Having just returned from a week in Cornwall at a Haven holiday site, I feel duty bound to warn others that these family sites are money eaters.

The site we stayed on is Rivera Sands in Hayle, I booked the top of their range caravan which is called the exclusive, and our party consisted of two adults and four children, one of which is fully disabled and in a wheelchair. The reason I chose this caravan was being exclusive you were promised your own private veranda which looked out to sea, with patio furniture and also the van would have extras like a DVD player and the beds made up on arrival.

As we drove onto the site we were shocked how close these van where to each other. the sardines in a tin feeling, at our van we found there was no veranda they had without telling anyone laid a wooden decking area with a few plants at one end and a bench at the other, was it private, not really as the next vans windows looked down on it and there also was no furniture.

The positive was that the view from the van was amazing, 3 miles of golden beach and a bright blue ocean, the van itself was very nice, 2 toilets, good sized fridge freezer, good quality beds, but again let down by the quality of the items put into the van, the cutlery and crockery were very basic, we had no wine glasses till we went and requested them.

We went to see about getting tables and chairs for the decking and they said that the bench was classed as furniture, I told them that it was not and that we should also have a table, 3 days later they arrived, I believe they would not have shown up without my husband visiting the office each morning and asking what had happened to them. The advertising in there brochure really needs looking at, as it is not accurate.

I think the most distressing thing was that in these times when money is hard to earn, that a site that calls itself a family site sets out to take as much from families as possible.

We had to say to the children that no they could not go on the trampolines as they wanted £2 per child for ten minutes the same for the bouncy castle which I feel should both have been free. To get to the swimming pool you had to take your children through the amusement arcade which again I feel is shocking, also there was nowhere on this site that the children could just kick a foot ball around. We also found that we could not buy the children a small drink of coke unless we bought them a children’s meal, yet we had only called into the site’s family pub mid afternoon for a drink, had I thought about it I should have bought the pint of coke and asked for 3 glasses.

All that aside we still had a great holiday, I found a Lidl’s store which really helped the budget, they were so much cheaper than Tesco's which meant we had treats like Belgian waffles, we spent days searching out new beaches, and also found some free entry places with play grounds which the children loved and the view on an evening from our van was one I shall always remember.

I would say to any families going to Cornwall look at the Pentewan Sands site before you book other places as this site is far better than most.