James and Alison Holmes usually holiday in Tenerife, the Balearic Islands or Spain. As they sat down to dinner this past Spring bank holiday in the brightly lit family restaurant at their destination, the sun was shining and the air was warm.

But this time they had chosen not a sandy foreign beach resort but a distinctly English getaway:a budget British holiday.

They were spending a week at the Park Resorts location in Bideford Bay in a North Devon holiday camp where staff perform songs, bingo is staged nightly and guests stay in caravans parked around the manor house or in permanent "chalets" on the grounds.

"I just searched the internet and just looked for the best deal," says Alison. The couple decided to spend less on their weeklong getaway, James says, and so were settling in on their first day.

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"I like it!" says one of their daughters, the eight-year-old, who had already played on the adventure playground in back of the main building. The park has an outdoor and a small-ish indoor pool, an arcade and daytime children's club, but the family mainly planned to use the park's location as a base to explore the area.

"We're members of the National Trust," says James, so they would go to see stately homes nearby. "We'll visit the Eden Project and just do a lot of chilling."

The credit crunch may have slackened somewhat, as news outlets carry stories of a reviving property market and people with jobs relax about their positions, but the affordable staycation is still big news. Alongside that, caravan holidays are booming.

The Caravan Club says advance bookings for caravan holidays are up 40 per cent on last year. Operator 118 118 says calls for caravan and camping sites rose 40 per cent in December and January while enquiries to hotels and B&Bs are down.

"There's no better place to be than the UK when the weather's good," says James Tyrrell, the resort's general manager. "It's now value for money against the euro and the dollar." He estimates the park is up 15 to 20 per cent on bookings so far this year.

The park has more than 350 units, including caravans, chalets and lodges. They're situated in big cleared lots on the property, with tree-lined roads leading to the main building, which houses the restaurant, arcade, bar, and the type of a small stage and dancefloor familiar to anyone who's been to a wedding.

The park owns some of the rental caravans on-site, some are owned by individuals who rent them out, and some owners keep caravans there for their own use. (The price to buy a caravan starts at £19,995.) Holiday stays can start as low as £69 for a short break in a basic self-catering caravan.

Visitors to Bideford Bay come to do everything from walk the South West Coastal Path to visit the picturesque cobbled streets of Clovelly to cycle the Tarka trail and take in the surfeit of North Devon attractions.

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