Sun Holiday Review

Have you always wanted to go on the Sun’s £15 Holiday but you have always been a little sceptical?

Well take a look at my Sun holiday review and decide whether this cheap holiday is for you…

I have been wanting to book a £15 Sun holiday for a number of years. The first time I got bored collecting the tokens and the second time I sent off the tokens along with my holiday park choices but they were sold out. I admitted defeat and thought it was rubbish.

Then Sun+ came along. It is a subscription service to the Sun newspaper which gives you a ton of perks too, one of which being the easiest way to book their holidays. You don’t need to collect the tokens and you also get priority booking (one day before others) which is fantastic because you can get first dibs on the best parks such as Butlin’s, they sell out super fast!

I collected the token words anyway for others who don’t have Sun+ and posted them here on my website so they could still book their holiday the day after priority members.

I decided to book up for Butlin’s at Skegness and we chose a Monday – Friday break in a silver 3 bedroom apartment.

There were some additional charges but it was still a cheap holiday. The break down of the costs…

For 2 adults and 3 children the holiday cost was – £49.75
There was a service charge of £10 per unit per night – £40
Entertainment passes were £12 per person per break – £60
Total holiday cost £149.75
We then decided to add on a food plan so breakfast and dinner was included. My daughter ate free as she was under 5 and my husband and I were £18 per day and the 2 boys meal plan was £9 each per day. Obviously the food plan wasn’t needed but I do love to go on holiday and not cook or have to wash the dishes!

Not all of the parks charge for the entertainment passes or a service charge though so you will be able to get a cheaper holiday than we got but I am very pleased with the price of £149.75 for a family of 5 to go to Butlin’s for a midweek break.

I have just priced checked the holiday on Butlins website today (19/06/15) and for exactly the same holiday for the first week of August the total price is – £1410

The countdown began to the holiday and we were all very excited!

When we arrived at Butlin’s there was drive thru check in! This was so much easier than parks I have been to in the past! Queuing for check in should definitely be a thing of the past and all parks should take a leaf out of Butlin’s book! It was so quick and easy and the member of staff on check in told us times for breakfast and tea because we had the dining plan and also answered all the questions we had… We were even upgraded to a gold apartment free of charge!

Our apartment was lovely! So modern and it was spotlessly clean! The housekeepers seem to go above and beyond when they make up your room. The towels were arranged on the beds in the shapes of elephants or dogs the whole stay, it was a lovely touch.

In your information pack you are given when you arrive includes a schedule of what is during your entire stay. There was so much to do! From character meet and greets to activities in the pool for the children.

There was no time for the kids to get bored with everything on the schedule, to be honest, there wasn’t enough time to fit in every thing we wanted to do!

There was 2 fairgrounds included in the price of your holiday, one for tots and another for older children. I can imagine the queues get quite back during the school holidays but when they price of the rides is included in your holiday and it is all on site who can complain?!

It doesn’t matter what the weather is like while you are on holiday here, there is so many indoor activities incase the weather is poor… Which it was at times when we were there! One minute it was warm and sunny, the next it was hail stones… A proper British holiday!

The swimming pool was a huge hit with my family and we visited everyday! There were a few pools and there was event a resort photographer in the pool incase you wanted a photo taken with your family while you were in there! I’m not a fan of flumes and slides in pools so I only went on one with my daughter, who is 5, which was River Rapids and it was really good! My husband and sons said the flumes were really good though.

As I said earlier, we had paid for food court dining with our holiday and this was located in a restaurant just outside the main entertainment area. It was a bit like a school canteen, get your tray and cutlery and choose yourself a table. The food didn’t look the best. The mushy peas were dried out, the custard was like water… It wasn’t the best and we left feeling a bit disappointed.

Not long after we left, we were approached by one of the lovely team members of Butlin’s who asked if we were enjoying our holiday so far. We told them how good it was and this was our first time at Butlin’s although we were a little disappointed with the court room dining. They were very apologetic and said it may be worth upgrading to premium dining.

We went to one of the premium restaurants the following morning for breakfast and asked if we could pay for an upgrade. The staff were really helpful and it only cost roughly an extra £2 an adult and 75p a child. The food was so much better! There was much more choice and the surroundings were just much nicer. There was also characters walking around the restaurant at breakfast who were taking the time to talk to the children there was a lot of photo opportunities.

The entertainment was so good too! The entertainment staff put so much effort in to the entertainment and they genuinely love their jobs! We met one redcoat, I think his name was Leatham? He was so lovely! He came and sat with us one morning at breakfast and spent so much time talking to our kids and making them laugh, he is one of their biggest memories from the holiday.