Monday Money #8: The good, the bad and the ugly side of Pontins

If there is a word that describes my life right now, it is definitely transitional. Throw in stressed and anxious and that's the perfect description! Something I learned in CBT last year is to recognise what makes me anxious, and act on it before it becomes a problem and I relapse to the point of having panic attacks. Having recognised that, I knew it was time to book a few nights away from home, but I also wanted to stick to a budget. We found a great deal on a Pontins break on Groupon that we went on this weekend, and in this post I want to share the good, the bad and the ugly side of our Pontins break.

The good

The best thing about our Pontins break was the cost. I found a Groupon deal for just £79 for two adults, for two nights, half board (breakfast and dinner) plus a bottle of wine and it even covered the weekend.

We chose to head to Lowestoft this weekend, which is about 2 hours away.

Another great thing is that we pretty much had the beach to ourselves when we visited.

The location also had an indoor swimming pool to enjoy.

For anyone who doesn't enjoy holidaying with children around then this is such a great location – the average age was about 75! There wasn't a single child to be seen.

The bad

Pontins isn't a luxury break. It is a basic, budget friendly break.

Very basic. 

The sort of place where you don't check in at reception, but rather in a huge room where you line up depending on the first letter of your surname.

The sort of rooms where you need to take your own bed linen (or pay £20 to buy it when you get there).

Where there are signs up in reception saying that there's no TV signal.

I know that paying £79 for two nights meant it wouldn't be the best ever, and we still had a great, relaxing time. It was clean and it was away from home, which were the main things.

The ugly

Okay let's talk about the food provided.

Dinner was only served for 90 minutes, between 5.30pm-7pm. This was probably because of the evening shows (none of which we were interested in seeing) but after 6.30pm, lots of the food choices ran out.

Dinner consisted of:

• Salad and jacket potato station
• 2 meat mains plus vegetables that were so overcooked they were grey
• Dessert of mostly dry cakes and jelly

Breakfast was your usual bacon, sausages, beans, eggs, fried bread and tomatoes. There were a few cereals to choose from, which were stale, and the only fruit selection was tinned grapefruit and prunes.

Average age at this Pontins is 75.

I just witnessed an elderly man making a prune and grapefruit combo. Cool.

UNTIL HE PUT CORNFLAKES ON TOP AND THEN COVERED THE MIXTURE IN MILK 🤢

— Emma Drew (@emmadrewinfo) June 9, 2018

We only ate breakfast and dinner there once, opting for eating out the other meals.

My verdict on our Pontins break

Our Pontins break was everything I needed – a budget getaway, no work and plenty of naps. There was no hint of luxury (except that we brought our own bedding including duvets so it was super comfy) and the food was barely edible. And I'm not exactly fussy about food. We did get to have a lovely Papa Johns on Saturday night which made up for it.

I loved being so close to the beach, and having it to ourselves, and I think that if we were out and about exploring more, rather than needing to catch up on sleep and relax then it would be a great base.

If there is a word to sum up the break, it is: fine.

WHY TAKE PART?

THE RULES

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