BILLING AQUADROME - ANY GOOD?

[Elaine_374411704]

We're booked in at Billing Aquadrome in Northampton for the Easter break in our tourer, my sister in her tourer and a friend in his. Of course the brochure looks great which is why we're going there but what I really want to know from fellow caravanners is - is it any good?

Has anyone been there recently who can give us an honest review? Is the leisure centre finished yet? How are the facilities, clean? An overall opinion would also be great.

Is there something we should look out for? Any suggestions as to great pitches on the site? We're arriving very early at the site that weekend and we've been told we can take our pick of pitches.

Many Thanks

Elaine

 

[Soozeeg]

Hi Elaine

We live not far from Billing Aquadrome so have never actually camped there. We've been there to visit lots of times though, as they always have something or other going on there. The facilities, from what I recall, are reasonably clean, but it is a huge site (and I do mean huge!! around 200 acres, I think about 800+ touring pitches and probably at least double that many static vans, mostly owner occupied), so the facilities get used very heavily. There are several toilet blocks.

Obviously, the site gets very busy during holiday periods. It is open to day visitors and is an extremely popular place to visit, as there is lots to do on site. There are about 7 lakes, some of which you can fish in and some have watersports, such as jet skiing or boats for hire. There's a funfair with lots of rides, amusements and various 'hook a duck' type stalls. There are several bars dotted around the site, most do food. There are food takeaway places near the funfair, some 'touristy' type shops (you know, the ones selling souvenirs or cheap leather goods) and a small supermarket. There is also a caravan accessory shop and I think a shop selling fishing gear. You wouldn't really have to go off-site if you didn't want to.

There is a pub/restaurant called the Billing Mill just outside the site which does good, cheap family meals and has a play area. There's a petrol station just down the road and a good garden centre too.

If you want my honest opinion, it's a good place to visit for the day - there's always something going on, as I said (they hold lots of car rallies, for example) and there's plenty for the kids to do, they'll never get bored. They often have fireworks in the evenings too during the main season. However, because it's so massive and gets so many day visitors, it's not our cup of tea for a place to stay........we prefer much smaller quieter sites. I would possibly be slightly worried about security for belongings left in awnings too, again simply because of the huge numbers of people there (they do have security patrols though). But each to their own!! )

Hope this helps.

 

[Elaine_374411704]

Hi Elaine

We live not far from Billing Aquadrome so have never actually camped there. We've been there to visit lots of times though, as they always have something or other going on there. The facilities, from what I recall, are reasonably clean, but it is a huge site (and I do mean huge!! around 200 acres, I think about 800+ touring pitches and probably at least double that many static vans, mostly owner occupied), so the facilities get used very heavily. There are several toilet blocks.

Obviously, the site gets very busy during holiday periods. It is open to day visitors and is an extremely popular place to visit, as there is lots to do on site. There are about 7 lakes, some of which you can fish in and some have watersports, such as jet skiing or boats for hire. There's a funfair with lots of rides, amusements and various 'hook a duck' type stalls. There are several bars dotted around the site, most do food. There are food takeaway places near the funfair, some 'touristy' type shops (you know, the ones selling souvenirs or cheap leather goods) and a small supermarket. There is also a caravan accessory shop and I think a shop selling fishing gear. You wouldn't really have to go off-site if you didn't want to.

There is a pub/restaurant called the Billing Mill just outside the site which does good, cheap family meals and has a play area. There's a petrol station just down the road and a good garden centre too.

If you want my honest opinion, it's a good place to visit for the day - there's always something going on, as I said (they hold lots of car rallies, for example) and there's plenty for the kids to do, they'll never get bored. They often have fireworks in the evenings too during the main season. However, because it's so massive and gets so many day visitors, it's not our cup of tea for a place to stay........we prefer much smaller quieter sites. I would possibly be slightly worried about security for belongings left in awnings too, again simply because of the huge numbers of people there (they do have security patrols though). But each to their own!! )

Hope this helps.

Hi Soozeeg,

Thanks for that, yes it does help, although we usually go for smaller sites ourselves, we thought that with so much to do the kids would love it, especially at Easter.

I never usually worry too much about leaving stuff in the awning, as it's only coats and shoes mainly but I'll definitely take note of that when we're there.

Thanks very much for your post!

Elaine

 

[Soozeeg]

Hi Elaine

We live not far from Billing Aquadrome so have never actually camped there. We've been there to visit lots of times though, as they always have something or other going on there. The facilities, from what I recall, are reasonably clean, but it is a huge site (and I do mean huge!! around 200 acres, I think about 800+ touring pitches and probably at least double that many static vans, mostly owner occupied), so the facilities get used very heavily. There are several toilet blocks.

Obviously, the site gets very busy during holiday periods. It is open to day visitors and is an extremely popular place to visit, as there is lots to do on site. There are about 7 lakes, some of which you can fish in and some have watersports, such as jet skiing or boats for hire. There's a funfair with lots of rides, amusements and various 'hook a duck' type stalls. There are several bars dotted around the site, most do food. There are food takeaway places near the funfair, some 'touristy' type shops (you know, the ones selling souvenirs or cheap leather goods) and a small supermarket. There is also a caravan accessory shop and I think a shop selling fishing gear. You wouldn't really have to go off-site if you didn't want to.

