Guest User
December 30, 2023
It’s up to 5 stars, isn‘t it? So let’s start with 5 stars and check all we love in tourist parks: • Cleanliness: given. Amenities were thoroughly cleaned. That’s fine. • Location: well, it’s Byron Bay. A good location in itself. The campground is in a green area, not too far from the beach. Fine again. • Amenities’ condition: well, they are a bit worn-out. A huge bit. The shower heads e.g. spray, but in many directions. Water hits you, but as well the ceiling, from where it slowly drippes back onto you … hmmm. In (at least one) of the showers there was a sign “do not mess with the shower heads, or they will be removed”. Interesting. The behaviour of the shower heads could be clearly identified of them just being old. And punishing later guests for any misbehaving of existing guests? Well, half a star has to be taken. • Services available: no pool, a single small camp kitchen for a lot of lots. Do not even think of W-LAN or a decent shop. Deduction of half a star. • Lots themselves: grass ground, a bit uneven, no concrete for table, chairs, … Another half star going away, unfortunately. • Supplies: Power only on lot. No water or grey water gully. Sorry, other campgrounds offer that. Minus ½, so we are down to three stars. • Costs: per person, per night. We paid 50 AUD per person per night, which is quite expensive for a campsite like this. Reducing by another ½. • Management: awful. You can’t book in advance, but are told “just pass by before 5 p.m., there’s plenty of empty space”. Arriving right before 5 p.m. the lady in the office has to radio the manager to ask if there’s still a powered site available. He doesn’t answer. She phones. He answers, and we can stay. For two nights, please. No, that’s not possible to be granted right now. Come back to the office the other morning and ask again. Apologies, because management is mainly done by pen and paper. Handover of a sticker to be put onto the car, which indicates our allowance for this night, and this night only. No dedicated lot, just “find yourselves a lot in this row” (where a lot , a LOT of empty spots were available, even though obviously some long-term customers watering their little gardens use up some spots). Sorry, but this costs another half star, which makes two. • Prolongation: the next morning at about 08:30 asking for the possibility to stay for a second night is considered “a bit early”. Seriously? If we’d had to leave we had to do it by 10 a.m. – and preparing for a leave is a bit different from a relaxed breakfast on site. In the end, we were allowed to stay, “handcuffed”, as we had to wear admittance bands on our wrists, and no, my husband couldn’t just take mine for me, I had to go to the office in person. The next sticker was handed over to us (pre-unwrapped as the other one, because it had to be stuck onto the vehicle IMMEDIATELY – causing my husband to walk back to the campervan with a sticky sticker on his hand, irritatedly shaking his head). Oh, that’s not good. • Manager