Be warned if you park your car for over 4 hours - it's an expensive shopping day. We went there while our car was being serviced and stayed 4 hrs 50mins. We spent nearly £200 including breakfast and lunch at M&S, then got a £100 fine for the privilege. You can pay early which reduces to £60 and also appeal the charge; however if you appeal, and aren't successful, you have to pay £100. Nowhere did we see prominent signs referring to the 4hr time limit and ironically when looking at their website, I see that you can extend your stay foc in the M&S cafe which we visited twice. I don't think we will be spending our money at Castlepoint again.

Be warned. over 4 hours parking u get an expensive fine. Very bad for promoting business. They DON'T remove the fine EVEN if presenting shopping receipts. In fact they increase it. There should be more flexibility to promote shopping.

Beware they don’t want you to spend too much time there. Besides the fact it’s a maze due to the building which never seems to end, I received £100 parking fine for being just over the max parking hours . So doing my weekly food shop, feed new baby and myself and get us both a new wardrobe wasn't the best idea! Will be going back ONLY to RETURN ALL items so I can pay for the stupid fine ! Will not go again!!!!

My wife and I are local to this shopping centre, and visited today to link in with my brother-in-law and his partner, we went to Marks and Spencer's for a spot of lunch, and unfortunately, my wife found a very limited option of gluten free items. She spoke to one of Marks and Spencer's staff named Nikki, and told her the situation, and bless her Nikki went downstairs to the food hall, and got a selection of gluten free rolls as well as some ham and cheese. We understandably were quite prepared to pay for these items, but Nicki insisted that we didn't (due to the fact that in her words"the selection of gluten free items on offer were very limited, and it would be reported to head office" of the fact. Both my wife and I thought that Nikki went above and beyond, she certainly is a credit to the Marks and Spencer's work force. Very many thanks.😊👍👍

PLEASE BE AWARE you only get 4 hours shopping time or you DO get a massive fine (no excuses allowed). This does not allow you time to shop, perhaps have lunch or just a cuppa and then a food shop. Used to enjoy coming here. Sadly empty shops and car park repairs make it look tatty and sorry looking. Hopefully in time both will improve.

Castlepoint has gone through very difficult times because of the repair to building problems in recent years. Throughout these difficult times it has consistently managed to provide a good service throughout. Building work is slowly completing and shops are now more than ever expanding ranges which increases attendance and sales. Being disabled, parking is very good and enables me to be able to visit shops personally even with walking problems. Castlepoint can supply virtually all basic needs as well as specialist shops that deal with specific ranges or perhaps an all round variety of basic and technical goods. It has evolved into an investigative centre for almost everything that you may require. Well worth a visit for 99% of your shopping needs and plenty of shops to browse and even places where food/drink is available and a good book/magazine to read while taking a break from shopping. RECOMMENDED.

There’s a decent range of shops, though they do shuffle in and out fairly regularly, but the thing that really rattled my cage is the inception of time limited parking. I got a ticket for shopping the other day. The *only* thing I can do here is spend money— which is their goal— so why spank me for staying and doing exactly that?! Utterly ridiculous idea that will end up costing them. If I go to town centre I may not have the range of shops but 5h parking will cost £5. Here? £60. Bad, bad move on Castlepoint’s part; you don’t limit the amount of time shoppers spend with you, if you want them to stay there and shop. Lunacy.

Far too spread out for my liking, lots of walking if you want to visit shops at both ends. My local shopping centre has a similar number of shops but it is much more compact. Lots of parking & decent bus availability. Visited while on holiday, happy to say I went but nothing to make me want to visit again.

Absolute masterclass in bad design in my opinion. Have always found it to be horrific to use whether as a pedestrian, cyclist or driver. I find the place so oppressive, there's nowhere to sit, no obvious plants, it's hard to navigate, you can't quickly grab a coffee from somewhere. I've lived nearby since just after it was built and still have no idea where the toilets are or how you're meant to walk in or out of the place. It's properly deadly as a pedestrian while they're refurbishing it too. Best to go somewhere else or shop online.

