York South Caravan Camping Site
May 2018
This site is less than an hour from our home in Leeds, so was perfect for travelling on a Friday night after work, therefore we decided to try it for the first bank holiday weekend in May 2018.
The first thing I enjoyed was the drive, despite it being a Friday at 6pm on a bank holiday weekend, traffic wasn't bad and there was very little motorway before you were out driving the quiet country roads. What also played a part was its location, despite the name, it's a lot further south of York than we’d first thought, only about a 5-minute drive from Cawood, located in beautiful countryside.
We had our sat nav going for most of the journey, but my wife had read on their website to follow their directions, as sat nav takes you to the village, therefore my wife directed me the last part, which is very straight forward, if you've turned onto Broad Lane off Bell Lane, you'll see the site exit first, which we nearly turned into, but I think some larger or earlier signs would help you spot the exit before you're on it.
On arrival we followed their instructions to use the intercom at the entrance, a gentleman answered, confirmed we knew our pitch number (there is a map above to help) and said he'd meet us there. Driving to our pitch we passed the hard-standing pitches first, which made sense to be closest to the road, (not that it was a busy noisy road) and then after a hedge that went across the site were tent pitches.
Arriving at our pitch, it was immediately clear that these pitches are very generous in size, probably bigger than we've ever had before, well presented and looked after, separated with a small hedge and have a shared picnic bench and shared water point. As we were unloading the car, Pete and Gaynor came over and introduced themselves, we commented on the pitch size and Pete said they preferred less generous size pitches, than many smaller pitches. Gaynor then went through some site rules, told us the location of the facilities and checked the electric meter reading with us, then left us to setup.
Facilities
The facilities block wasn't far, from the outside it has a rustic look, with sinks at the front, grey & toilet waste disposal points clearly labelled and doors to the ladies and gents. Once inside it was quite surprising, as the facilities are very modern in comparison to the outside. My only concern is the amount of facilities for the size of site, although there are many hard-standing pitches, not all caravan/campervan owners will use their own onboard facilities, if the site facilities are close by. In the gents, there are 2 sinks, 2 urinals, 2 toilets and 2 showers, my wife said they had the same (except urinals obviously). The shower cubicles are brilliant, similar to what you might have or like to have at home, with a large cubicle, modern tiling and most importantly there is a substantial barrier to stop the water leaving the cubicle. The shower isn't very powerful, and you do have to keep pressing the button, as with many other campsite showers, but with these it's much more comfortable, no bugs, plenty of space, plenty of hooks for clothes etc and a seat that can be folded up out of the way, I can only remember once having better showers than these.
This site is less than an hour from our home in Leeds, so was perfect for travelling on a Friday night after work, therefore we decided to try it for the first bank holiday weekend in May 2018.
The first thing I enjoyed was the drive, despite it being a Friday at 6pm on a bank holiday weekend, traffic wasn't bad and there was very little motorway before you were out driving the quiet country roads. What also played a part was its location, despite the name, it's a lot further south of York than we’d first thought, only about a 5-minute drive from Cawood, located in beautiful countryside.
We had our sat nav going for most of the journey, but my wife had read on their website to follow their directions, as sat nav takes you to the village, therefore my wife directed me the last part, which is very straight forward, if you've turned onto Broad Lane off Bell Lane, you'll see the site exit first, which we nearly turned into, but I think some larger or earlier signs would help you spot the exit before you're on it.
On arrival we followed their instructions to use the intercom at the entrance, a gentleman answered, confirmed we knew our pitch number (there is a map above to help) and said he'd meet us there. Driving to our pitch we passed the hard-standing pitches first, which made sense to be closest to the road, (not that it was a busy noisy road) and then after a hedge that went across the site were tent pitches.
Arriving at our pitch, it was immediately clear that these pitches are very generous in size, probably bigger than we've ever had before, well presented and looked after, separated with a small hedge and have a shared picnic bench and shared water point. As we were unloading the car, Pete and Gaynor came over and introduced themselves, we commented on the pitch size and Pete said they preferred less generous size pitches, than many smaller pitches. Gaynor then went through some site rules, told us the location of the facilities and checked the electric meter reading with us, then left us to setup.
Facilities
The facilities block wasn't far, from the outside it has a rustic look, with sinks at the front, grey & toilet waste disposal points clearly labelled and doors to the ladies and gents. Once inside it was quite surprising, as the facilities are very modern in comparison to the outside. My only concern is the amount of facilities for the size of site, although there are many hard-standing pitches, not all caravan/campervan owners will use their own onboard facilities, if the site facilities are close by. In the gents, there are 2 sinks, 2 urinals, 2 toilets and 2 showers, my wife said they had the same (except urinals obviously). The shower cubicles are brilliant, similar to what you might have or like to have at home, with a large cubicle, modern tiling and most importantly there is a substantial barrier to stop the water leaving the cubicle. The shower isn't very powerful, and you do have to keep pressing the button, as with many other campsite showers, but with these it's much more comfortable, no bugs, plenty of space, plenty of hooks for clothes etc and a seat that can be folded up out of the way, I can only remember once having better showers than these.
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Cawood
The village is about a 15-minute walk from York south caravan camping site, but it is along country roads, with no paths (see map of the route we walked). The first thing we found on our way into the village was Castle Garth, a beautiful, wild green area to walk through, before arriving at Cawood Castle & Garth and then on into Cawood village. In the village there is a nice little post (the pickled postie) office/shop/cafe, which also becomes a little bistro at night. Carrying on walking through the village, we also found Grangeside Nurseries, we stopped for a drink in their cafe and the cheese scones are lovely. |
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