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On arrival the site looked busy but well maintained and tidy. We were shown to our hardstanding pitch (the only one on site). Situated right next to the children's play area.
The play area does not consist of much, but acted as a meeting point for the children to hang out.
Not good if you don't want kids running past your van every 5 minutes, this didn't bother us though.
The on site shop is excellent selling just about anything and everything (including fresh baked bread delivered every morning)and is open from about 7am until about midnight.
There is a small river and a pond on site. The pond was good for fishing (bread being the best bait) but the river was weedy and very muddy and I wouldn't recommend swimming in it as others have suggested.
The facilities (showers etc) were strained from 7am and again at about 7pm.
The main attraction of this site for us was the fact that you could build your own real fire (with logs purchased from the shop)
My two children loved toasting marshmallows and cooking sausages on an open fire.
We walked to the nearest village of Wickham Market (about 15 minutes)and although there was only a few shops it was nice to sit and relax at the coffee shop and then head a further 10 minutes out of the village to the Greyhound pub for a good pint of real ale and a bowl of chips.
Although this is a busy site the noise level dropped to nothing at about 10. 30pm.
The only downsides to this site that I can think of are that the only hardstanding motorhome pitch is next to the play area and under some pine trees (noisy pigeons)there is no info point showing local attractions, The fires were a great bonus but kids from the play area kept running right past ours, the water tap was a good 15 meters from the pitch (long hosepipe needed).
WI-fI out of service
Overall it would appear that this site is mainly suited for tents and not really for caravans or campervans due to the quite steep downward slope of the field and the facilities on offer.
Have today returned from our 4 night stay at this campsite.
Enjoyed our stay and here are my observations:
* Pitch prices excellent value for money as the £16 per night fee for tents/caravans without hook up includes a party of up to 6 people. I think the electric hook up pitch was £21 per night again for up to 6 people.
* Very friendly welcome when we checked in and also on return visits to the shop.
* Shop is very well stocked and exceptionally good value for money - e. G. I got a huge spanish onion for 10p! Also a great range of beers and ciders also at reasonable prices.
* You cannot purchase replacement Gas bottles from the site shop so please bear that in mind - I was advised that there is a local outlet near by for this.
* My kids loved the site and it was small enough for me to be happy about my 8 year old twins going off to visit the play area and shop by themselves and they loved having this independence.
* Glowstick Scavange was fabulous - it was lovely to see when the call went out at dusk (on Saturday night) all the kids from all over the site run like mad to the top of the site for this legendary event! Then after much tormenting from Alan :) to see them all hunt for the glow sticks that had been thrown into the air.
* The toilets are unisexed but the wash rooms are male and female. There is a family bathroom with keypad code access which you need to obtain from Reception.
* There are 3 showers and there are queues at peak times but my husband would take his shower at 7am and not have to queue and I tended to take mine in the evening - again with no or very little waiting.
* The kitchen area consists of 4 sinks and also a microwave which was handy.
* There was a fridge and freezer on the site and although the fridge was an adequate size the freezer was quite full whilst we were there - so finding space during peak times could be a problem. It is handy having a free of charge freezing facility for your ice packs.
* We camped in the wooded area down the bottom and my teenager loved the 'Twilight' experience of our pitch! There are also pitches by the river, by the lake and on the meadow. After a morning of rain the trip back to the top of the site by car was a bit slippy due to mud and my car not being 4x4 but thankfully that was only the one time I had to experience this.
* The site is just outside of Wickham Market which had some stores but we also paid a visit to Woodbridge for more variety of shops.
All in all we enjoyed our stay and would definitely recommend it to others - we came from the West Midlands to camp at this site purely by its reviews here and an article in a camping magazine and we were not disappointed.
Nice site. It was smaller than I imagined from the website but we had a plenty big enough pitch in a lovely spot by the river and no-one else looked squashed!
Decent shower/washing-up/toilet block and useful shop (price-wise think waitrose rather than tesco value but nice quality stuff. Icecreams were a complete bargain!).
Friendly staff, nice atmosphere. Very child friendly.
Only downside was the firewood situation - £15 for a barrow load of damp logs which were rubbish on the fire. There was a sign up saying no wood to be bought onto site but we chose to ignore that and bought some great wood from a farm shop down the road for £5 a sack! shhhh!
Also the Friday night there was a lot of road noise from the A12 - maybe the wind was blowing in the wrong direction!
A lot has already been written about this site so I'll try not to go over old ground too much.
I loved the friendly informality of the site. Having a real campfire was a treat, though the wood was a little expensive.
