Will visit again
Lovely site. Good location. Close to farm shop and micro brewery. Slightly alarming roads on the way but worth the effort. Spotless facilities and friendly wardens.
Start Bay Club Campsite
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Standards and Expectations
We love coming to Start Bay, this is our seventh visit. Yes, access is challenging but well worth it! A fellow camper said that he checks the bus time table and follows the bus to make the journey easier. Good bus service to Dartmouth Salcombe and Kingsbridge too Lovely village but the pub and chip shop are very expensive. Large expanse of shingle beach with a fab coffee hut at Strete. The Seabreeze beach cafe serves excellent sandwiches, coffee and cake at reasonable prices. Stokely’s farm shop is only a walk away and very well stocked with a nice selection of other pop up shops and a terrific microbrewery. All in all we have a fab time but it is increasing spoiled by inconsiderate campers who allow the dogs to fowl the grass area of the site not just the local footpaths! Is nothing sacred? Sadly we have noticed a new breed of inconsiderate campers creeping in. Noisy neighbours who insist on banging van doors at 6am when they are getting ready for their day. An impatient Jaguar driver who couldn’t be bothered to wait at check-in like everyone else squeezed past at reception only hold us up getting on to our pitch because he took a couldn’t reverse his rig. A little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T please, we are all supposed to be chilling on holidays. The wardens are wonderful, hard-working and very diplomatic doing their best to navigate through visitors’ bad behaviour. The site is immaculate and well maintained and we still love coming here so to all these thoughtless ones ‘buck your ideas up’.
First time - impressed
First visit, access challenging but take time (check bus times), great welcome from wardens, unobtrusive throughout 3 night stay. Facilities great. Lovely walks from not much shade towards Dartmouth but nice walk to Beesands. Start Bay Inn fish & chips with a beer/wine recommended. Definitely return.
Brilliant site and Staff!
Well we are regular visitors to Start Bay CMC site and have just returned from there after a three week stay.
I have read the recent reviews about the site, especially the access.
This is South Devon and the roads are typically narrow and twisty. When travelling to the site you must use the club’s directions and come in from Kingsbridge. Also check the bus timetables so you can avoid meeting the bus coming from Dartmouth to Kingsbridge.
Just take it easy and you will be fine!
I do find the review criticising the staffing as rather strange. When the ablution blocks are cleaned the disabled toilet was always available, but what is wrong with using your own facilities. As for the shop being shut at other times there is always a sign saying where the wardens were, and they would then come and open the shop!
As for grass cutting, well it grows and needs to be done, other wise members complain.
Now as far as the staff are concerned these are probably the best Wardens and Assistants working on any club site.
We look forward to being back there in October.
P
Access very difficult
Stayed here this week. This is in many ways a great site, walking distance from lovely beach and three pubs. Quiet a peaceful. But we will never return.
The access in both directions is by winding, narrow roads. We lost count of the number of times we had to stop and give way to oncoming traffic, including lorries and buses. While we are experienced caravaners this was a very stressful start and finish from our stay, while other guests had damaged their caravans. This really should be emphasised in the site description.
Also the shower blocks were very basic and in need of bringing up to date. No stalls and very few hooks in shower cubicals. No curtains on sinks for privacy.
A great place to stay
Firstly, the only downside. As others have said, getting to the site is not for those new to caravanning or the faint hearted. All potential routes involve very narrow and busy roads. Those closest to the site are frequent bus routes and their drivers let you know who's top dog. We had our van damaged by the wing mirrors of a passing bus on the way home.
With that said, when you get set up, the site is a delight. We had no need for the shower / toilet block so can't make any comments, but the remainder of the facilities were high standard. The staff were very helpful and accommodating, especially when we needed the services of a travelling caravan engineer. They organised the visit and this allowed us to go out and enjoy ourselves, while he did the work. The area is very convenient for visits to Bigbury on Sea to the west; Totnes to the north and Dartmouth to the east.
First Timers
Our First trip in motorhome, staff were fantastic and helped me out with water and electrics, very good site, very clean, would recommend to nobody, as if i do you will all want to go there, will be coming back soon.
