Best and worst holiday parks and resorts in the UK

The days when holiday parks just meant cheap and cheerful chalets are long gone. Our survey of over 1,000 Which? members shows that you can have everything from luxury, hotel-style accommodation to elaborate water slides at the best parks.

It also showed that not all parks are cheap anymore - and that cheap doesn't always mean good value. We rated 18 holiday parks for cleanliness, accommodation, facilities, customer service, entertainment, food and drink and value for money.

One cheap park - under £49 per night (in 2022 so it's probably increased since then) - got just two stars for value for money - with visitors bemoaning the accommodation and entertainment. Our top two parks were quite a bit more expensive - but got great star ratings across the board. 

And there is one highly rated, Which? Recommended Provider, that cost just £50 a night and was still much higher rated than most of its rivals.

Only the top performing parks and resorts have been awarded Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) status. 

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Best and worst UK Holiday Parks and Resorts rated

The best holiday parks in the UK

It was the smaller independents that triumphed over their megabrand rivals. First and second-place Potters Resorts and Waterside Holiday Group are both family-run brands that have been in the business for decades. They scored five stars in every category, including customer service and value for money. Expect luxury spas, boating lakes and theatres. 

Even if you don’t want to splash out, John Fowler Holiday Parks, family-run since 1953, has been rated as better and cheaper than big names like Hoseasons and Park Holidays.

Best holiday park overall in the UK: Potters Resorts - Which? Recommended Provider

• Customer score 88%

Operating for over 100 years, Potters says it was the first-ever holiday park (opened by Herbert Potter after he won £500 in a competition). It’s also the best, according to you, with an impressive overall score of 88%. More a resort than a park, accommodation at Potters is in bungalows, hotel rooms and suites. 

It only has two locations, in Norfolk and Essex, and both are all-inclusive with everything (including alcoholic drinks) thrown in. Guests thought it was a good deal, awarding Potters five stars for value for money. In fact, it clinched full marks in every category – including entertainment (with West End-inspired shows) and facilities including a rifle shooting range and boating lake. As one happy camper put it: ‘They offer a great service and I loved the whole experience.’

Which? verdict: Potters is an upscale affair – with absolutely everything included.

Book a holiday at Potters Resorts

Well-rated holiday parks in Cornwall, Dorset and Devon

Waterside Holiday Group - Which? Recommended Provider

• Customer Score 87%

A small regional brand, Waterside Holiday Group has four luxurious parks (three in Dorset, one in Cornwall). Their caravans are as classy as they come – at least 3.6 metres wide, with central heating and double glazing, plus fully equipped kitchens and widescreen TVs. Or you can glamp in a safari lodge with a private hot tub. Like Potters, Waterside also achieved a full house of perfect star ratings.

The difference is it costs more upfront. And unlike Potters, it’s not an all-inclusive rate, meaning you’ll pay extra on top to dine at its beachfront bars or restaurants. 

Each park is a little bit different: Osmington is grown up, with a country club, gym and swimming pool; Chesil Vista has a splash pool, soft play and lots of other kids’ facilities.

Which? verdict: The best-rated luxury caravan experience. Waterside offers top-end stays in beautiful coastal locations. Pricey but worth it.

Book a holiday at Waterside Holiday Group

Great value break: John Fowler Holiday Parks

• Customer score 78%

John Fowler began in 1953 as one caravan in a field but has expanded to 11 coastal locations across Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, with a wide range of accommodations and prices.

Themed weekends, kids’ club and static caravans: John Fowler does traditional better than any other brand and on a budget. It’s an absolute bargain (the cheapest option in the top half of our table), with guests telling us they paid less than £43 per person per night on average. Yet it still got four stars for accommodation, food and drink and entertainment.

Like many independents, it stood out for its customer service – rated five stars. Many customers told us about the friendly staff, with one saying that, although they’d found better facilities elsewhere, ‘the place had a lovely atmosphere that made it special’.

Which? verdict: It’s cheaper than Pontins and about the same price as Butlin’s, but better than both. The best choice for a traditional holiday park experience.

