For any family with children still at school, the calendar rules the holiday plan long before anyone opens a brochure. Term dates fix the weeks you can actually travel, and those same weeks are the busiest on every UK holiday park's booking sheet. The six-week summer break, the week around half-term in October and February, and the fortnight either side of Easter all draw the same crowd at the same time, which means the popular pitches and the best-value weeks go first.

The practical advice is the same whichever May date is the target: check the actual calendar for the year in question, since bank holiday dates move, confirm it against your children's specific half-term dates if that's part of the plan, and book earlier than feels necessary. May fills up quietly and then, in the specific weeks that carry a bank holiday, fills up fast.

Spring itself is a good season for a coastal or countryside break, arguably underused compared with summer. Days are properly lengthening by May, hedgerows are at their best, and the coast still has some of the calm of the off-season without the risk of a genuinely wintry day. A walk along the front near a park like ours on the East Yorkshire or Norfolk coast in May usually means decent light until early evening, without the peak-season crowd that arrives from June onwards.

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Not every caravan holiday needs to be a week. A two or three-night weekend break and a full week away suit different situations, and it's worth being honest about which one actually fits before booking either.