Ok. Not great selection of shops but handy for us as nearby Parking ok and extended beyond 4 hours re Christmas Went in m and S Cafe to eat and whilst carrot and walnut cake was delicious the actual cafe was dirty. Very surprised at m and s.

A very spacious shopping precinct, comprised of a plethora of established retail chains, including Boots, Sainsbury's and M&S. In addition parking facilities are available, as are stairs, a lift, and an escalator. So access is pretty good here! My shopping experience's at Castle Point have "always been enjoyable" and it is certainly family friendly as well. Definitely worth a visit in my view!!

Should give you more than 4 hours max stay, also not enough seats, not enough toilets and should be a few more cafes!

This place is sooooo cool but kinda expensive. It doesn’t have primark sadly 😢😢 and I found that the shops here are more expensive than the shops in other locations. But still it’s quite a nice shopping place (albeit I don’t like the outdoor bit) I like how they opened Victoria’s Secret in next because now I don’t have to go all the way to Southampton or london to go there. (It’s expensive tho) and they have bath and body works which is also VERY VERY expensive!!!! But o love the brand. Don’t like next though their clothes aren’t for me. Also this place is very easy to get to whatever your means of transport. There are a lot of bus services that go to castlepoint, they also have a lot of parking space. There are a few places to eat such as: McDonald’s, waterstone cafe, costa, 5 guys, kfc.

I like shopping at Castlepoint and I have been going since it opened but I will not be going back there as even though I was shopping spending quite a bit of money I have received a £60 fine I am so angry that has never happened to me before. I feel like I’ve been treated badly for actually spending money there I didn’t abandon my car or anything. Very bad to treat customers this way 🤬 I emailed a complaint to Castlepoint and they didn’t even have the decency to reply absolutely disgusting way to treat a long time customer of the centre. I will shop elsewhere.

Not enough exits at all to leave the parking areas. Downstairs parking does not have enough space to escape the parking space once there are lines behind where you’re parked to get out too. Lines seem to go on forever everywhere, don’t go shopping on weekends near christmas! Shoppings are decent, but expensive. Parking is the worst and I’ve heard of the £100 fine once you’re parked there for over 4 hours.

A reasonably good shopping centre on the outskirts of Bournemouth. Soon to have the only M&S in Dorset when the Poole store closes, reportedly in January 2022. Quite a decent selection of shops, including those located on the opposite side of the road (no Primark unfortunately). Best of all, parking is totally FREE and the parking bays are comfortably wide so no squeezing into ridiculously narrow parking spots. If parking on the upper level is difficult during busy periods, try the ground floor level which usually has plenty of empty spaces.

If you want M&S etc. in Bournemouth and Poole, it's your only solution. Big and breezy. Massive car park. More like an airport than a high street. I'm sure it's great if you like it.

It’s a shopping mall - quite pleasant as shopping malls go, but not particularly exciting. Couple of empty fronts but at least they’ve sorted the car park…if only they could regulate the flow during busy times a bit better because it’s easy to get trapped in there

Great carpark, good selection of shops and great access to public transport. No indoor area except in shops (or in the toilet/lift). Mcdonalds in Asda was insanely busy, its a small maccas and there was easily 30+ people crowded around waiting for food which made getting my trolley out quite difficult

Loads of parking, got there at 10am Saturday morning. A bit of a walk to different shops but clean, tidy, and a good selection of shops. Will return when I visit my children again n take them shopping

Well you can park free for 4 hours - Careful though don't go over that or their Car Parking Snides will hit you for £100.00 - So shop quickly and don't go outstaying your welcome! Lovely Christmas display this year - Must have cost them all of £20.00

Lovely shopping centre. So many shops to chose from. Free parking, although restricted to 3 hours I believe. So don’t stay longer than that or you’ll be receiving a penalty notice.

Got everything you need in castlepoint food clothing. I live close by and it's very easy for me to come shop. Glad all the renovation of the underground parking is finished.

I had one objective on this visit - to buy Spiderman wrapping paper for my grandson and to recover with coffee and a toasted sandwich in Costa - with easy parking and to return to my car to find the wheels still attached. All accomplished in spades. Castlepoint makes for easy fuss-free shopping - just what a grandad needs!

