Find out more at self-catering holiday parks.

Food shopping on arrival, rather than eating out on your first night, is a small habit that adds up over a week. A single supermarket shop covering breakfasts, lunches and a few home-cooked evenings, topped up with the odd meal out as a treat rather than a default, keeps a self-catering break comfortably within most budgets without anyone feeling like they went without.

On arrival, you'll usually collect keys from reception or a check-in point, where someone can point you towards your caravan, talk you through anything specific to that unit, and flag opening times for the pool, clubhouse or shop if the park has them. It's worth asking any questions at this point, staff on site tend to be used to first-time guests and are generally happy to run through anything that isn't obvious.

Ask how far the park actually is from the beach or the coast, in minutes rather than vague terms like "nearby". A ten-minute drive and a forty-minute drive are both sometimes described the same way in marketing copy, so it's worth checking a map or asking directly if walking to the coast matters to your plans.

Coast and countryside both make for a good UK break, so the real question is what kind of days you want to have rather than which is objectively better.

Where it's worth spending rather than cutting corners is on the things that affect your actual comfort: a static caravan holiday lets 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.