We have just returned from four nights at John Fowler’s Combe Martin Beach Holiday Park in North Devon, which cost less than £400 for a Gold caravan and a dog and because I have a whole travel category on this site, and barely go anywhere these days, I’m going to tell you all about it.
I found a £50 discount voucher online, because naturally I cannot book anything without first scouring the internet for a code. It meant I could essentially upgrade from whatever a silver caravan is to whatever a gold one is for free! Even without it, though, the break was considerably cheaper – much less than half the price – than the equivalent Haven holiday.
I won’t lie, it was basic. The caravan was fairly small even for the three of us and shook whenever anyone got up for a wee. The outdoor pool was absolutely bloody freezing despite being advertised as ‘heated’, and there wasn’t really anything in the way of entertainment.
But for a cheap, dog-friendly Monday-to-Friday break in Devon, it was perfectly fine.
What Is Combe Martin Beach Holiday Park Like?
Combe Martin Beach Holiday Park is one of John Fowler’s smaller and quieter parks. We’ve previously stayed at John Fowler parks in South Bay, in Brixham in Dorset, and in Sandy Meadows, Brean Sands in Somerset, and this was more subdued than either.
There is no shop, no arcade and no regular evening entertainment on the site itself. There is a clubhouse serving drinks and during certain times, pizzas and burgers etc. The inside hasn’t been touched since the 90s but it has lovely outside seating area overlooking the surrounding countryside. We mainly cooked and ate in the caravan.
Our Gold caravan was clean and comfortable enough for three people and a dog for four nights. It was not luxurious and apparently had the structural integrity of a blancmange whenever anyone walked through it, but it gave us somewhere to sleep, shower and repeatedly ask the children to stop leaving wet towels everywhere.
For less than £400 including the dog, I was not expecting staff to scatter rose petals across the decking.
Is The Swimming Pool Heated?
The park advertises a heated outdoor pool. By that I guess they mean heated by the weak Devon sunlight and the collective body warmth of several shivering children, because the water was extremely cold.
My kids didn’t much care; they took a ball into the pool, made friends and spent hours playing while I sat on a sunlounger reading. There are probably worse ways to spend an afternoon, particularly when your children have reached an age where organised holiday-club activities are considered humiliating but repeatedly hurling a ball at a stranger in icy water is excellent entertainment.
Entertainment At Sandaway Beach Holiday Park
Although there is no entertainment at Combe Martin Beach Holiday Park itself, guests can use the facilities at the nearby John Fowler Sandaway Beach Holiday Park.
Sandaway is around a ten-minute walk away up a massive bloody hill – the whole place is very hilly and decidedly non-accessibility friendly.
Ask for entertainment passes when you check in. They are free and give you access to Sandaway’s shop, slightly larger outdoor pool and nightly bingo and entertainment; apparently the locals sometimes try to sneak in, and if you were to walk all the way there without passes only to get turned away, that would suck.
We particularly enjoyed comedy magician David Andrews, who was genuinely very funny and deserves a mention. It is rare for a holiday park entertainer to keep both adults and tweens interested without anyone visibly losing the will to live, but he managed it.
Beaches Near Combe Martin Holiday Park
The location is the main reason to choose this park. Newberry Beach is nearby and dog friendly throughout the year. It is a pebbly beach with rock pools and plenty to explore when the tide is out, making it ideal for children and dogs who enjoy investigating wet crevices for several hours.
The main Combe Martin Beach is slightly larger and sandier. It sits beside the village and was busy with people using kayaks and paddleboards. Dogs are restricted on this beach during the summer season, so Newberry is the more useful local option when travelling with one as you’re not supposed to leave dogs on their own in the caravan and leave the site.
Combe Martin itself is not enormous, but it has a few pubs, an ice cream shop and a fish and chip shop. This is essentially everything required to prevent a family holiday from collapsing.
