Hillhead Club Campsite

Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

A first visit

I was down on business and it seemed a good idea to combine business with pleasure - so we booked a 3 night stay. We liked the site - the hedges around many of the hardstandings are a real bonus, in our view, both for privacy and for shelter from what was at times a cold wind (it was NOVEMBER!) The dogwalk was good (if soggy!) and our traditional evening stroll around the site was a delight. To be honest, we wondered if this had been a commercial site acquired by the CC rather than designed and built by them, as the layout was distinctly different and very few CC sites have restaurants and pools, either. We'd like to have taken advantage of the bars and restaurant - something we'd not ever seen on a site - but we enjoy the privacy and quiet of our van in the evening. We felt rather sorry for the very friendly young lady we met one evening as she closed up - with NOBODY in the bar area. To be fair, I think it's probably heaving in the summer. All in all, we were very impressed and will likely return.

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Perlican

Caravanner from Berkshire

Reviewed on 18/11/2019 10:52

21 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Short stay

Stayed during October half term. Ideal for access to surrounding coast. Used the bus with a £5 all day rover ticket. Excellent value and much easier and cheaper than trying to drive the motorhome around the narrow lanes and paying for parking. I parked on the coastal facing edge of the park. View was a plus, but it was very exposed to the wind. There were reports of awning pegs working loose! Having said that, there are many hedges offering protection from the wind, and less exposed areas of the site. Will definitely return. Staff were helpful and facilties clean and well spaced for access.

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admiral halsey

Reviewed on 07/11/2019 09:40

17 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 3 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 4 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 4 of 5

Location

Rated 4 of 5

Good for families

We love this site BUT......

We love this site, its far enough from home to feel like a holiday but close enough to get away for a short break and for that reason we come here several times a year. We have always found the facilities clean and tidy, the children love the park and playing field, and the bar and shop are more than adequate to cater for our needs. A pitch with a sea view is a real bonus and the chap who does the childrens entertainment is great. BUT the staff seem to have lost all the essentials of being a warden, the reception process hardly feels like the start of a holiday. We have visited twice within the last month, each occassion my husband and I have arrived seperately as coming from different directions, however we are both members of the club as we have a joint membership.The first occassion my husband arrived first, paid and pitched up when I arrived later the wardens would not tell me which pitch he was on or even if he had arrived..apparantly it breaches GDPR! i fail to see how not disclosing the details of my own booking complies. On our second visit I arrived 5 minutes before my husband yet I was not allowed to pay for the booking and get the administration done until he arrived as they need to make sure we had the correct number plates etc! If rules are so important, can I ask why at 1150 on the day of leaving we were being politely harrassed by a new arrival for our pitch! I thought you couldn't arrive prior to 12? We have been using this site for many years, the first few years the bar was full of guests enjoying the facilities and Halloween themed events...this has dwindled down to only a handful of children and the bar not even half full. Do the Caravan Club wonder why this is occurring?

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cornishellis

Reviewed on 04/11/2019 11:10

4 reviews

2 Helpful notes

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 4 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 4 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Needs a bit more customer focus

We like the site and area so visit Hillhead every year. This time we noticed a significant difference in 'customer care' Firstly I arrived early..11.15. Yes I know, but I could not find a lay-by in the area so thought as it was low season Id be OK.....Wrong..I was told that they no longer tolerate early arrivals, and whilst I could choose my pitch ( which I did as there was plenty of choice) I could not book in until the warden gave his permission. So I waited for 30 mins in the arrivals lane like a naughty school boy. All a bit childish really. The site facilities blocks were fine but in the Gents, three of the six toilet cubicles were permanently closed, and of the other three, one had a faulty cistern that made a horrible din throughout the building when filling and was in desperate need of a plumbers skills, so effectively two toilets in use, and one morning we were down to one. Closing basic facilities like loo cubicles is unacceptable just to save cleaning them. In the laundry room one day there was an infestation of flies, and whilst they were treated and dead there were literally hundreds of them all over the room, so many it was difficult to get to a washing machine without walking on them. Not very nice at all and left there until the daily cleaning was done. Glad to say that sun, sea and shopping were as good as ever.

21 replies

Lisvaneblue

Reviewed on 23/10/2019 07:34

15 reviews

1 Helpful note

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Two Visits this year

Enjoyed Hillhead in May and September this year. We like the location being near to lovely Dartmouth and my old home town of Torquay! As always we also go for the Dog Field, that at Hillhead is amongst the best that we are aware of, and It certainly offers a super view of Torbay. These well maintained dog exercise fields are most important to us if we are to stay at a site for any length of time, as our young dog needs plenty of exercise, but in a safe environment.- free from the worry of traffic, and the risks to canine health present in long un-mowed grass and undergrowth which hosts ticks, fleas, and sometimes adders .

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Searle 1

Reviewed on 20/10/2019 11:41

5 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 3 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Good but not brilliant.

For the whole of our stay, the gents hand-dryer was out of order and there were no hand towels. At first I thought this may be a bit of an oversight by staff, but to have been there for a week without any hand-drying facilities is not really acceptable. It was our second stay here and weather asked, it was not as good as our first experience. The restaurant/bar staff were not at all engaging, so going there was a bit of a bland experience.

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bldobson

Caravanner from Bedfordshire

Reviewed on 05/10/2019 19:23

1 review

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

The PERFECT holiday

Where to start? We have visited Hillhead caravan club site multiple times, about 8 now, and return every year. We would love to try other sites but always return here for fear of disappointment by comparison. I even proposed to my wife here! The site contains pitches to suit all criteria from privacy to fabulous views. The wardens are always available and very helpful. There is a fantastic restaurant and pool area. We cannot fault any aspect of the site and have already booked to return in 6 weeks as well as April next year. No complaints at all, keep up the great work.