A very nice site - just be aware of finding the best way to get to it
I have approached this site from two directions (from the South & the North) over the past two years and would recommend that you come in via Totnes regardless of where you started from. Neither route in is free from narrow passing places but at least the A381 is a wider road than the A379 to Kingsbridge. After Kingsbridge, all bets are off as you'll encounter 5 single stretch patches of road (2 of them blind before you enter). The two Charleton villages need care to navigate through and the bridge over the Dart is single use (esp in a caravan). The site page has the recommended route in and this is the one you should take.. but be prepared for some tight passing and confrontations with buses who use the route from/to Kingsbridge & the site. Once arrived the site is well presented and cared for. We thought the cleanliness levels were very good and the site is well kept. The hardstanding is made of some unusual material - very hard to penetrate but then has a consistency of cream cheese underneath (and as a consequence the pegs come out very easily). Grass pitches there are a few that are flat but the majority are quite steeply sloped. Bring blocks with you for two legs and the jockey wheel- I'd suggest you'd need 6'-8" for each, at least. In the location, shops and pubs are beginning to return to normal and there are enough places to eat out without needing to drive. The Micro-brewery is well worth a visit and is very reasonably priced & is a mile from site. The attached farm shop is good for meat, eggs cheese, bread, milk, some frozen goods, tea, coffee etc. We had no need to shop in Kingsbridge for what we needed. We returned this year (and knew what the drive in would be like) but no plans to return next year as our luck might run out on the roads. There are many easier sites for access in the club and in the South West. The site was busy and so not so quiet but that was OK with us. Phone signal was poor, we used a mobile wifi dongle that got decent 4G when left in the roof of our eriba.
Huw Edwards
Reviewed on 05/08/2021 17:57
Lovely area - shame about the staffing
We based ourselves here for two weeks and we did have a good time. The site is really for the confident caravanner as the best route takes you through villages with many narrow stretches so take it easy and be patient travelling from Kingsbridge on arrival and when leaving. Follow the directions as listed here or you may run into real trouble on narrow lanes (and I mean narrow). The area is gorgeous we loved Dartmouth and would recommend the park & ride if staying in the town for a few hours - or buying a multiple trip card on the ferries as that makes your crossings much cheaper if you are heading for Brixham or Paignton. A card for ten trips (you have to opt for your favoured ferry as you can't mix them) costs £25 a saving of over £30 for five individual return trips. As for the site, it's in a lovely spot with two footpaths - one to Torcross and the shingly beach or the other which takes you into the local village and a decent pub - The Church House (do book if you want to eat here). It's no more than a ten minute walk from the site. It's not really a site for smaller children as it's steep and the play area is very small. Our main criticism of this site comes around the shower block and the wardens I'm afraid. In the ladies, the showers are outdated with no shelves at all just three hooks, the water pressure is intermittent and the temperature is cold or very hot. The units with basins have no doors at all - there were hooks so there may previously have been shower curtains however these had been removed (probably due to Covid19) so there was very little privacy. Not a huge deal for us with a caravan but a little more annoying for those in camper vans or similar. We found the shop/ reception was often not open even though it says clearly it will open all day however several times we went to it and it was closed. This is rubbish when you want tokens for the washing machines or dryers or need something else. On the day we arrived we were early and were happy to wait from 10.30am, however the reception wasn't opened until noon. When the toilets are closed for cleaning, no alternative was provided, the disabled loos were cleaned at the same time and there was a bit of a 'that's tough, you'll have to wait' attitude. We also came back one day to find our twirly washing line had been moved as we'd put it on the 'wrong' piece of grass behind our van to the slight left of the back. The only reason we knew a warden had done this was because another caravanner told us. No message no note. We've never experienced that in our almost ten years using club sites. Also the wardens seemed to be obsessed with cutting the grass, as I write this on our penultimate day, in the pouring rain, the grass is being cut again. It would be more helpful to have the shop open more often than cutting the grass every five minutes. While the wardens did operate a light touch, they seemed to run to their own secret timetable.
5 Days in south Devon
We have just returned from Start bay site and found the site in excellent condition with a light touch warden approach
The general appearance of the site is excellent with grass, flower beds all looking beautiful
The facilities block is kept very clean but I hope they are getting near the top of the list for refurbishment
The drive in is tight in places using the recommended route but having driven the other routes as we toured around we can see why the caravan club only suggest this one
We visited Dartmouth,kingsbridge,Salcombe and Burgh Island during our stay all within easy reach of the site
We had a lovely dinner at the Queens arms in Slapton on our first night which we enjoyed , the pub is very dog friendly
The Seven stars pub in Kingsbridge was very good
Most pubs need to be booked in advance as we wanted to try the Church Inn which looked lovely when we stopped for some refreshments
colin417
Reviewed on 30/07/2021 02:41