Local attractions run full summer hours through the school holidays, so it's one of the few times of year when little is closed for the season, though it's still worth checking specific opening times since some smaller venues keep shorter Sunday hours even in summer. The trade-off for all this is straightforward: book early, expect company, and use timing within the day and within the six weeks to find the quieter pockets that still exist inside a genuinely busy season.
There's no universally right answer, only the right one for the time available, the distance to travel, and what you actually want from the days once you're there. A weekend at a park like ours suits a quick reset; a week suits actually switching off.
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 coast staycations or Norfolk coast in May usually means decent light until early evening, without the peak-season crowd that arrives from June onwards.
The two May bank holidays also work well as shorter breaks in their own right, for anyone who doesn't have a full week free. A long weekend built around the early May Monday, arriving Friday and leaving Tuesday, gives four days without touching much annual leave, and traffic on the roads tends to be lighter than the equivalent August bank holiday weekend.
Booking is the first decision. Parks along the English coast, ours included, typically open the following summer's diary not long after the current season ends, and the best pitches and the specific weeks that overlap with the tail end of one school's term and the start of another's holiday tend to go first. Booking in autumn or winter for the following August gives a genuine choice of week and accommodation; booking in June for the same August usually means taking whatever's left.
Within the six weeks, not every week carries equal demand. The two or three weeks either side of the August bank holiday and the very start of the school break are typically the busiest; the middle fortnight, particularly a normal midweek stretch rather than a weekend changeover, is often slightly easier to book and can be marginally better value. If the dates are flexible at all, a week in the middle of the school break rather than right at the start or the bank-holiday end tends to mean a calmer park.