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Freewheeler2

Caravanner

Reviewed on 30/09/2019 16:48

7 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 3 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 4 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 4 of 5

Location

Rated 4 of 5

Good for families

Second Time and Still Love it

Visited here again in Sept 2019 and still think this is a lovely campsite. Whilst we were on our journey there I started reading the recent reviews and was horrified to find some not so nice ones from Summer this year. Of course that started to put negative thoughts into my head. As always, arrival at a new site is a bit stressful when you are driving around trying to find the perfect pitch. We went down a dead end to find that somebody had beaten us to the two 'remaining' pitches, so back to reception and we sorted the muddle out and actually there was only one pitch left so we had no choice! We were on the main road around the site and only just fitted onto our pitch as we have an 8m caravan. After a bit of manoeuvring we were fine, got our awning up and the car fitted on no problem. Somebody in a previous review had moaned about it being very noisy in this area and of course this would not be our choice of pitch but actually it was fine, we didn't get disturbed by anybody else and had no issues at all. It was after the schools had gone back though but still very busy with adults. Facilities were always clean, staff very friendly and helpful, but the only thing to note is that the bus service stops around 7.30pm and the Community Bus that used to run until 11-ish is currently not running as they have no drivers. That is actually a massive loss to the campsite so just bear this in mind if you are having a couple of wines and need to get the bus back. A taxi from The Steam Packet Inn down in Kingswear back to the campsite cost us £14 and it's only about 2 miles! The ferries across to Dartmouth are very frequent, we recommend going to Dartmouth Castle, going on a boat trip around the harbour, a trip out to Blackpool Sands if you have no dog, or Slapton Sands if you do have a dog. Also the walk down to Man Sands is lovely, gets the heart pumping on the way back, but is so worth it. The beach is dog friendly too and really lovely. I still love this campsite and will be returning. The only complaint we had was that the real ale in the bar was rubbish (from the men).

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JohnandMax

Reviewed on 22/09/2019 16:19

2 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Hillhead August 2019

We went to the Hillhead site in peak season, August Bank Holiday week, in our Motorhome. As expected it was packed, with many families with children attending. We took along our grandson,before he hooked up with his folks in Brixham. We had visited the site before, in a quieter period, and were impressed then. Given the amount of people at the site during the Bank Holiday week, it was a very pleasant stay, with a good atmosphere. The wardens did a good job all week trying to keep the site nice & tidy - which is a huge task, given some individuals in the washrooms do not clear up their mess, in both the shower cubicles & toilets. Baffling how people conduct themselves sometimes. So to that end, I would advise the staff to put up more notices, particularly in the busier periods, for people to clean up their mess, and leave in a clean state for the next person. The children's play area, swimming pool and play field were all nice for the kids. The swimming pool was well organised, as there were so many people they held 20 minute sessions to control the numbers in the pool. We only used the club once, with our visitors. The meals were good & reasonably priced, and the entertainment was decent too. The bus stops to the Dartmouth ferry, and the other way to Brixham & Paignton were right outside the site. Taxis, when used, were reasonably priced as well. We did a lovely coastal walk from the site to Brixham, via Man Sands & Berry Head - well worth doing for the views alone. We found the staff at the site very helpful & polite, i.e., reception, bar staff, grounds-people. We had a service pitch with awning - we got lucky and managed to select a really nice pitch in the middle of the site. All showers/toilets worked well ..........on some sites, some toilets do not flush that well it would appear - thus I think staff need to adjust the water levels in some of the WC's. All in all, a very nice well looked after site, that offers decent value, and is in a lovely location, which is fantastic for getting around. We'll be returning for sure !

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Ken Wiggins

Motorhomer from West Midlands

Reviewed on 10/09/2019 13:55

16 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 2 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 3 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 4 of 5

Location

Rated 4 of 5

Good for families

Good location but a few issues.....

We stayed for 10 nights during August - first time to Devon as we usually venture to Cornwall. I agree with a lot of the other reviews - whilst the site is large, the pitches are way too close together. We were lucky and found a pitch (80) in a small 'cul-de-sac' so it was nice and quiet with no one walking past (apart from people in the other couple of caravans) and we weren't on the main road that a lot of the pitches are. It is so tight that cars can't park next to the caravans and are often parked in front, partly sticking out onto the road. I also had issues with the cleanliness of the toilet blocks - there was a shortage of toilet roll (out of around 10 toilets, only one had loo roll in), and people seem to have issues in cleaning the showers after they have used it - it doesn't take much to walk out the shower, get the squidgy mop thing, clean the floor, close the curtain. I'd like to think people would leave the cubicle how they would like to find it. I went in once and there was talc (i mean who still uses talc??) all over the floor and the bench. I appreciate wardens can't keep an eye on this 24/7 but perhaps a few notices around the showers reminding people to clean up after themselves wouldn't go amiss? On the plus side, the kids loved the pool (didn't venture in myself), and the park. We didn't go into the restaurant. There was also a lot of dog poo left in the dog walking area - again maybe some signs reminding people to pick up after their dogs.....? Location wise, it was great for Dartmouth and about an hour from Salcombe. We also visited Becky Falls, Babbacombe model village and Bygones, and various other spots. I don't think we would go back to this site in the peak of summer.

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Eaton15

Reviewed on 29/08/2019 18:48

1 review

1 Helpful note

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