Candyfloss & Dreams

Tag: Nodes Point

  • Parkdean Resorts Nodes Point Holiday Park Review 2021

    Parkdean Resorts Nodes Point Holiday Park Review 2021

    Review of Nodes Point Holiday Park – a Parkdean Resorts caravan, pitching and touring site on Isle of Wight. We had a four night stay in July 2021. Please note this post has to be marked as AD (advertisement) because it contains affiliate links where I may get a small commission if you decide to make a purchase – this is at no additional cost to you. I paid in full for my stay at Nodes Point Holiday park and all opinions are my own.

    Nodes Point Holiday Park is situated just outside of Ryde, in St Helens, on the North East side of the Isle of Wight. It’s a Parkdean Resorts holiday park, a company we are fully accustomed to staying with now since our first holiday with them back in 2014. We recently stayed in a Freshwater Lodge which was, for the most part, a really positive experience. This is our second time holidaying during Covid times too so the park did have some guidelines and restrictions in place during our stay. With restrictions set to lift today, July 19th, I’m not really sure what the park will be doing differently but they do have an FAQ on their site to explain and reception is still available. I can however, share my experience of a staycation (and by that I mean a UK based holiday rather than staying in my home for a holiday) in a pandemic that really isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

    a view from our lodge: the sports court situated on nodes point holiday park is to the left and the beach is in the distance
    The view from our lodge on Culver View shows the sports court at Nodes Point holiday park and the bay in the distance

    Nodes Point Holiday Park – What is there?

    Plenty of lodges with hot tubs – we loved ours, as well as space for touring, pitching, caravans, safari glamping tents and a plethora of different sized holiday homes (caravans) to stay in depending on budget and family size. There’s a good sized indoor swimming pool, play park, beach access and arcade. There is a restaurant on site with indoor and outdoor seating, bar, as well as an evening entertainment lounge. There is also a sports court which was very close to our Lodge on Culver View.

    Eating at Nodes Point Holiday Park

    We had one meal in the on site resturant and it was okay. There is an order to table app which you can download in advance – much like the Wetherspoons one – you select your park, table number and place your order. This can be paid for using apple pay or other credit and debit cards. You can order drinks and food seperately, you can order just dessert or snacks if you like too. The app is simple and easy to use. In terms of choice it’s currently a limited menu and very, very limited on what is available for vegitarians which was really disappointing. It seemed to be either a salad, burger or a wrap. Off the top of my head I can’t remember what else was suitable. We saw some people taking food away in the evening but there is no seperate on site takeaway which was a real shame as some fish and chips would have gone down a treat. It’s very standard pub food at slightly elevated prices but the portions are fairly decent. I wouldn’t say it’s anything special.

    If you do fancy something different we did a click and collect order from Ada’s Meditarianean Kitchen in Ryde which had a variety of Italian, Greek and Turkish food on the menu. You can eat in but as we had the kids we thought eating in our lodge would be easier. If you fancy eating out or doing click and collect I really recommend.

    On Site Shop and Arcade

    The on site shop is a Nisa store which has all of your basics although it is very expensive so I do not recommend filling your kitchen up there. It’s great for the odd loaf of bread, drinks and breakfast food as well as plenty of sweets for the kids pocket money. The daily opening hours are 8am – 7pm at the Nodes Point holiday park shop. The arcade is located just before you get into the show bar and restaurant. It has plenty of games to play. Felix particularly loved the win every time claw machine although at £2 a go you could probably get a better quality toy elsewhere. We also loved the 2p machines and won a few goodies from there including some magic sand – a favourite for Felix.

