Hidden Valley Holiday Park

Firstly, Stena Line ferry from Holyhead to Dublin was fine, if not very fast! CC did a superb job in arranging this for us. Don’t bother reserving a kennel, they are wire metal cages fastened to the car deck floor, amongst all the fumes etc. We opted to leave the girls in the car, with the window ajar and they were fine. Hidden Valley Park is in a picturesque location, the village of Rathdrum is a 10 minute walk away, though up a very steep hill. There is a good supermarket, post office, cashpoint, railway station, from Dublin and several eating places and the recommended Jacob’s Well, (including a B&B). We chose this site for these reasons as we had relatives from the USA staying with us for part of the holiday and we needed those facilities. Attractions in the area include Wicklow Way, Glendalough & St Kevin’s Monastery, Avoca (Ballykissangel TV fame). There are two towns, Wicklow and Arklow, although the latter is much bigger. Brittas Bay is a great beach although there are no facilities on the beach itself. Access to the site from Dublin Port is via the Port Tunnel, (toll fee payable of €3 one way at the time of writing for car & van). Pays to ensure you have the change before you leave. Excellent access to site then via M50/M11 & N11. There is also a further (barrier free) motorway toll section, cost €3.10 which you have to pay by 6pm the following day – the supermarket in Rathdrum can do this and will also allow you to pay the return section up to 3 days before you go home. Make sure you have your receipts in case you are challenged. The only issue is speed bumps, rather a lot of them, including the last few yards to the site. The site is very large, including a large camping field right alongside the river. The caravan pitches are of a continental layout and variable size, when you have your awning, van and car you have little or no room left to sit out. As a result, many cars were parked part on/part off their pitches at the edge of the road around the site – this made for a very narrow road to move about on. Grey water waste, on our pitch and it was the same for many others in our row, was partially blocked when we arrived – we managed to unblock it, site staff were very busy, so would not have got to us in time. For a site which could easily accommodate 700 people or more, there were the following facilities, 10 female toilets, (all female party but presumably similar number of male toilets), 6 hand basins, (no privacy cubicles) and one hand dryer – situated right behind the door in and out of the toilets, so you got hit in the back every time someone came in. There were 6 showers, unisex, for the whole site, cost €1 for 6 minutes hot water, with long queues. The laundry room consisted of two washing machines and two dryers, one wash and dry costing €10 a time – again very long queues. More in comments ..

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