Only a brief visit to a couple of stores while in the area. This place is big, from what I saw there are plenty of stores to cover most requirements with a large two level carpark.

Great variety of shops (although a Primark would be amazing), easy parking, plenty of options for lunch and not too busy. Perfect!

At last things are settling down with minimal bits still to do but at least everything is accessible without having to dodge contractors or negotiate blocked passages. Still quite subdued and still empty premises but I am sure once word gets out that it is normal business things will pick up.

MASSIVE! Arrived by bus. From bus stop we could clearly see the Centre but had no idea how to enter, had to ask a passer-by. There were no entry signs, but we were advised to walk into the car park (!), and use the elevator. We did and all OK. But why oh why doesn't the Centre provide an Entry sign from the bus stop.

1st time back in a few years (Pre-COVID) and it never fails to deliver. Finally the carpark is finished and very nice it looks. Sad to see that some of the stores did not survive but the usual stalwarts are there including two fab supermarkets, and the B&M in the old Homebase is icing on cake. Love coming here whenever we vacation down this way....

Watch out for UKPC and their fines for using this Free Car Park! Parked just over a white line (no loss of parking spaces for others as we were at the end of the row) so I could get out of the vehicle and they they've been sending threatening letters for £100 since! Signs are hard to read, there are NO PARKING SPACES for people with obesity and their appeals process is biased and rigged. Avoid this centre or go on a bus...UKPC spoiled our visit

Haven't been to Castle point for some years. Went into Boots and Next and both were very good. Good display of stuff and staff very helpful and pleasant. Looked into the window of Waterstones, got to be one of the best displays of books and such like that I have seen in recent times. Very inviting for any lover of the real thing. So why 4 stars you might ask. Just struck me that it didn't completely have the vibe which I believe someone with real imagination and vision could bring to it. It was good, but with that extra vvvoom it could be great.

If you like your shopping experience drab, dull and straight forward come here. There is also a chance you might get run over at the pedestrian crossing if your going by bus.

BEWARE ALL SHOPPERS, UKPC is an absolute disgrace company and will find every possible way to penalise you. If you want to shopping at Castlepoint, arm yourself with tons of camera first so you can proof you didn't park your car there over the 4 hours limit. I'm Absolutely shocked this morning after receiving a parking ticket from UKPC, went to McD to get a takeaway with my son on Friday evening, in and out within 10 mins, wife went weekly shopping the next day, somehow, UKPC conveniently only captured us enter the car park on Friday and Wife left the car park on the next day, saying we parked our car there for 22 HOURS, absolutely disgrace, searching UKPC online and you can see more than 99% of negative review for this scum company and why would Castlepoint shopping centre management team think it's a good idea to partner with those scums,

The shopping centre is very good. Excellent service in Boots and M&S, but the parking lets the whole experience down. We only go to Castlepoint maybe twice a year and have never experienced a time limit on parking. We were lead to believe it was free. You only get 4 hours. We got the dreaded fine £60 within 14 days. Talk about cash cow. No, we ain’t going again. We live in Weymouth where a new M&S is being built within an already expanding shopping mall. Thankfully there will be no need to travel there again.

Basically a double storey carpark with some shops on two sides. The place has no concept of a 'centre' where one might meet friends. No helpdesk, no central cafe or toilets. Just a carpark, which thankfully is nearly repaired. Deeply weird!

Terrible design, huge shopping centre where all traffic is filtered through two tiny roundabouts. I spent over an hour trying to leave the car park on a Saturday afternoon. Do not drive to this shopping centre unless you are prepared to wait for a huge amount of time sat in traffic

Parking has improved . Could be a better shopping area . Wish people smoked in designated areas . I get so much smoke getting out of the shops . Underground car park doesn’t feel safe . If is raining you get wet .

Parked underneath what a nice experiance, clean, tidy and not so busy. Shops are excellent as usual👌

The parking repairs have been going on 4 quite some time. Currently, there are barriers in between the shops. It's obviously best to repair it properly but been honest, it's also very noisy with the repair works. The shops are okay.