Pitches vary a great deal across the site and for the most part the site is on a slope which you need to consider when placing your tent. Most pitches seemed relatively spacious and unlike many sites they don't charge extra for gazebo's etc.
I did find the site a little noisy, especially at night, when there is quite a lot of traffic noise from the A12. The relaxed rules also meant that we had one night where a group of teenagers on the neighbouring pitch kept us awake until the early hours. We mentioned it to the site staff who I believe had a word and the next night they were quiet as mice! Most of the campers were families with children so naturally the noise quietened off after 'bedtime'.
However if you are very light sleepers or 'early to bed early to rise' types then I'd suggest a set of earplugs could be useful.
When the site is busy it is noticeable that there is a shortage of toilets and showers for the size of the site. You had to time your showers to avoid the queue. Also, because of the number of people using them despite the best efforts of the staff it was near impossible to really keep them clean, especially the floors.
However there was never a shortage of hot water and the water pressure was good.
The on site shop is excellent, next time I won't bring much food with me at all and save a ton of space in the car. Definitely get your fresh bread ordered for the mornings - delicious!
The real plus of this site is the location in a beautiful part of the Suffolk Countryside, surrounded by lovely walks, Woodbridge, Aldeburgh and Sutton Hoo are well worth a visit with fantastic woodland walks in Rendlesham Forest.
We had a recommendation from the staff for a local pub just a few miles from the site which offered a 20% discount on Thursdays for Orchard guests. Had a fabulous meal, well worth asking about.
We have just returned from a week at The Orchard campsite. We decided to go there after reading all the positive reviews and were really excited.
I have been thinking about what I am going to write all week long. When we first got there, I wanted to turn round and leave again. It was smaller than expected, seemed tired and worn, and nothing that we thought we wanted a campsite to be.
Mid week I was starting to relax and thought I am having fun but would not return. Well, after 7 nights, and 7 days of sun (well almost) we were sad to leave and would return tomorrow.
It is hard to explain but there seems to be a community spirit there that I have not seen anywhere else. We met some wonderful families, and some wonderful children. My two boys had the best time fishing and playing with all the other boys.
The good points - the real camp fires, the fishing, the glow stick scramble, the community feel, the shop - it has brilliant prices, the location (5 mins walk to centre of village), the families, and Paul the warden was brilliant.
The bad bits - its a smallish site with a lot of tents. There are a lot of groups. The toilets are not the cleanest, more showers are needed but if you take a shower later on in the morning or early evening you don't have to wait.
Most of the pitches are sloping. If it rains you may not get your vehicle out of the site as the road turns to mud. The WIFI is still not working but you are not informed of this when you arrive and there was not hint of it being fixed. Even though we don't spend a lot of time using it when camping it is something that we look for when we pick a campsite so I was a bit annoyed.
The washing machine and dryer don't work well, and again, you are not informed of any issues until you have used them. The dryer was getting clothes so hot but not taking the moisture out, we were told to just put less in. Well after £6 they still weren't dry and I gave up.
I had a cold shower one day and again there wasn't a sign out to inform people that there was a problem with the heater you were left to find out for yourself.
We visited The Orchard with a small group who have returned several times, and I can see why! Initial appearances when we arrived were of a very busy & ramshackle site, but the staff couldn't have been nicer, gave us a couple of options of where to pitch and walked us down to a secluded pitch in the trees to have a look before we set up.
They were happy to lend us a couple of pieces of small equipment we had forgotten, i.e. Dust pan & brush and extra tent pegs.
The free glow stick scramble of Saturday night was very well received by the kids and great fun for adults watching the glowicks running around in the dark! The site were very keen to make it fair for all the children and kept some back for the smaller children who had not got any in the scramble!
The site has lots to offer with a shop that sold most essentials and lots of non essentials and didn't seem to close until everyone had gone to bed!
The camp fires in the evening were lovely. The children's play area, although small, was sufficient and with the river at the bottom and a small pond together with footpaths leading to the village there was plenty to keep all entertained on site for a while.
However it would be a shame not to go out and explore the lovely Suffolk villages and countryside while visiting. We went to Framlingham & had a lovely day wandering around the castle and the quaint little shops and even sat by the village pond listening to a live bad with a beer - a prefect english summer day all round!
The main down side for me was the tracks on the campsite which became very slippery after a heavy down pour. Being at the bottom I felt I was going to slide the car into the tree at one stage. The pitch was quite uneven and sloped also, but I think you very quickly overlook this once you get into the atmosphere and charm of the campsite and its lovely Suffolk surroundings.
