathroom towels are not included with the Comfort Apartments but can be added for a fee or bring your own.
Pros: We found the kitchen ideal for any meal prep we might want to do (mostly lunches as we had a dining package. More about that later). Lounge area great for watching tv and enjoying a cuppa whilst little one naps. A shower mat plus tea towel, dish sponge and washing up liquid provided. Teabags and coffee sachets also included. Also, free WiFi available resort wide.
Cons: Thin walls – we were frequently woken by the children in the apartment next door. Unless you pay a little extra to choose your apartment, you may find yourself on the second floor and at the end of the apartment block. This is mainly an issue when it comes to lugging all your stuff to and from the car. A few adjustments could be made to make this more toddler friendly. Our daughter managed to lock herself in the bathroom on the day we arrived. Perhaps some higher up locks would be better.
Haven Accommodation
The most popular accommodation on offer at Haven is its caravans, which are available at every Haven holiday park. Depending on which Haven site you opt for you can go as cheap as a pitch for your own tent/caravan or even stay in a lodge (or similar). We stayed in a Silver Caravan which could sleep up to 6 people (with the use of a sofa bed in the lounge) and includes a small kitchen, bathroom and lounge/dining area. There was also an ensuite toilet in the double bedroom, plus an outdoor deck. Note: bathroom towels are not included with the Silver Caravans so bring your own – plus a few other extras mentioned below.
Pros: Similarly to Butlins, the kitchen is ideal for any meal prep and having that separate lounge area meant that we could stay up and watch tv whilst our daughter slept. Being able to park our car right next to our caravan was useful which isn’t something that all holiday parks allow (Butlins and Center Parcs don’t allow this). If the weather had been nice then the deck would have been a major plus point too. The tv reception was good here and our caravan also had bluetooth speakers in the ceiling meaning we could play music from our phones.
Cons: Where our Butlins apartment included a few kitchen essentials such as a dish sponge and washing up liquid, Haven provided nothing. A shower mat would have been particularly helpful here. WiFi only available in the main public areas.
VERDICT:
While we appreciated the little touches such as the kitchen essentials that were included with our Butlins apartment, I think the Haven caravans were the better of the two accommodations, purely because they offered a bit more space – both internally and from other holidaymakers.
The apartments at Butlins felt a little dated so I would choose to stay at the nautical themed Shoreline Hotel should I return. And while the cleanliness could have been a bit better at both Butlins and Haven, the Haven caravan had a much lighter, brighter feel to it.
One thing to note: we brought a travel cot with us. Neither twin room at Butlins or Haven was big enough to fit the cot in without some adjustments. We simply stacked one bed on top of the other (safely and sensibly) and were able to fit the cot in the space left.
Butlins Activities
Butlins is all about the activities and best of all, many of them are included in the price of your holiday. There are swimming pools, fairground rides, soft play and playgrounds. Additionally there’s the Playxperience activity centre (at Bognor). This includes laser tag, mini golf and other activities all for an extra charge.
Firstly, the swimming pool. In my opinion, the pool at Butlins Bognor Regis was top tier for families. There are changing cubicles of varying sizes that are colour coded, so different colours mean different sizes. This makes choosing the right size changing cubicle for your family easy.
The pool then is divided into sections meaning there’s something for everyone. From the point of view of a toddler parent, the pools here were perfect. There were little slides my daughter could enjoy, a shallow pool that she could walk through and play with the toy boats. Plus a deeper pool where she could practice swim lessons with her dad. Plus a wave pool at the back with fountains which she loved splashing. During our visit some of the slides were closed but to be honest there was plenty of others open. We managed to spend a good couple of hours one day just splashing about.
The fairground was pretty decent considering it was included in the price of our holiday. However, the only ride we went on was the carousel as my daughter wasn’t quite tall enough for the other rides and didn’t want to go on the toddler rides by herself.
Bognor Regis has two playgrounds – one outside The Firehouse restaurant and one outside The Beachcomber Inn. Both of these I felt were too small for the number of people there. We preferred the one at The Firehouse as it was less busy. But I think the Bognor Regis resort really need to improve their play areas. Skegness and Minehead appear to have much better playground facilities although I haven’t visited these parks.
If the weather is bad, then there are arcades and soft play indoors to keep the kids entertained. My daughter wasn’t really a fan of either but I imagine once she’s a little older that will change.
Haven Activities
Haven isn’t quite as jam packed with activities as Butlins. However if you’re visiting during a period of decent weather then this isn’t too much of an issue.
The first thing to note about the swimming pool at Haven Cleethorpes Beach is that slots are for one hour and must be pre-booked. This felt quite restricting as we couldn’t just pop to the pool when we fancied it. During our visit in June, slots filled up fast so there was no on the day availability. The changing cubicles were an ok size for families but the lockers are quite small so we ended up needing to use two.
The pool at Cleethorpes Beach consists of an indoor and an outdoor bit. Indoors there is a small, shallow toddler pool with a little slide and a couple of splash table type things. Then there are two bigger, deeper pools for splashing and swimming. Outside there are a couple of large slides plus a lazy river and the pool is heated. Aside from having to pre-book and only being able to stay in the pool for an hour, the biggest annoyance here was that the outside pool was closed until 2pm. This meant that if you had an earlier slot you had no choice but to stay and use the indoor pools. We were informed that this is due to our stay not being during peak season but I feel that Haven should have made that more apparent from the start.
