See more on this at family holiday parks.

On-site facilities are worth checking properly rather than assuming. Look at what's actually included in your stay versus what costs extra, whether the pool, if there is one, is heated and what hours it runs, and whether there's anywhere on site to eat if you don't fancy cooking every night.

Start with location. Decide whether you want to fall out of your door and onto a beach, or whether you'd rather have a quieter, greener setting with the coast a short drive away. Both suit a staycation well; it's really about what kind of days you want to have. If you like the idea of an early walk before breakfast and a paddle before lunch, tingdeneholidayparks.com a coastal park earns its keep. If you'd rather cycle quiet lanes or potter around a market town, a park a little further inland can work just as well, especially if the coast is only twenty or thirty minutes off.

As a rough guide: book six months or more ahead for summer holiday weeks, two to three months ahead for half terms and bank holidays, and anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months ahead for a standard term-time week. If you're flexible on exact dates, you can comfortably push closer to the wire; if you're fixed on a specific week, particularly a school holiday one, earlier is always safer than later.

Outside school holidays and bank holidays, the picture eases considerably. A standard week in term time, particularly midweek, tends to have availability much closer to your travel date, sometimes within a few weeks rather than months. This is where flexibility on short breaks and midweek arrival really pays off, since demand simply isn't competing for the same handful of weeks.

Space is often the deciding factor for families. A static caravan holiday gives everyone a bit of breathing room, somewhere for the kids to watch television while the adults have a cup of tea in a separate area, which a single hotel room rarely manages without someone being under everyone else's feet.