    A toddler in a red t shirt and his dad playing the claw game in the arcade at nodes point holiday park
    Felix loved the claw game in the arcade at Nodes Point Holiday Park

    Swimming Pool at Nodes Point Holiday Park

    The swimming pool is located towards the back of the park, just around the corner from reception. It’s an indoor pool and at the time of writing changing facilities are not currently in place. You can book up to two slots online one week before your arrival, and, if you check in at the swimming pool reception you can check availablity for any extra sessions. They do not encourage spectators and you get a 45 minute swim session allocated to you. The pool is cold and the room doesn’t feel particularly warm so I would advice having small ones in full swim suits. We took Felix in his Konfidence swim jacket which enabled him to float in the water rather than arm bands as they look so restrictive. He really loved wearing it and it was much easier to get around the pool with him. There are two pools in the swimming pool complex at Nodes Point which include a small, shallow 0.5m pool and a larger lagoon style pool with slides. You need to be over 1m tall to ride down the water slides at Nodes Point Holiday Park. If you want to purchase a Konfidence Swim vest for your toddler I have an affiliate link below.

    Getting down to the Beach

    The beach was about a ten minute walk for us and in the evening the tide goes right out leaving behind loads of rock pools for curious little explorers. We had a walk down there one evening and found lots of crabs, shells and pebbles – a favourite for Felix. There’s a dog friendly area and there are plenty of dog friendly accomodations at Nodes Point holiday park so if you’re taking your pets Nodes Point seems like an ideal location for them. The beach has a mix of sand and stones so I would recommend taking something to wear on your feet. In July the tide seemed to start heading out around 6pm so when we went for our stroll it was still quite wet but lovely to walk around.

    a girl and step dad at the beach looking for rock pools at Nodes Point holiday park. The sand looks wet and the sea is in the background. They are standing on rocks.
    The beach at nodes point caravan park

    Overall Nodes Point holiday park is a good family friendly destination with plenty of accomodation to choose from. We didn’t see much of the evening entertainment but they had a movie on one night and there was a chance to get your photo taken with a member of the Star Land crew. The night we happened to be in the show lounge we saw Lizzy the Lizard.

  • Freshwater Lodge with Hot Tub at Nodes Point Holiday Park

    Freshwater Lodge with Hot Tub at Nodes Point Holiday Park

    Reviewing the Freshwater Lodge at Parkdean Resorts Nodes Point Holiday park on the Isle of Wight. We stayed on a Monday-Friday break in July 2021.

    The Isle of Wight is a holiday happy place for me and we have just returned from a four night break on the island. We purposely booked early check in so we could make the most of our time and get into our lodge straight away. We decided to book a lodge with a hot tub because we wanted something a little bit fancy and, in my experience, it was worth the money. We did, however, book this break last summer and it cost us just under £600 in the Freshwater Lodge situated in Culver View. Splitting the cost over the year made it an affordable family break.

    Freshwater Lodge at Nodes Point

    Staying in the Freshwater Lodge as a family of 5 we had plenty of space. It was the four of us and Adam’s mum in a 3 bed, two bathroom lodge with an open plan living space which included a fully stocked kitchen and dining area. There was outside seating for six people as well as a large private hot tub on the decking. Inside there was a dining table for six as well as two bar stools. The open plan living space in the freshwater lodge makes it really easy to socialise. There are two bathrooms – one with a full bath and overhead shower, another; an ensuite to the master bedroom – which includes a shower cubicle. Having two spaces to wash really suited our situation.