Haven has what it calls the Adventure Village. Here is where you can find things such as the children’s playgrounds and pre-bookable activities like aerial adventure and mini golf. Aside from the playgrounds and swimming, most other activities come with an additional charge.
The playgrounds at Haven seemed to be relatively good. With a toddler area at one end of the Adventure Village and one aimed at older children at the other end of the village. We spent a little time here but our stay was spoilt with bad weather so we didn’t get to enjoy the playgrounds as much as we may have liked. Similarly, we didn’t partake in any of the other outdoor activities because of the weather. I did find the little doggy playground quite cute and was hoping my sister in law would take her dog there but it wasn’t to be.
If the weather is bad, like it was for us, then there are arcades and a few craft type activities you can do. But once again, because June is apparently low season, there wasn’t much availability (only 2 slots for the entire 4 days for the slime workshop). So we didn’t do any of these activities.
VERDICT:
Butlins wins hands down. Not being peak season doesn’t seem to be an issue here. And even with a few of the attractions closed, there was still plenty to do. A Haven holiday relies too much on good weather which unfortunately wasn’t something we were blessed with on this occasion.
Butlins Entertainment
Butlins doesn’t call itself ‘The Home of Entertainment‘ for nothing. Admittedly, I’m not really one for cheesy hotel entertainment but once you become a parent things change. Our stay was one of the Tots Week breaks meaning that Peppa Pig was there. I was expecting more than just two shows of Peppa Pig, however we had no trouble getting booked. We also watched The Animal Guyz who were excellent. Their show was part educational, part humourous – I would recommend. We also saw a little bit of a Red Coat performance with the Butlins mascot bears. Some Butlins breaks are centred on the entertainment (such as Britain’s Got Talent acts) so it can be quite a crowd puller.
Haven Entertainment
Haven Parks also offer shows, although their entertainment is more ‘in house’ acts such as their Seaside Squad mascots. We went along for a couple of the evenings so our daughter and eldest niece could enjoy the children’s disco but they tired out before it really got going. There’s also Bingo on for the adults but we didn’t partake in that. I imagine that during school holidays there would be more entertainment on offer.
VERDICT:
Obviously Butlins wins again here for entertainment. The quantity and the quality surpassed Haven’s in my opinion.
Dining at Butlins
At Butlins there is an option to pre-book a dining package. Dining packages vary but we chose a package that included breakfast and dinner. We also upgraded to the premium package which offered a little more choice such as live cooking station. You are assigned a restaurant and then the food is buffet style much like an all-inclusive hotel. The quality of the food was fine and there was plenty of choice, so I would happily do this again.
If you don’t have an apartment with a kitchen to cook your own meals and you don’t wish to purchase a dining package, then there are plenty of eateries on site such as Burger King, Subway and Chopstix amongst others.
Dining at Haven
Haven tends to lean more towards cooking for yourself in your caravan, however there are restaurants on site if you don’t fancy cooking. We actually had dinner in Wetherspoons every evening apart from the one day we went out into Cleethorpes for fish and chips. There were restaurants such as Slim Chickens, Burger King, Papa Johns and a chip shop on site. Unfortunately during our visit these were closed more than they were open. So the only option if we wanted to eat out without leaving the park was Wetherspoons.
VERDICT:
The better option here greatly depends on what you are looking for in a holiday. If you wish to self cater and enjoy barbecues, then Haven is your winner. But, if you’re visiting in any time that is not considered ‘peak’ period then don’t expect anything other than Wetherspoons to be open!
If you want to relax and not worry too much about how much you may be spending on food, then Butlins is the better option. The downside of the dining package is that it can get very busy. Our first day at breakfast was unpleasant and chaotic but it improved after that.
Butlins or Haven – Other details
Arrival and Departure:
Butlins Bognor Regis, much like Center Parcs, is a car free resort. This isn’t an issue generally as the resort itself is quite small and easily walkable. HOWEVER, on arrival it was a bit of a shock to discover that our designated car park was at one end of the resort and our apartment at the other. It took several trips of lugging all our bags across the whole resort – including a heavy cot bed. In hindsight we wished we had purchased a festival trolley beforehand as it would have saved us a lot of effort!
Our arrival at Haven Cleethorpes Beach was much smoother as you can just park your car right next to your caravan. However, their arrival times are stricter and if you are arriving later than the hour slot they give you then they like you to notify them.
Apps:
Both resorts have an app you can download. Both were quite handy for booking activity slots. The Haven one was also good for viewing the restaurant menus and ordering.
Butlins or Haven – which is better?
Both of my experiences were during school term time, so if you’re travelling with a toddler and looking for plenty of things to keep them entertained then Butlins is the standout winner here. However, while my Haven holiday was a little disappointing on the facility front, if you’re looking for a slower and more outdoorsy kind of holiday then Haven will tick the boxes.
Related posts: