Daisy Fields Camping Park, Littlehampton - review

So, as I mentioned briefly on Saturday, after a quick haircut at my folks we managed to get ourselves booked in for a mini-break last weekend in Littlehampton...the plan being that this year we get away on a *lot* more little trips (anywhere is fair game as long as it's around an hour away from home, which luckily takes in a large amount of the south coast) and really make use of Colin the Camper (we already have our next trip planned, but more on that later)...the place we chose was the charmingly named "Daisy Fields" camp site (about a mile from the center of town, so easy walking distance), it was painless to find, being clearly signposted from the main road (but *just* far enough away from it not to be troubled by the traffic noise) -

- we were intending to come along with Flyingpops' folks, but an extremely strict "No Commercial Vehicles" policy meant that they couldn't, as the only vehicle with a tow bar available on that day was a transit van -

- and it's enforced too, by locked gates...

So when we arrived we had to leave the camper outside and trot round to the reception (hidden, from where we had parked, by a large hedge) -

- Reception did have a few things on sale, but really only *very* few (jars of coffee, soap, that sort of thing) so make sure you bring everything you are going to want to eat and drink, although their walls were absolutely overflowing with flyers for various attractions around the place (so if on a slightly longer break you would have no shortage of suggestions for "days out")...Flyingpops decided to try and push the lady behind the desk on the commercial vehicle policy, but she was extremely firm, not even prepared to entertain the idea of the van being parked in the visitors car park...so if you are in a similar situation - find a different place to go...anyway, we paid our bill which was £14 (including £2 electric hook up) and then balked slightly at having to leave £10 deposit for the toilet block access key, but not having a lot of choice in the matter, yielded...and then the site gate was unlocked and we were allowed to proceed inside (watching the roof carefully to make sure it didn't scrape)...

...and (once inside) it's really very nice, definitely set up for families, equipped with an adventure playground (of sorts), a fenced in area for ball games (so footballs don't go flying all over the place), however it's perfect for couples too as the pitches are absolutely huge so you don't feel like you are having to pitch right on top of anyone else, and all the kids activities are right in the middle, a long distance from the pitches, they also just let us park up wherever we wanted, no allocated spot or anything like that (but then the site was quite empty)...

...we spent a lovely lazy day sitting in the sunshine, reading, dozing and munching (too many bags of crisps and a lot of strawberries)...about the only moment of (unwanted) excitement was when a flock of about 40 seagulls descended on the site (making a huge fuss), but when they discovered that there weren't any bags of rubbish to plunder they swept off to the next target...

My folks came down in the early afternoon (another bonus of being quite near to home), they coughed up their £1 entry fee (yep, visitors must also pay...but it gave us a laugh as a certain scene in "Carry on Camping" sprang to mind as a result) and we had a few drinks at the camper, then headed into town for a nose round -



- and some grub, we found a fantastic Turkish/Mediterranean fusion restaurant where we had an incredible meze -

- and then headed back to the site (for a very good night's sleep), woke up at about half nine (very rare for me, normally awake by about 7-8am on the weekend), made a cooked breakfast, thought we had lost a gas bottle (but found it hidden in one of the secret smuggling compartments) and then went to claim our tenner back (realising that this is a very clever trick to make *sure* you check out exactly on time as the shop closes at 11am...stay any later and you are looking at paying another £4 for the privilege)...did also seem a bit tough if you fancied leaving early as the shop isn't open all the time (I think it was an 8.30am start)...so you do need to be rather organised or you will be walking away with the most expensive useless lump of metal you ever accidentally bought...

Anyway, we had an excellent weekend, proved to ourselves that we can get organised enough to get away just for one night *and* manage to get that relaxed "holiday" feeling and also proved that (in fact) it's actually better sometimes *not* to go too far afield...thus my suggestion for the next break is a really nice looking place in Horsham (which is very near home indeed)...now, we just need to find some free weekends! ;)