At the moment the car park is being rebuilt so the parking arrangements are different. Parking was not a problem though even though it is near Xmas. Like all shopping centres there are currently some empty stores but as parking is free and the shops are all in close proximity to each other it remains a good shopping centre to go to. We treated ourselves to lunch in M&S and visited Next and Asda. We managed to buy all we wanted so yes I would recommend if you want to get your retail fix.

Spent over 4 hours here and spent hundreds of pounds on different stores during that time. And today, received a £60 parking ticket! On going back to the centre, a found a few tiny signs advising that parking is limited to 4 hours. So, will next visit the centre again - after spending so much money they should be giving me a discount, but instead they penalise me for my custom. Disgusting.

AVOID! Due to the ongoing car park works be prepared for a long wait when trying to find a space and even longer when trying to exit the site. Quite a lot of disabled parking but hard to find if its your first visit as signage is poor or non existent. Average retail experience but a decent M&S

Shoppers beware! I have just been stung for a £100 (no wait a bargain £60 if paid within 14 days) parking charge for not being in a marked bay... The part of the car park I was in under renovation and the bays sporadically marked properly. They use a private company (just google UKPC and see the 99% bad reviews) to hunt down those who flout the rules or make a gebuine mistake. It's little wonder that without Asda and Sainsburys that this place will fail

Many shops and very big car park, i like the cafés and the big shopping centres are convenient, good security and has lifts, disabled spaces and two carpark toilets for those that need them too

The cornerstone of the shopping centre, almost literally, are Sainsburys, Asda and Marks & Spencer. In between these shops there is a line-up of the usual suspects, most of them high street chains. Nothing special but a decent combination. However, over what feels like the last 4-5 years, there are consistent building works around the car park with new ways to enter, to leave or simply to park. Sometimes whole chunks of previous car park spaces are missing. It is an attempt to keep things going while fixing what seems to be failures in the original build. This is understandable. What is less understandable is that the management of Castlepoint came up with the glorious idea to contract with one of the big private car park operator companies, unfortunately known for their unsympathic approach to appeals when tickets are given out. Not just small amounts, nope, a breach is worth £100. Over all the last years I never experienced any problems of this sort while parking there but recently, since December last year I believe, this has changed and, reading the recent reviews, many people have been disproportionately affected by large fines for rather minor contract breaches. The Castlepoint management have set up the grand amount of 2 devices across the whole place to allow customers to enter their registration details, which then allows to stay longer than 4 hours. They have, on their website (and who would go there before a visit) explained where to go and what to do once fined, but, alas not before you get fined. While some rules have to be upheld one could think that maybe once all the building works are finished these changes could be brought in, clearly displayed (and not on partly covered signs across the building areas), with charges reflecting the severity of the problem. On my part, I will take my business elsewhere, partly online. They might not notice the action of one person, but if many people do the same, I think they will. And their customers (as for the management company), who are the shops, will notice as well.

Today I received a parking fine for £60:00 because I was parked longer than 4:00 hours. Do they not want you to spend your money? A stop for a coffee or lunch could cost you an extra £60:00

Ah! this place used to be much better, many stores closed, in fact the ones I liked the most, and nothing has opened yet, there is a lack of new and interesting stores. However, it has ample and free parking, despite being in a renovation that seems eternal and that generates chaos.

Its such a shame that they're still working on getting this car park sorted. There is loads of temporary measures in place. We couldn't work out how to get to b&q even with the signage! Some of the shops are closed for example what was topshop/topman/miss selfridge. There is still a load of shops including next, new look, asda, sainsburys, River Island, m&s

Due to ongoing structural work which has been put off since the centre opened decades ago, the whole place is chaos at the moment. There are some good shops here, the B&Q is huge and there is a Sainsburys, M&S and Asda, so plenty of choice for food shopping, but the rest of the park is not as good as it once was. There is a good size TKMaxx, and a large Boots, but getting to Al the shops at the moment isn't easy.