    Our Lodge Tour Video of Culver View 5 is on YouTube

    What does the Freshwater Lodge include

    • One Double bedroom with ensuite, wardrobe, dressing table, TV with freeview and USB charging point
    • Two twin rooms with dressing table, wardrobe and TV with freeview
    • Bathroom with bath, shower, toilet and large cabinet for toiletries
    • Open plan living space with sofa and two arm chairs, TV with freeview and sliding doors opening up to the veranda and Hot Tub with outside seating
    • To the right of the entrance is a large cupboard with boiler, water heater, radiator control (including heated towel rail control) and a washing machine, air drier and ironing board.
    • The dining space has a large table and cabinet with plenty of storage
    • The kitchen has fridge, freezer, kettle, microwave, gas oven, dishwasher and toaster. There was an issue with our fridge (Culver View 5) which lead to a leak one morning and our food not staying particularly cold. A temporary fridge was put in the corner of the dining area in the interim and a new fridge has apparently been ordered. There is a large pantry space as well as plenty of cupboards. We did find cutlery to be a little sparse but there were plenty of wine glasses (for us none drinkers). There are no plastic or small bowls, plates or cutlery for children so its worth taking your own if you have very young children.
    • The seating area was comfortable for us. The TV seems a little tempremental and slow but worked fine for the times we used it.

    Review of Freshwater Lodge at Nodes Point, Isle of Wight

    I’ll start with the frustrations first because out stay was mostly positive. There was a smell of sewage for a lot of our stay which was really offputting. We found we could minimise it by keeping the entrance door closed and the sliding doors opened but it was frequent in the large bathroom. It was a bit off putting really but we only cooked twice. The other frustrating thing was the issue with the fridge which is hopefully being replaced. It is quite clearly lacking some sort of seal to keep the water in and the ice forming at the back of the fridge suggests its trying to over compensate to keep cool but with no seal around the door. We were told it didn’t need a seal so I do worry they are just avoiding fixing a problem. The solution was to put a temporary mini fridge in the corner which was acceptable but didn’t store a lot of food. We did have to throw a few things out like yoghurts because they just felt like they’d been left out at room temperature and I didn’t feel good about eating them. Some plastic or smaller, less fragile dishes and beakers for kids would have been fantastic too but this was lacking so we bought our own.

    The rest of the lodge, though, was really nice. Having a washing machine was really handy especially after a day at the beach. Having two bathrooms between the five of us meant we getting washed and ready was really easy. Having TV’s in each room meant when the kids needed some much needed downtime we weren’t stuck watching an endless loop of cbeebies. I loved the size of the pantry in the kitchen and having the open plan living space was really great for preparing meals and continuing to socialise. The dining table was comfortable and the bench was an ideal place for my son to sit at – the first year we didn’t request a high chair for him! It absolutely felt like a premium holiday accomodation at a holiday park because we had so much space.

    We have been to many caravan parks in the past and I think if I saw a lodge coming up for a similar price I wouldn’t hesitate to book again. I believe you can get some of the lodges included in the Sun holiday and I think they are absolutely worth it if you’re going in a larger group with friends or family – even better if you can split some of the cost down. I know a hot tub lodge won’t suit every budget and I’m not saying we will now only ever go for a lodge – because I’m not really prepared to pay more than £800 for a four night break and they do whack the price up – but if you can afford it, and you can comfortably fit the payment into your monthly budget (if booking in advance) then I would recommend it for the extra space. As a family of larger adults, myself on the chunky side and Adam being 6’5 having a bigger shower and shower over bath honestly made this experience so much more comfortable. I really struggle with the normal caravan showers so this was a huge plus for us.

    Using the Hot Tub in your hot tub lodge at Nodes Point

    The hot tub is in it’s own little gated off area and was much bigger than I thought it would be. It was a lovely addition and we used it every day – sometimes out of obligation really but it was a novelty that didn’t wear off on our break. It was a great way to warm up after the very cold swimming pool. You can use the hot tub after 7pm on your day of arrival, I think this is to give the cleaning chemicals a chance to get working, and between 10am-10pm every other day. Maintenance come around every morning to check the chemical levels and adjust as needed and on changeover days they refill the water and do a clean. The hot tub is kept lidded and locked whilst not in use. The tub was regularly between 37-39 degrees but we couldn’t seem to adjust the temperature. It was hotter during the day when the sun was out and cooler in the evening during the night so I expect this had something to do with it. The jets would go on for 15 minutes at a time which is an indication for how long one should be in a hot tub but I don’t think anyone ever pays attention to that.