If there is one thing we love doing at Away Resorts it is investing in our holiday parks… in the last two years alone we have spent over £20m across our various locations!
Since buying Sandy Balls in 2016 we have spent almost £2m on the central facilities including a refurbished swimming pool, gym and spa. We’ve tidied up and landscaped areas of the Village Square, introduced new signage across the park and invested in unseen things like electricity and other utilities. There has been a complete over haul of the restaurant, creating a relaxing and exquisite space, re-naming with a little bit of heritage, to become Aubrey’s Forest Kitchen. Additionally, we have introduced some of our signature events including Colour Festival and our enormously exciting cream pie fight. This year also saw a holiday park first, with live streaming of Royal Opera House performances including Swan Lake, La Boheme and Don Giovanni. It’s been a truly amazing period of transformation.
For over a year now we have been considering our next steps and how we continue to develop this beautiful location to become one of the most premium sought-after destinations in the UK. After reviewing various options, we are pleased to confirm that we will be spending in excess of £10m developing 108 brand-new static holiday home pitches for holiday accommodation. To do this we will be converting the touring and camping field over the course of this winter, with the new development opening next year on a date to be confirmed.
Whilst tenting and touring is loved by many of our guests, there were many factors that brought us to this decision. To some extent touring and camping had almost become too popular and with modern tents, motor homes and caravans becoming larger than ever, the experience was worsening over time with guests becoming increasingly disappointed. On top of that the New Forest Planning Authority have an express preference to reduce the amount of ‘footfall’ in the New Forest so the option to increase the touring and camping footprint and make more space for our guests was not available to us. In the end, to support the investment required, we were left with little option but to convert the area for accommodation.
I appreciate this decision may come as a disappointment to some of our guests, especially those that have stayed with us year after year and for that I am genuinely sorry. I would like to personally thank you for your custom over the years. I do hope though that you realise we do not want to lose you as visitors to Sandy Balls, and would love to see you back on Park to stay in one of our stunning new lodges. We will be releasing more information over the forthcoming weeks and months highlighting more detailed plans for the development and how the investment is progressing. I sincerely hope you will join us again soon at the lovely Sandy Balls to see what we have been up to!
If you have any enquiries the team can be contacted by telephone on 01442 508 850, or via email sandyballs.holidays@awayresorts.co.uk. They will be delighted to help.
With kind regards
Carl Castledine, CEO