Booking your first stay at a UK holiday park can feel like a lot of small decisions rather than one big one, so it helps to work through them in order rather than all at once.

None of these questions take long to ask, and any decent holiday park will have straightforward answers ready. If a question gets dodged or fudged, that's often more useful information than the answer itself.

Choosing between a static caravan break and a hotel stay usually comes down to one question: do you want your holiday to feel like your own space, or do you want everything done for you?

There isn't one single answer to how far ahead you should book, because it depends heavily on when you actually want to go.

If your trip is about a relaxed, self-catering base with room to actually live in for a few days, a static caravan holiday at one of our parks is worth a look. If it's about a compact, everything-sorted stay in the middle of things, www.tingdeneholidayparks.com a hotel is the better fit. Most families find the caravan route suits a coastal or countryside staycation particularly well, simply because there's more to come back to at the end of a day out.

Where it's worth spending rather than cutting corners is on the things that affect your actual comfort: a caravan or lodge with enough bedrooms that nobody's sharing a room they'd rather not, a park close enough to what you actually want to do that you're not driving an hour each way, and decent waterproofs and footwear so a bit of British weather doesn't spoil a day out. Saving money by squeezing into a smaller unit or picking a park purely on price, regardless of location, tends to show up as a less enjoyable week rather than a genuine saving.