There is a pub/restaurant called the Billing Mill just outside the site which does good, cheap family meals and has a play area. There's a petrol station just down the road and a good garden centre too.

If you want my honest opinion, it's a good place to visit for the day - there's always something going on, as I said (they hold lots of car rallies, for example) and there's plenty for the kids to do, they'll never get bored. They often have fireworks in the evenings too during the main season. However, because it's so massive and gets so many day visitors, it's not our cup of tea for a place to stay........we prefer much smaller quieter sites. I would possibly be slightly worried about security for belongings left in awnings too, again simply because of the huge numbers of people there (they do have security patrols though). But each to their own!! )

Hope this helps.

You're welcome Elaine, I hope you have a good time! If there's anything else you'd like to know, just ask and I'll see if I can help.

Sue

 

[maxtherotti]

i live approx 18 miles away from billing and spent all most every bank holiday weekend there as a kid (we lived 35 miles away then so did stay in the family caravan and it was great as a kid as allways something to do) and i go to lots of car rallies there, mostly the land rover one but that wont be going back this year due to the ammount of theft on the site!

have heard of peoples kit going missing from awnings etc too,

there is on site security doing semi regular patrols too tho and i have never had anything go missing while i have been there. so yes go and have fun just lock up anything of value first lol

rob

 

[Pat_374304630]

Hi Elaine,

We live about 8 miles from Billing Aquadrome. When the kids were younger we used to go there about 4/5 times a year. At the very far end from the entrance there used to be a few statics, the rest was for campers / tourers. It was humongous. Plenty for the kids to do. Inflatable dinghys on the lakes etc,funfair,shops and pubs with entertainment. Lots of different types of rallies.

Always crowded.

Over the years the statics have encrouched over towards the entrance and now cover about 2/3rds of the site.There is still the funfair and pubs, but most of the lakes are surrounded by statics. The nice shortcut over the lakes has gone as has the swimming pool. The toilet blocks are well used. The tendancy is to pitch wherever you like ( except at the front). There is also a small camping/caravan shop on site. Not so many varied events these days.

I'm sure you will enjoy it there. If you need some shopping therapy there is Riverside Retail Park at the next junction to Billing Aquadrome.

 

[Elaine_374411704]

i live approx 18 miles away from billing and spent all most every bank holiday weekend there as a kid (we lived 35 miles away then so did stay in the family caravan and it was great as a kid as allways something to do) and i go to lots of car rallies there, mostly the land rover one but that wont be going back this year due to the ammount of theft on the site!

have heard of peoples kit going missing from awnings etc too,

there is on site security doing semi regular patrols too tho and i have never had anything go missing while i have been there. so yes go and have fun just lock up anything of value first lol

rob

Thanks Rob....I'll bear the security in mind....

 

[Elaine_374411704]

Hi Elaine,

We live about 8 miles from Billing Aquadrome. When the kids were younger we used to go there about 4/5 times a year. At the very far end from the entrance there used to be a few statics, the rest was for campers / tourers. It was humongous. Plenty for the kids to do. Inflatable dinghys on the lakes etc,funfair,shops and pubs with entertainment. Lots of different types of rallies.

Always crowded.

Over the years the statics have encrouched over towards the entrance and now cover about 2/3rds of the site.There is still the funfair and pubs, but most of the lakes are surrounded by statics. The nice shortcut over the lakes has gone as has the swimming pool. The toilet blocks are well used. The tendancy is to pitch wherever you like ( except at the front). There is also a small camping/caravan shop on site. Not so many varied events these days.

I'm sure you will enjoy it there. If you need some shopping therapy there is Riverside Retail Park at the next junction to Billing Aquadrome.

Thanks Pat, I'm getting a clearer picture now of what to expect!

Fingers crossed...

 

[Pat_374304630]

Elaine,

How did you get on at Billing Aquadrome???????

 

[mistermac]

No it's not.

 

[Elaine_374411704]

Elaine,

How did you get on at Billing Aquadrome???????

Oh My God, Pat. It was shocking!

On arrival, all looked good. But then it seemed we had invaded a Travellers Encampment.

The sheer amount of them was unbelievable. Within an hour of sitting in the awning on the first evening, we had to stop 2 of their kids stealing our kids bikes (they were actually sitting on them and in the process of riding them away) and over the weekend, they made a killing on stealing bikes - they passed our caravan by numerous times on different bikes which the dads loaded into vans and drove them away, coming back later, loading more on...etc etc. One poor lad he overheard saying "They've nicked Tom's bike, look that lad there, the one riding it away"

Needless to say we hardly relaxed all weekend, had to go out a buy a length of chain and padlock our bikes to the leg of our van.

As far as the facilities were concerned, they were spotless, despite the heavy usage. The cleaner was round regularly, mopping floors and cleaning the toilets. The cleaner bloke even came into the ladies shower block and was cleaning up the mud and grass before each person went in - that's service for you!

Kids had a great time at the funfair, the wristband system by far the cheapest way to go round the whole thing without shelling out a small fortune!

Weather was pants, but that's no-ones fault! lol