A Day At Woolacombe Sands – A Dog-Friendly Beach
Woolacombe is less than half an hour away by car and has a choice of glorious sandy beaches, including designated dog-friendly areas in Woolacombe Sands.
It also has proper facilities, by which I mean free toilets, showers and several places where your children can emotionally blackmail you into buying ice cream.
We paid £14 to park for the day which nearly gave me a heart attack before we had even left the car. The children then spent more than £30 on fish and chips, completing the financial assault. However, they spent more than five hours playing in the waves, so it was somewhat worth it.
The weather was at least five degrees cooler than it was at home in Reading, which was glorious rather than disappointing – 22 degrees is actually perfect for doing almost anything. It meant Izzy, our Labrador, could come to the beach with us without immediately melting into the sand.
There were Labradors everywhere. Everyone in Devon appears to have a red lab. Izzy had quite the day, and I finished a whole book.
Other Places To Visit Near Combe Martin
Ilfracombe is less than 15 minutes away. It has a large Lidl and, I noted, a Wetherspoons, and possibly many other interesting cultural attractions, but we did not stay long enough to investigate them after we finished our shop.
Our Monday-to-Friday booking only gave us three complete days. One was spent at Woolacombe, while the others were spent in and around the village, beaches and park.
There are plenty of proper family attractions nearby too, including Watermouth Castle, a family theme park set inside and around a Victorian castle. It has rides, gardens, play areas, a maze and dungeons and looks like a good option for families with younger children. I very much fancied it (you can even take dogs!) but my kids gave it a stern no in favour of the cheaper option of watching Tipping Point in the caravan and returning to the chilly swimming pool.
Sometimes you have to accept that you have paid to travel across the country so your children can throw a ball in some cold water.
Walking Into Combe Martin Village
From the park, it’s a very short walk into the village, a few minutes maximum. There is also a pleasant woodland walk from the park which brings you out towards the top of Combe Martin village.
From there, it is a short walk to the Pack O’ Cards, a wonderfully unusual old pub with a lovely garden, a children’s play area and a stream running along the bottom.
The walk, pub garden, beaches and rock pools gave us plenty to do locally without needing to get in the car every day.
Combe Martin is not a large or bustling resort, but there is enough nearby to keep everyone sane for a few days as long as the weather is alright. It also works well as a base for exploring more of North Devon, should that float your paddleboard.
John Fowler Versus Haven Holidays
It is difficult not to compare John Fowler with Haven, particularly because our break cost less than half the price of some Haven holidays I looked at.
Haven offers considerably more on site. Its larger parks tend to have bigger swimming pools, entertainment venues, arcades, shops, pubs, fast-food outlets, children’s activities and enough opportunities to spend money that you may need to remortgage your house before checkout.
We all loved our stay at Perran Sands in Cornwall, and we also had a great time at Haven Weymouth last year. I would happily book another Haven break because there is far more to do without leaving the park.
John Fowler is a different type of holiday. The Combe Martin Beach Holiday Park is better suited to people who want somewhere affordable to use as a base, are happy cooking in the caravan and do not need a full programme of activities and entertainment.
The children still had the pool and access to Sandaway’s evening entertainment, and we had the beaches, village and surrounding area to explore.
Is Combe Martin Beach Holiday Park Worth It?
Combe Martin Beach Holiday Park is not a destination resort. It would not suit families who want constant entertainment, extensive facilities and several places to eat on site. It is a basic, affordable place to sleep, swim, cook and use as a base for exploring North Devon.
Judged on that basis, I would recommend it, as long as you don’t have any accessibility needs and are happy to walk up and down steep hills and steps to the beach.
For less than £400, we had four nights in a clean Gold caravan, brought the dog, spent days on lovely beaches and had enough nearby to keep two tweens occupied without paying Haven prices. I would book John Fowler again for this sort of short, self-catering break, particularly if the price stayed this low.
Just do not pack your swimsuit expecting a heated pool.