Our holiday to Lower Hyde was an extremely last minute decision, due to our originally planned holiday at a different resort on the Isle of Wight being cancelled accidentally by the company. So we set off to Lower Hyde knowing pretty much nothing about it, other than it had a pitch available for our tent!

We arrived quite late (10pm) which meant pitching the tent in the dark. Although the signage and road system weren't the easiest to understand, there was a friendly security patrol available to help us who took us straight to where we needed to be.

The tents and touring field is on a bit of a slope, so we realised once we had set up the tent that we needed to sleep in a certain direction otherwise we'd be rolling down the slope in the night! Some parts of the field are slightly flatter but in general it's all on a bit of a camber. There is plenty of space though, and the area is well kept. (Just a note - if you don't like birds it's not a place to visit as there was a massive group of crows that live there too and spent our entire stay patrolling around the field!).

The amenities block is one of the best I've ever used, with lovely clean and spacious toilets, showers, and sink units each with individual space for toiletries. The showers are push button ones and you do need to keep pushing the button every few seconds to keep water going which is a bit annoying but the water is good pressure and lovely and hot. There is also an individual baby change and toddler toilet which was very useful for us and the kids. The washing up facilities were excellent too.

The park has a great kids playground with well kept equipment and a good variety, tailored more towards older children 3+. The swimming was also a big hit - the indoor pool at Lower Hyde is quite small and filled up quickly (they operated a one in, one out system which sometimes means queuing) but the outdoor pool was also open and lovely and warm which made it very usable even in May. The waterslide was very much enjoyed by our five year old (the height limit is 1m which meant our 3 year old was just too short to try it). A big bonus of staying at Lower Hyde is that you get to use the neighbouring Landguard resort facilities too - the indoor pool there has a curly slide (also 1m height limit) and is bigger, with a surrounding bar area. Landguard also has a warm outdoor pool. We used all four pools and were very impressed with the cleanliness and the friendly lifeguards. The only downside is the tiny changing room on each site - only two rooms for changing at Lower Hyde and a small open changing area split by gender at Landguard. They were very crowded and it was difficult to get children changed easily. We noticed lot of families staying in caravans would get changed in their caravan and then walk to the pool in their togs but that wasn't an option for us really with the tent being quite far from all the pools.

The kids took part in two pool activities - paddle boats and the aqua roller - and really enjoyed them both. Each activity cost £4 which we thought was very reasonable.

The kids entertainment at the Show Bar was very good too. The staff went out of their way to make sure all the kids were included and having fun, and there were plenty of prizes and stickers for them to win. Bar prices were not too bad. Outside the bar and swimming pool there is an arcade, which you have to walk through to get to both. Of course, the kids wanted to play on all the flashing and beeping machines which was a bit annoying but on the plus side, there were 2p machines, and games costing from 10p so overall fairly affordable.

Lower Hyde is not far from Shanklin, and right next door to a Lidl, so there are services and places to visit within walking distance of the park. The closest beach is about a five minute drive away.

Considering we weren't sure what we were going to get, we have been very pleasantly surprised and had a great bank holiday weekend. If we go camping in the Isle of Wight again we would definitely go back to Lower Hyde.