Lincolnshire Coast Holidays - It Never Ends, Unless...

Noise and privacy tend to worry first-timers more than they need to. Units are generally spaced with a reasonable gap between them, and most parks are quieter in the evenings than people expect, particularly outside peak school holiday weeks.

Midweek arrival is the other thing worth trying. Weekend slots get booked up first, particularly for short breaks, so a Monday or Tuesday arrival often has availability when a Friday one doesn't. If your work pattern allows it, a midweek break also tends to mean quieter on-site facilities, since most other guests are working to the same Friday-to-Friday pattern you're avoiding.

The overall experience sits somewhere between a hotel and a self-catering cottage: more space and independence than a hotel room, with the on-site facilities and support of a proper holiday park around you. Most first-time guests find, by day two, that it feels entirely normal, and quite a few come back wondering why they didn't try it sooner.

See the details at dog-friendly caravan holidays.

Food shopping on arrival, rather than eating out on your first night, is a small habit that adds up over a week. A single supermarket shop covering breakfasts, lunches and a few home-cooked evenings, topped up with the odd meal out as a treat rather than a default, keeps a self-catering break comfortably within most budgets without anyone feeling like they went without.

Timing affects cost as much as accommodation type. Travelling outside school holidays and bank holiday weekends, even by a few days either side, tends to bring costs down considerably, simply because you're avoiding the weeks everyone else is trying to book. If your circumstances allow any flexibility on dates, this is worth more than almost any other single budgeting decision.