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

Before you book any UK holiday park, a handful of straightforward questions can save you from an awkward surprise on arrival.

Self-catering is the biggest single saving available. A static caravan holiday, with its own kitchen, means you're choosing when to cook and when to treat yourselves to eating out, rather than paying restaurant prices for every meal of the trip by default. For a family or group of any size, this alone tends to be the single biggest saving compared with a hotel-based break, where every meal usually comes at hotel prices.

Find out more at Yorkshire coast staycations.

A countryside or Broads-side setting offers a different rhythm. Rather than one central stretch of coast, you're usually within reach of quiet lanes, market towns, nature reserves and, on the Broads specifically, slow-moving waterways that suit an afternoon boat trip or a riverside pub lunch. It tends to be a calmer setting day to day, better suited to those who want gentle walks, birdwatching or simply a quieter base to come back to after a day out, rather than beach-focused activity.

Families with younger children often lean coastal, since a beach gives you a ready-made activity that needs very little planning: buckets, spades and a few hours, and everyone's entertained. Couples or those wanting a slower pace, or a base for cycling and walking rather than swimming, often prefer the countryside or Broads setting, where the pace of the holiday matches the pace of the surroundings.