Cayton Bay | A Parkdean Resorts Holiday

At the beginning of this month, we had booked a holiday to stay in Cayton, on the East Coast. We wanted just a few days away whilst it was the school holidays, just to spend some time together. As a Yorkshire family, there is nothing we love more than exploring our glorious county in search of those little gems that show just how beautiful our little part of the world is.

The North Yorkshire coast provides many locations and with amazing views and so much history, but our favourite place of all is Cayton, and whenever we visit, we always stay at Cayton Bay which is a Parkdean Resorts site.

It’s like a gem of a place, nestled in-between the famous resorts of Scarborough and Filey, and has a magnificent wide sweeping bay that is a an area of un-spoilt natural beauty, and a beautiful place to explore, no matter what time of the year you decide to visit, even in the chilling weather that we had.

We have previously stayed in Cayton Bay many times, last time was in June this year, and there’s been somewhat of an update of the place since then so we were looking forward to coming back and seeing what had changed. It’s hard enough for us to all have time off at the same time, so when it finally came together, it was great that we got to go away in the October school holidays, for a fun family break.

Our middle son, C, suffers with an anxiety disorder so is very hard to cater for him when holidays come in. In fact, we went to Spain earlier this year, and he hated it – point blank refusing to go in the pool. Whereas whenever we go to Cayton Bay, it’s like his happy place. He’ll use the pool, go down the smaller slides, and even go into the sea down at the bay, so it is somewhere we try to go quite often.

This time around, we decided to go for a bit of luxury. We were lucky in that the boys school had different holidays from every other school, and so we got a bit of a bargain when we picked out the Pavilion Caravan, which is one of the better ones on site (only 3 of them are available). After speaking to the reception team, they let us pick the one we wanted to stay in – we chose the one in area ‘Jay’ as it was close to the entrance without being close to the entertainment complex, as I can imagine it would be quite noisy at night.

Even though we had originally picked out a different one, the Pavilion was best for us as it had a bath, which is something we always look for in holidays as C is petrified of showers. And who knew caravans could have baths? It was amazing. I don’t know about you lot but I much prefer a bath to relax in than a shower.

As we arrived at our caravan, we were astounded by how beautiful it was. Surrounded by a veranda with seating outside and a little grassy area to the side with space for the boys to run around. Inside it was just amazing. Luxury upon luxury, with a large flat-screen TV, a full sized master bedroom with ample storage and a dressing table, and the second bedroom was just perfect for our boys as it had a triple bunk (single up top and double below).

I personally was a little let down by the third bedroom. It had originally stated that it was a single room, but when we got there, it didn’t have a single bed at all. Instead having a fold out bed that wasn’t big enough for an adult. This didn’t effect us luckily as we weren’t using that room but I can imagine it might be a problem for others who book thinking it’s a full sized bed.

And can I just say, one great thing about Cayton Bay being close to some coastal towns, is that most of the online grocery stores will deliver there so you can go on holiday and not have to worry about packing groceries and breakfast cereals because it can all be delivered right to you – and thanks to the Asda groceries man who delivered right to our caravan too!

We stayed Monday to Friday and luckily for us, it didn’t seem really busy so it meant the kids could play, run around and have fun without there being too many other children. Like I said previously, C’s anxiety means that he doesn’t like busy places so a quieter holiday is always preferable for us.The Boathouse Restaurant is a favourite of ours. It’s not only where the food is served, but there is a soft play area too. I think this is an amazing idea as children just hate waiting around for food and this combats that by giving them a way to run off steam before eating.

Visiting the restaurant a few times during our stay (and for breakfast most days), I would say that it probably is on the more expensive side, but then again, it’s a holiday place so it’s to be expected, and the portions are huge so it does make it worth it – and the food is amazing!

There are a whole range of meals, from fish and pasta, to burgers and light bites. The burgers are just stunning to eat. So juicy and huge. So filling that we didn’t even need dessert, and that’s saying something as we usually always have dessert.

The Boathouse also has WiFi available there which is great as we needed to apply for J’s nursery place whilst we were away so it meant that I could pop in with my laptop and get it done. I was a bit disappointed with the WiFi at the site though. You have to pay to connect for the WiFi around the camp (apart from in the main building which is free), but even after many attempts, I couldn’t get my laptop or phone to even load the WiFi up to be able to pay and connect to it.

Luckily for us, we weren’t too fussed about the signal in our caravan as we were wanting to spend this time together, away from social media. It was lovely to just use our caravan and relax in it, outdoors on the veranda too, to spend some quality time together – and enjoy a glass of wine, or 2, whilst there.

Offering fun and adventures for the whole family, Cayton Bay Holiday Park has an all-weather multi-sports court, an adventure playground, basketball and a crazy golf course just to name a few activities that you can embrace in their outdoor areas.There is also an indoor Waterworld Fun Pool with water-jets, slides, fountains and flume. We went swimming twice during our stay as the pool is amazing. The only downfall was that the changing room we used wasn’t washed down properly and still had bleach in it, ruining J’s bottoms (I did report this to the team who said they’d sort it).

And of course, you can’t go to the coast without a visit to the sea. A short walk away is Cayton Bay beach which is stunning. The walk is very steep so be prepared for it, and there are steps at the bottom to get right down to the beach.

Luckily, there is Lucy’s Shack just down at the beach and she sells snacks and drinks, buckets and spades, and there are even toilets here, so that you can enjoy your time at the beach without having to go all the way back up to eat or use the bathroom.

We loved our holiday so much that we’ve booked to go back again next August – and we all can’t wait!