Sunday, October 30, 2011

Review: Sandy Hollow Tourist Park, Upper Hunter Valley

Stayed: Early September during much rain!

Before I start on about what I thought of this park, I think an honourable mention needs to be made. The designer of the Sandy Hallow Tourist Park's website needs an award. They managed to make an very average park look rather decent and they deserve recognition for that. The second thing that warrants a mention is the fact that we looked at the website and not the map. Had we looked at the map, we would have noticed that Merriwa road is another name for the Golden Highway and we would have been a lot less surprised by the noise of trucks when we arrived. Our bad.

Other than these setbacks, the park itself was adequate.  We went in winter so can't comment on the pool and the playpark boasted 1 swing, a toddlers netball hoop and a rather impressive trampoline. The views up the back were lovely as was our walk into the hills. Sadly the rain kept us from doing more and even up in nature the sound of traffic was evident; but it was beautiful up there.

The campsites within the park. Some are powered. Some not.



Ratings:
Visual appeal: 2/5 while the hills were pretty, the highway and the permanent caravans ruined the effect.
Entertainment: 1/5 the walk was great as was our drive around the area but not much to do in the park itself and too crowded and noisy to get-away-from-it-all.
Cleanliness:  3/5 it was very rainy so the mud was understandable. However, staring at the same clump if hair in the drain for every shower over the 3 days was a little less forgivable. That said, the floors were well mopped.


Looking toward the camp kitchen with a few bit of debris to liven up the landscape.
It's unlikely we will stay here again but if you are just looking for somewhere to pitch your tent and see the area it has all the basics. We did find that one of the permenant residents kept us awake at night with him loud radio? TV? and woke us early with his car which took a bit of love to start but all in all we had a good time. So that counts. Right?

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