Outfit used
2007 Hymer Feeling towed with 2006 Ford Galaxy 2-litre TDCi Zetec
Say what you like about Skegness, it knows how to give its punters a good time. Whether it's fabulous funfairs, donkey rides, stalls selling silly hats or beautiful beaches, Skeggy – as it's affectionately known by everyone – has something that will give you and the kids a happy holiday. Granted it's about as subtle as the recently departed Bernard Manning, but it's the kind of place you grow to love and return to because it has no airs and graces, just good British fun.
You know you are in for a good time as soon as you see the 'Welcome to Skegness' sign with the dancing sailor who looks like he's had
a couple of rums to get him in the holiday mood. You quickly realise that this is the centre of the caravan universe: the kids play a game of spot the caravan site, and because there are caravan sites everywhere, from small family-run ones to massive complexes with pools, the game wears thin. It's the most popular caravanning spot in the world as far as I can tell, and I should know. As the kids and I were to discover over an action-packed week, all these caravanners are on a mission to have fun.
In the age of cheap flights you'd think Skegness would be in gentle decline, but appearances suggest otherwise. There's miles of superb golden beaches. Skegness, Mablethorpe and Sutton-on-Sea are three of only 119 European Blue Flag beaches around our coast and all three have Tidy Britain Group's Seaside Award for clean beaches and good management. Put simply they are brilliant
and the equal of anything you'll find in
Cornwall and Devon.
The town of Skegness, and the holiday villages of Ingoldmells and Chapel St. Leonards combine to provide one of our most popular and best-loved coastal family caravan resorts, but those in the know don't automatically head for the central sites, alluring though they are. We snaked our way north through the bungalows, parks and rows of fish and chip shops to Mablethorpe which, as well as being slightly cheaper, is quieter and offers those with younger kids a break from the bright lights and excitement of Skeggy.
The eagle-eyed among you will spot that we used a rather fetching pop-up caravan for our trip, which goes by the name of the Hymer Feeling. With its funky shape and neat graphics it was the talk of our base camp, the Camping and Caravanning Club site just on the edge of Mablethorpe. The Feeling's compact dimensions have been cleverly arranged as a cosy four-berth.
"Never seen one like that before," said our new friend on the next pitch, as we surfaced on our first morning. "We thought you were Dutch." Resisting the temptation to reply in my best Dutch accent, I instead gave him a quick run down of the van, pausing to tell him to mind his head on the low door (one small disadvantage of that pop-up body)… oops, too late. In exchange, our Geordie George (as we later christened him) explained that his family had been coming to this coast for years and loved the fact that despite the built-up appearance along the coast, the beaches were never crowded, and if you had kids there were few places better equipped to keep them happy whatever the weather. He recommended the sand at Sutton and the National Parrot Sanctuary. We were grateful for his suggestions but his parting remark puzzled us: "Watch your wallet in Skeggy you'll lose what's in it faster than in Las Vegas!" Visions of gangs of pickpockets flashed through my mind but I reckoned we'd brave the mean streets of the entertainment capital of the east and just take our chances.
The Rodgerson clan knows a thing or two about family holidays, with Florence and Abigail both veterans of several caravan campaigns here and abroad. With military precision we decided to do all the attractions to the south of Skeggy at the beginning of the week and all those to the north towards the end. From the piles of brochures, the girls drew up a list of everything they liked the look of. These were, quite naturally, all expensive, totally absent of culture and all turned out to be thoroughly great.
The traffic on the roads connecting the towns is always slow and you'll just have to accept that it will take longer than you thought to get anywhere and that it might limit the range of your adventures. We reckoned that 20 miles was as much as we could be bothered to travel in any direction and we'd advise you to plan the same narrow horizons. The coast is so packed with attractions and beaches that you'll never get through them all in a week, anyway.
First stop, the honey pot of attractions that is Skegness, complete with famous Clock Tower, promenade and pier. While it will win no beauty contest, Skegness has had some serious money spent on its infrastructure and gets top marks for the way the gardens along the front have been landscaped. It's all pushchair-friendly and family-oriented.
Skegness once extended much further out to sea, but the coastline has suffered erosion over many years, though it is now gaining some ground. The area has been occupied since before Roman times, and evidence of this can be found in shards of pottery scattered along the shore, it makes a change from collecting seashells. We didn't find any treasure as valuable as that, but the girls thought the beach a great spot and lapped up the traditional delights, including making sand castles. In the town itself, between the beach and the promenade, there are acres of beautiful gardens that have become the admiration of the county. It is here that visitors can explore, relax, or soak up the sunshine on a warm summer's day. Needless to say, though, it's the amusement parks that attracts them like magnets and after seeing my wallet emptied in record time I soon realised what Geordie George meant.
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