Castlepoint is a useful shopping centre outside of bournemouth and christchurch town centres, but the design was strange, so that if it is cold, hot or rainy you are likely to feel the effect of the weather as you walk between shops. The whole area seems to have been shored up or in a state of rebuiding for some years. This means that every time you go, the section you used to park in is probably coned off, or the walkway between 2 shops is closed, and you have to walk through the car park, where drivers make little allowance for pedestrians. Marks & Spencers, TK Maxx, Robert Dyas and Asda all have a presence here, and these provide a reason to visit if you really need something, but it is not a place I would choose to go for browsing or window shopping.

Worst designed shopping centre I have ever come across. Car park is a nightmare! Poor selection of shops and all outdoors so most unpleasant on a wet and windy day.

It is practical and a useful shopping centre. It is a work in progress, slowly improving. It could be more attractive and the parking rules has changed, unfortunately it is limited to only four hours! I do hope they don't decide to make further changes to parking in the future.

Still a building site in places but there is a good variety of shops. But the car park is free and if you get there early enough you can park under cover. It's a great shame we don't have many of these shops, e.g. M&S and Waterstones, in Poole as was the case up until about a year ago. It seems that shop owners prefer to make their potential customers travel rather than provide local shops, which doesn't say much for their love of the environment.

There's plenty of free parking available. Such a great selection of shops to choose from. Plenty of places to eat and drink. Bus stops only a short walk away from shops. 👍🤓

For whats boasted as the largest shopping park in the uk there is not much there. Food options in particular are lacking. Arriving by bus found the layout confusing and focused on cars with little though for guests arriving on foot. Found it difficult to get from the shops to the few food places on site. Will not visit again.

When improvements to car park are finished it will be a nice place to visit, but needs one or two more capital stores, too many trainer/sports outlets. Also not completley weatherproof walkways. Otherwise nearly perfect.

There is plenty of shops to browse through and also parking spaces so really like coming back for the spacious area, efficient way of getting and doing some shopping. Only downside at the moment is the construction work being done on the parking but that’s unavoidable for the time being.

Quick visit to Castlepoint to go to Asda. Very impressed with the car park improvements. Enjoyed a quick McDonald's. Good choice of shops just don't like the drive to get there so rarely go unless someone else is driving.

Good selection of shops. All the ones that used to be in Bournemouth town centre. Spoilt by all the work going on.Hordings everywhere. No map to help! Didn't see a toilet. Car parking was free and plentiful.

Many Brand outlets there must have a look these days ..good discount in Black Friday Deals..

A very busy shopping centre has lots of parking if you get there early as the car park is being refurbished. A good range of big shops including Sainsbury, Asda, The Entertainer, Boots, Marks and Spencer. Plenty of places to eat, including Five Guys, McDonalds and costa.There is a 4 hour limit for parking which can be extended in certain shops but the parking is free.

Have been constructing the car park for the last 15 years but also received a £100 parking fine for going over the white lines which was done so I can exit my car along with my 4 month old daughter as there is scaffolding and pillars every 2 foot to hold up the car park. No parent car parking and majority of the spots taken up with the white vans from the engineers building the car park.

Good free parking and safe to use a trolley to get back to your car with walkways. Can usually find everything you need as a good range of shops

Hunted high and low in m&s for work trousers. They have so many different styles and colours. Just as I was going back to the entrance I finally found what I wanted. Please could you put all the trousers together and label them. I didn't know what a ankle brasier was. Too confusing 🥺

Good shops here and free parking for 4 hours is great. Unfortunately the car park is terrible and is endlessly being worked on, often making it hard to work out how to get to some of the shops.

Much improved carpark, shops are seemingly doing better than most supported by a DIY store one end and supermarket the other, a great place to cater for most needs.

Wide variety of shops to keep you busy for a few hours. Mainly a good destination for the choice of two very large supermarkets and DIY, but smaller shops Cather for other needs. Huge car park with plenty of spaces and free parking.

I go to Castle Point often as l volunteer at Ukraine Relief which is located within the centre. It is very convenient for shopping as there are many shops , coffee bars and super markets there. Everything you could want in one place. The only criticism is the amount of traffic using the roads can be very frustrating, especially during the local schools opening and closing. Traffic management should be improved in the area.