Holiday Park Surprises
Top 8 things that holiday parks have that might surprise you!
Restaurants
Gym
While it’s still a growing trend, some holiday parks, such as Discovery Parks – Ballina, are making the health and wellbeing of their residents a top priority by offering gym facilities and, in some instances, even group fitness classes!
Kids Club / School Holiday Activities
Entertaining the kids all school holidays can be a challenge – especially if mum and dad want a holiday too! And many holiday parks are recognising this, offering either a daily Kids’ Club or regular, scheduled school holiday activities.
North Star Holiday Resort in Hastings Point, NSW, goes one step further with a permanent kids’ club, Neptunes. The club is fully-supervised, free, indoor and open to all kids on off-peak weekends and daily in the school holidays. As well as this, North Star also offers themed activities for the kids, including karaoke nights, outdoor cinemas, discos, parties, special guest entertainment and more.
Poolside Cocktail Bar
A swim-up poolside cocktail bar in a caravan park? You must be crazy, I hear you say! And while this feature might be more at home in a Balinese resort, it actually does exist in Australia – at NRMA Murramarang Beachfront Holiday Resort in South Durras, NSW!
Outdoor Cinema
There’s nothing better in summer – or winter, as long as you’re rugged up – than spending an evening watching a film under the stars and now you can do it from the comfort of the caravan park at the BIG4 Gold Coast Holiday Park, Qld.
Waterpark
Along with jumping pillows, go-karts and playgrounds, waterparks are the big new thing in holiday park facilities for kids. Some are as simple as some play equipment in a paddling pool, others, like the Sapphire Soaker at Discovery Parks – Pambula Beach, are so extravagant they’re open to the public as well as park guests. The Sapphire Soaker boasts two water slides, five water cannons, a 6m-tall tipping bucket, aqua domes and more than 35 interactive play features surrounded by a 250sqm lagoon.
Festivals
School holidays are a great time to be travelling through New South Wales’ holiday parks, with so many activities on offer. Many parks offer pizza nights or roast nights but it’s rare to hear of a holiday park Food Truck Festival! However, that’s exactly what Discovery Parks – Maidens Inn Moama did these school holidays when it hosted the event as part of the larger Feast on the Murray Festival.
WI-FI
Some of us can’t imagine going ‘unconnected’ for the duration of our holiday (while others can think of nothing better!). For those in the first camp, fear not, wi-fi is now freely available in many holiday parks around NSW and, often, for free! While not all parks offer this facility, it’s definitely more common than not. For example, 217 of the Caravan Camping Industry Association NSW’s 366 member parks have wi-fi available!