Book a holiday at John Fowler Holiday Parks

Top-rated holiday park in Wales

Bluestone Wales - Which? Recommended Provider

• Customer score 81%

Founder William McNamara originally opened up his dairy farm to guests in the 1980s when milk quotas threatened his livelihood. Today this single five-star resort has expanded to a sprawling 500 acres, where rolling countryside meets rugged coastline within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

Choose from spa, family or adventure breaks with a climbing wall, high ropes course and a range of water sports. There’s also the Serendome for kids  - sand pits, sky walks and wacky races under a giant transparent roof. Its range of woodland lodges and colourful terrace cottages were also awarded the full five stars. One visitor concluded that it was the perfect choice for all three generations of their family.

Which? verdict: There may be just one resort, but the excellent facilities and idyllic location means you needn’t venture anywhere else.

Book a Bluestone Wales holiday

Prefer to stay in a holiday cottage? Look at the best and worst-rated holiday let providers from our survey

How well-rated were Center Parcs, Butlin's and Pontins' holiday parks?

Center Parcs resorts

• Customer score 72%

As the most visited brand in our survey, Center Parcs has become synonymous with activity-packed kid-friendly holidays – at a price.

Set in hundreds of acres of woodland – an environment described by one guest as ‘idyllic’ – there are wildlife trails, ziplines and water sports aplenty. Rainy days are also well catered for with the indoor tropical pool, spa treatments and in-village shopping. You also awarded its comfortable lodges and luxury treehouses the full five stars.

The problem, it seems, is the price. You told us it was ‘second mortgage’ expensive, particularly during school holidays. With guests paying around £70 per person, per night on average, it’s only slightly cheaper than first-place (and all-inclusive) Potters. Plus – other than the pool, trails and play areas – just about everything else costs extra. As a result, Center Parcs scored just two stars for value for money, with many of you complaining of long queues and a ‘scramble’ to book activities too.

Our research even showed that you can save money by travelling to Belgium or France if you want a cheaper holiday at Center Parcs.

 Which? verdict: Quality lodges with every sort of activity for kids and active adults. But the price is too high, according to its guests.

Book a Center Parcs holiday

Butlin’s holiday parks

• Customer score 71%

Perhaps the most famous holiday park brand, Butlin’s (which once had a park in the Bahamas) now has just three sites: Bognor, Minehead and Skegness. All have their own fairground and host live music and theme weekends.

The brand has spent millions smartening up its accommodation and pool complexes in recent years, and it’s paid off. It may be towards the bottom of our table, but it got three or four stars across the board. Crucially, it outclassed rival Pontins in almost every category – particularly entertainment. Its iconic Redcoats helped to bag it an impressive four stars, better than many of its pricier competitors.

It’s not perfect. There were complaints about areas that looked ‘tired’ and ‘dated’. One guest sized up their experience, saying: ‘It’s good for families but could do with a lot of TLC especially on the accommodation front.’

Which? verdict: There are other options that are better and cheaper, such as John Fowlers. But it did especially well in its rating for entertainment and kids’ activities - so don’t write it off if the price is right.

Book a Butlin's holiday

Pontins holiday parks

• Customer score 59%

This budget brand – and holiday park heavyweight – was bought just over a decade ago by Britannia, a hotel chain consistently rated the UK’s worst by Which? members. So its subsidiary should feel quite at home at the bottom of our table. In fact, Pontins at Brean Sands in Somerset famously hit headlines when it was branded the UK’s worst holiday park – with more than 3,000 terrible reviews on TripAdvisor. 

Your experiences weren’t much better. One guest described it as a ‘dull, dingy campsite’, while others complained of cobwebs, musty smells, sticky furniture and stained mattresses. Brean Sands has since been closed for three years to undergo major refurbishment.

But, it’s no wonder that Pontins scraped just two stars out of five for the quality of its accommodation – the worst in our survey. It got the same rating for its entertainment and kids’ facilities, which are supposed to be Pontins’ signature attraction.

With prices averaging just under £50, it was one of the cheaper brands. But it wasn’t nearly cheap enough – you gave it a lowly two stars for value for money.

Which? verdict: Grotty chalets and lacklustre entertainment. Avoid at all costs.

Find out more about Pontins

How we research UK holiday parks and resorts

In April 2022 we asked 1,355 Which? members and members of the general public to complete an online survey about their experience of recent stays at UK holiday parks and resorts. Only those parks and resorts that were top of the table are eligible for Which? Recommended Provider status.