Review of Discovery Parks - Clare 4*

Discovery Park Clare is in a good location with great facilities on paper. We were travelling to Clare for the Inaugural Clare Classic. The Clare Classic is a cycling event that brought 900 participants plus their family and friends to the town of Clare with a population of 4000.44% of the participants were from interstate. We booked a grassed creek site for 2 nights as our base for this event. Our disappointment with the caravan park started on check in when we were told that the swimming pool would be closed until Monday/Tuesday for maintenance. Riding 160kms on Sunday in the forecasted heat, we were looking forward to a cool down in the pool. Management knew for months that the cycling event was on, and it is disgraceful that maintenance was scheduled at the same time (why not during the week before, or after? ). When arriving at our grassed site, we were surprised to see nothing but dirt (definitely not grass as advertised), and for the 2 nights we were unable to open our front & side caravan windows due to the dust blown up from cars driving along this section of the park. The ladies toilets need better ventilation for both smell and humidity. We booked in advance for the riders and supporters buffet dinner at the Park on Saturday night at $20 per person (which we found out was offered at 50% discount by the Park just weeks before we booked it). It was catered by an external catering company who ran out of food with approx. 25 people still to eat, after waiting in line for an hour. Opting for a refund (instead of waiting another 15 mins or so for more food to be prepared & cooked), the Park refunded our dinner but said they would not refund the 1% credit card surcharge (this is the first business I've come across that hasn't refunded the surcharge). It is such a shame this was our accommodation experience as the rest of Clare, businesses and locals were amazing, whether for coffee, dinner or just friendly support & cheering for the local cycling event. I hope our next Discovery Park experience is the complete opposite of this as we recently purchased our caravan and signed up for a Discovery Park membership.