After a weekend at this busy site we will definitely be returning.
The positives are:
Actively encouraged to have camp fires
Very relaxed atmosphere and child friendly
Shop (and off licence) open late
Very helpful shop staff and nothing too much trouble
However. The toilets and showers were not nice-1) Rust in the showers and filthy as you walked in after generally queueing for 10-15 minutes.
We appreciate that fields are muddy etc but why not have some form of mop etc such that each user could wipe down a little 2) Three showers for the whole site doesn't seem enough, would suggest another 3) The toilets and some form of open drain in them just stank, constantly-even if this cant be changed some form of odour neutraliser(?) would help?
Finally, little play area nice, but would be good to have another climbing/swing frame. This one with 2 swings and a slide often got really quite busy.
Reasonably minor points-though we are trying to gets friends/family into camping and the toilet/shower area didn't help us on that quest)
Nice site, we spent a nice relaxing weekend there, don't think you will find a level pitch though,
Not enough toilets only 4 in total only 3 showers so there were queues, its nice to have open fires but they are every where, so I would not like to pitch over an old fire,
It is a nice relaxing site 20 mins to the coast, small children's play area, shop is ok, and some items are cheep, loads of different beers,
Some nice out of he way pitches down the bottom by the river,
We are a family of four and we have stayed at this site several times. It is 2-3 years since our last visit, when we were put off slightly by the noise created by groups of people playing loud music into the early hours.
I must say that the site is now much improved, we had no noise after around 1030. Alan who is the owner of the site has really done wonders with facilities like a very well stocked shop with prices competitive with the local co-op.
There are now ample toilets and showers and of course in the evening you can have your own camp fire!
Alan had done a great drop of modernising this site and his hard work is now paying off. This is a great site make sure you book well in advance.
What a site, fab there should be more sites like it. All the family loved the real fire, the shop was very well priced and sold lots of stuff too including some great beers I loved the mixed fruit cider.
From the moment of arriving you felt like part of the family Alan and his crew were excellent no request was a problem for them.
The kids were gone from the moment we got there and made loads of friends and loved the glow stick scramble and is very child friendly everyone looks out for everyone else's kids.
The site was very clean considering how busy it was and if you timed it right you did not have to cue for a shower or toilets and there is so much to do in the surrounding area, crabbing, the beach, shopping - some great shops and everyone in the area
very friendly indeed, we loved it so much we have booked again for next year along with my dad and his crew coming with us this time.
Very Nice site. Friendly people. We had a pitch right out of the way in the woods. They're very strict about the music after dark here. We had ours on at barely a whisper which couldn't possibly be heard by any other campers because we checked it, and the warden told us to turn it off while doing his rounds. People's speaking voices and loud conversations were making far more noise at other pitches and yet we're the ones treated like we're making a nuisance of ourselves even though we were quieter. It's a bit silly, they ought to exercise some judgement.
Some relatives booked to stay here on another occasion and the whole bottom area had been flooded by the river, so they cancelled. You can also hear the road from the campsite, but overall it's a very nice place to stay.
What can I say that hasn't been said by almost everyone already?
Not a lot is the answer!
The site is relatively small, but this lends itself to the almost communal feel about the place.
Alan greeted us on arrival, checked us in and simply said 'find yourself somewhere to pitch'! It really was as simple as that.
The site itself seems to be split into two areas divided by a string of 70 feet high trees. Beyond this lies a small stream winding itself from one side of the site to the other.
The shop sells everything you could possibly want or need, so don't bother taking any food with you! It also has a selection of around 20 real ales!
They sell firewood and kindling, although this is a little expensive at £20 for a barrow-load, a box of kindling (enough for 2 fires) and a couple of bags of peanuts or marshmallows.
There's a very small children's play area and plenty of space for them to run around.
The best way I can sum the site up is it has The X Factor. There's something about Alan, the staff and the site itself which you can't sum up easily, the relaxed approach of everyone, the evening camp fires. Everything about it is just right.
The site also has great washing up facilities and very good showers/toilets.
Have just returned from a 10 night stay at the Orchards. It was meant to be 11 but we decided we needed a day indoors before we went back to work! Really sad to leave actually.
Alan and all his Staff are all wonderful and very welcoming. Nothing was ever too much trouble from any of them.
We pitched by the pond but were pretty cold so when they site emptied out we moved up to the side of the meadow which was a lot warmer! We were going to pitch in the wood but were told there is a pretty big degree difference.
