We took the Bongo for it’s first overnight test run yesterday. We chose Tencreek Holiday park near Looe as it is local with good facilities and we weren’t too sure what we would find when we unpacked the awning.
We now have a better idea how to setup the awning and we now know we were missing some awning/vehicle attachment parts. We were also without electric hookup as we stripped it out the previous week when it transpired the entire system had been jerrybuilt and the fusebox was full of water – that explains the “constantly tripping” issue.
The holiday park itself was pretty good and well appointed with a few small issues:
- The small arcade was poorly maintained and most things weren’t working or working badly (neither air hockey tables were accepting money, the whack-a-burglar game only had three out of six burglars working, several of the 2p games had their money slots jammed)
- The menu in the restaurant / centre was pizza and burgers only. Nothong else. This meant the gluten / dairy free amongst us were entirely uncatered for
These are small gripes. Otherwise it was a decent experience. The kids got to charge around a bit and use the swimming pool, and the large pitch with electric hookup was £56 for the night which seemed quite reasonable. Worth noting that pool usage needed booking and was fully booked by the time we arrived. We were able to get on on no-shows.
Bongo Camping tips learned for next time, in no order:
- Need to pack emergency supply of food. Can’t rely on the centre to cater (or even be open)
- Need to make sure we bring toys / books / iPads for the kids – which we forgot – particularly as they have a tendency to rise early when camping and some amusements are required to prevent 5am starts
- Park the poptop nose to wind. The predicted 40mph gusts meant we couldn’t raise the poptop, but had they died down, parking with the nose towards the prevailing wind would have mitigated any potential damage
- Choose sheltered campsites if planning to use the poptop
- Campsite clubhouses can be hellish
- Stability of a cooker in a tent cannot be guaranteed. Am more inb favour of a full conversion than before the trip (when I erred against a conversion)
- Blinds down and window coverings meant we couldn’t check on kids without opening doors. We need to make a small hole in one of the covers with an external flap of some sort. haven’t worked that bit out yet.
- “Sitewide WiFi” does not mean “Free Sitewide WiFi”.
What I haven’t worked out yet:
- What time is it reasonable to start parking down a tent? We were started before 7am as were a couple of others. Had I been asleep, the clattering would have pissed me off. Is there an established reasonble time in campsite etiquette?
