Since having children, I have quickly discovered that my favourite places to stay in Australia always end up being caravan parks.  Well, what I used to call a caravan park growing up.  These days they are called “holiday” or “tourist” parks, and they are quite different to the glorified camping grounds that we used to frequent as a child.  We were hopeful that the Anchor Belle Holiday Park would be a great place to stay, and we were right.

For anyone who is a bit unsure about staying in holiday parks in Australia, I hope this article will help show you just how awesome they can be.  Of course, not all holiday parks are as good as the Anchor Belle Holiday Park at Phillip Island, but they are a good example of what you can find.

Our cabin

Deluxe cabin

We stayed in a new deluxe unit, and it was fabulous.

A deluxe unit is a good sized two bedroom cabin with a queen bedroom and two bunk beds in the second bedroom.  The second room also had enough room for Z’s travel cot (they can also help you arrange a hire cot which can be delivered to your cabin).

There is an open plan kitchen, living and dining area with a big couch, dining table and chairs, a big TV and DVD player and a great kitchen.  Additionally, there was a bathroom (no bath) and a balcony with table and chairs.  It was all spotless and the best part was a big split system which warmed up the entire cabin nicely.  It was a cold weekend, and that made it very pleasant.

The facilities

The best facility at the Anchor Belle Holiday Park is the lovely indoor heated pool and toddler pool.  It is nice and warm, and we loved playing in it.

Playground

There is also a playground and a toddler playground.

My personal favourite is the games room.  There are some old arcade games, and I would have loved some time in there alone to play old favourites such as pacman.  S got into it although was quite annoyed that she had to be the “yellow” pacman and not one of the purple ones.  There is also an adults lounge.

S plays old style arcade games

The Anchor Belle Holiday Park as a whole is very clean, tidy and orderly.  As a bonus, there are cows in a paddock across the road which we could see through the windows in our cabin.    This provided endless entertainment for Z.

Our verdict?

We loved our stay at the Anchor Belle Holiday Park.  Our cabin was perfect for the four of us, it was very quiet, the facilities were great and the location was handy – it was less than ten minutes to the awesome penguin parade.

The staff were very friendly.  We were given some great information sheets on arrival, including things like a guide to the creatures in the nearby rock pools.  The kids were very impressed by the Peppa Pig map we were given where we had to collect stamps for a Peppa pig prize at the end.  That was enough for S to declare this was the best holiday ever!  If I have to complain about something, then it would be the wifi.  As is common in Australia, this was at an additional cost, and I did not find the signal strong enough in our cabin for me to be able to connect.  Otherwise, I would have no hesitation staying here again.

Click here to see the latest prices.

Read our full guide to things to do in Phillip Island.

Disclaimer:  We did accept free accommodation at the Anchor Belle Holiday Park in return for a review.  However, this review is my honest opinion of the our stay here, and there was no agreement as to the content of my review.  We did actually stay at this park a few years ago at our own expense, and we were excited to return here again.

Do you like to stay at caravan parks?