WOODOVIS CARAVAN & CAMPING PARK, TAVISTOCK, DEVON
We were recently invited to stay at Woodovis Park for the first two nights of our five day Dartmoor trip. You can read more about the rest of our trip in this popular recent post 6 Family Fun Outings In The Dartmoor Area.
SITE AND FACILITIES
Located in 14 acres in the tranquil surrounds of the Tamar Valley, Woodovis Park is a family run holiday park offering luxury holiday homes, camping pods and camping pitches. The site’s credentials are superb. They’ve been awarded a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for the third year running as well as the David Bellamy Gold for their commitment to conservation for the fifth year running. The staff are friendly, the site is spotlessly clean and it has a very natural feel.
As soon as we’d confirmed our booking at Woodovis we received a standard friendly welcome email from site owner Dorothy, which included useful information and forthcoming events on site, such as a regular visiting hog roast and mobile fish and chip shop, as well as ideas about nearby places to explore and local dining. There were also links to plenty more useful information on their colourful and well organised website
Onsite family-friendly facilities include
- indoor heated pool
- outdoor table tennis
- games room
- petanque court
- children’s play area (Although my big eleven and nine year olds were a bit on the big side for this!)
There’s a little shop on site which is well stocked with food but doesn’t sell fresh fish or vegetables. If you want to try out their bakery products like this baked to order batard loaf, you can order them from the shop the previous day and if you return from your day out to find the shops already closed, don’t panic, you can slip a note under the door, ready for when they start baking in the morning.
We enjoyed our french style loaf so much the first morning, we realised we ought to try the fresh croissants on day two – for research purposes of course. .
It’s become quite a custom at Woodovis Park for children to design their bakery orders and you can see what fun they have with it from this selection displayed on the shop wall.
THE POOL AND ZORBING
I think the main thing the boys had been looking forward to was having access to the on-site heated pool and they were particularly keen to try the Sunday morning “water walking” (zorbing to you and I!) which was a huge success with even the trepidatious six year old enjoying it. It’s harder than it looks although the nine year old makes it look deceptively simple in this video clip!
The nine year old making water walking (zorbing) look so easy!The nine year old making water walking (zorbing) look so easy! Can you believe it’s only the second time he’s ever tried it?
Posted by Practically Perfect Mums on Thursday, 24 September 2015
Use of the pool facility is included in the site fees but there’s a charge for water walking and it’s only available at certain times so you might want to check availability if you’re interested in trying it. We were clever enough to time our session at the swimming pool to coincide with some light drizzly weather and by the time we’d enjoyed a swim, the sun came out for us. Ah, the the benefits of having a heated indoor pool on the campsite! Despite our busy schedule we managed to fit in another family swim the following morning after we’d packed up the caravan. As it’s such a lovely facility it would be rude not to wouldn’t it?!
As our visit was quite short and we packed a LOT in while we were there, we didn’t get chance to play petanque on Woodovis’s court. I’d definitely like to make time for it on a future visit as it’s the sort of activity the whole family enjoys and an evening game with a glass of red in hand, sounds so terribly civilised, doesn’t it?
If you fancy trying one of the many local walks, there’s plenty of inspiration on offer in this good old British phone box!
THE CARAVAN
The accommodation for our two night stay was a three bedroom Super Robin holiday home. On arrival our first impression was how immaculate and large it was. Just look at the size of that sofa! Oh yes, we’ve stayed in some grotty static caravans in the past, so we fully appreciate the luxury on offer here.
The kitchen and shower rooms were modern and well equipped. Water pressure throughout was surprisingly good for a caravan and the additional separate loo was useful with five of us.
Immediately outside we had a picnic table with bench chairs and a good space for the children to play and if they wanted to venture to the next field there was a large green where they could run around or play ball games.
I’m not always great at settling into strange places, but with the assistance of the amazingly comfortable beds and pillows in our caravan, I slept like a log here.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT?
On reflection, I think the only thing I’d change is to add decking outside the caravan but I’m pretty sure John and Dorothy will have a good reason why they haven’t added this feature.
THE VERDICT
Woodovis Park is a relaxing, family-friendly, well organised site with masses of scope for getting back to nature, enjoying some creative play or just leaning on a gate to chat to some inquisitive cows!
The experience from start to finish has been well thought out from the initial welcome letter to John and Dorothy’s hilarious customer satisfaction form. I mean who could possibly resist giving feedback when the options offered range from “Awesome me ‘handsome” to “Pants”. (We were a bit disappointed not to get even a sniff of a “pants” answer)
As well as getting the basics right, during our brief stay we enjoyed the lovely little extra touches Woodovis Park includes too. We were greeted with a welcome pack which featured a box of ‘naughty but nice’ West Country clotted cream fudge alongside the usual teas, coffees and milks.
The freshly baked bread and croissants were a real treat. In fact the combination of a warm-just out-of-the-oven batard loaf and the petanque court in the next field make me feel like I might have inadvertently stumbled into a Gallic campsite and let’s face it the French are masters of Le Camping!
Many thanks for inviting us to review Woodovis Park. It was a pleasure!
NEARBY
– PUB GRUB
We didn’t want to cook the evening we arrived and enjoyed dinner served by the friendly staff at the Copper Penny Inn a very short drive away.
– ATTRACTIONS
Have a look at my previous post 6 Fun Family Outings in the Dartmoor Area if you’d like information about some thoroughly enjoyable and educational activities we enjoyed while we were staying in the area.
The trip was quite an eye-opener for us. I knew very little about the Dartmoor area before we came away but we thoroughly enjoyed our visit and wouldn’t hesitate to return as a family.
Useful links to family friendly activities and accommodation in the Dartmoor Area:
Woodovis Park Caravan & Camping
Holidays in a Super Robin holiday home like the one we stayed in range from £205 to £565 for a short break and £339 to £799 for a week throughout the season (2015-2016)
That all sounds really good and I’ve pinned for future reference.