The shop is wonderful. Such a life saver if you need anything and they do not rip you off either. 50p for a tub of butter, £1 for a loaf of bread and they sell some wonderful beers and ciders all locally brewed. My favourite was the Apple and Lime cider! Alan makes a wicked jug of Pimms too, which we enjoyed several of in the Bar area. The ice creams and drinks were 50p too which makes it easier if you have kids. Lovely fresh bread, croissants and pain au choc available.
Lots for the kids to do too. Bike hire, fishing,table tennis, park, and on Saturday nights they do a 'Glow Stick' scavenge. This is also done on a Wednesday night during the school holidays too. My 3 daughters aged 14, 10 and 9 did not once say 'I'm bored' in the 10 days we stayed which is a first! They made loads of friends too.
Ample toilets and showers, male and female washroom and Family bathroom, all cleaned and kept tidy and well stocked. Large kitchen area to wash up in where you can use the Microwave, kettle, fridege and freezers. Washing machine £3 per wash and tumble dryer takes 20p's and £1's. Don't put too much in the washing machine if you do use it like I did as it didn't wash the clothes properly! Although that was my fault as I overloaded it!
We used 2 barrows of wood which lasted us for the 10 nights we were there, so worth the £30.
You must try the 'Schmores' while you're there. These involve melting a couple of marshmallows between 2 choccie biscuits which Alan suggested doing. They can both be bought in the shop.
The highlight of the holiday must have been the Samba party that Alan laid on for the Royal wedding. They set up a flat screen in the bar area for us to watch and put up a 9 foot screen in their Living room which we didn't use.
Wickham Market is literally a 5 minute walk away but you MUST go left out the camp then a right on the public foot path across the fields. There is a co-op in the town. Wickham Market reminded me of Sandford out the film Hot Fuzz. A lovely Tea shop, a Hardware shop, a Chinese Restaurant (fab takeaways!) an Indian restaurant,a chip shop, a lingerie shop, a gifty shop, a Butchers, Estate agent and Post office. A lovely Antiques shop, the Lady who owned it was lovely and gave all my girls a cream egg! And a lovely church.
We only ventured out once. Alan suggested we go to the Ramsholt Arms which was lovely and secluded and looks out onto a Quay. Their food was fab.
The wardens repaired my friend's Trailer tent door and they even charged up our laptops and ipods for us a few times.
In the 10 years we have been camping I can safely say this was the best campsite I have ever stayed at and we will be returning one day. All I'm hoping is that we can be fitted in as they were taking bookings for 2012 when we were there!
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Common Questions
Is The Orchard Camp Site child friendly? YES, it accepts children & has a playground View all facilities
Where is the nearest shop to The Orchard Camp Site? There is a shop on site View all facilities
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
All reviews and comments are the personal opinion of the review author only , and as such do not represent the view of the UK Camp Site.co.uk.
The facilities shown on this website are a guide only, and you should check with the campsite direct before making any booking. The UKCampsite.co.uk will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions
Tent Pitches 
Caravan Pitches 
Motorhome Pitches 
Small Campervans 
Glamping Units 
No Statics for Hire 
No Statics for Sale 
No Seasonal Pitches 
Electric Hookups 
No Hardstandings 
No Fully Serviced Pitches 
Families Welcome 
Not Members Only 
Rallies Welcome 
Not Naturist Site 
Dogs Welcome 
No Dogs Allowed 
Groups Welcome 
Motorbikers Welcome 
Toilet Facilities 
Hot Showers 
Washing Up 
No Bathroom 
No Baby Changing 
Laundry On Site 
Drinking Water 
Disabled Friendly 
Chemical Disposal 
Battery Charging 
No Gas Exchange 
No Recycling Facilities 
Kitchen Facilities 
Freezer / Fridge 
No Motorhome Point 
No Wifi Access 
Shop On Site 
Bar On Site 
Restaurant or Cafe or Takeaway <1 mile 
Kids Playground 
No TV Room 
No Games Room 
No Evening Ents 
Fishing On Site 
No Wild Swimming 
No Indoor Pool 
No Outdoor Pool 
Horse Riding <1 mile 
Cycle Hire <5 miles 
Golf <1 mile 
Tennis <1 mile 
Beach <10 miles 
Watersports On Site 
No Boat Launch 
No Sea Views 
Not Working Farm 
Campfires Allowed 
No Waterside Pitches 
Public Transport <1 mile
Offroad Dog Walk On Site or Direct Access 
On arrival the site looked busy but well maintained and tidy. We were shown to our hardstanding pitch (the only one on site). Situated right next to the children's play area. 
