Is Centre Parcs worth it

It really is a marmite place. We had to go on a family holiday and hated it. Fake woods, grubby accommodation and the okay pool. DC were too small to do any of the ‘activities’ so we just went to the play park and the soft play.
I saw someone say it was like going on holiday to a local authority leisure centre.

But we have relatives who are obsessed with it and spend so much money going they can’t afford holidays abroad. I’m old enough to remember people going in the 80s where you could fill a lodge with as many people as you like and more activities were included.

CP is great for a 6 year old as you won’t need to pay for any activities if he’s happy pottering around and exploring the beach and all the parks. Longeat is fab with the land train too! The 4 days will fly by and two will be changeover days (arrivals and departures). The pool is mostly warm in the wave pool (perfectly safe for 6 year olds) and weirdly the outside pool as it’s warm as long as shoulder under. The kiddie bits might feel cold to him as the water is shallow and kids run around out of the water. Could he have a wetsuit or similar. Honestly though even with 1-2 swims and the rest exploring/walking/train/park/beach the time will go fast. Take some Cook meals and cook in to save a bit of money but still have a treat! Or the dine in menu for takeaways was really good.

also with CP like others have said - it’s chilled and slow. So take some toys and dvds and chill in the lodge too. Often ducks and deer pass the lodges.

someone mentioned stag and hens - I’ve never seen this so might have been a one off. Never had any issue with noise or boisterous behaviour. Most people are respectful and I thought they actively discouraged big groups?

it’s pricy yes - but worth it and familiar for us too.

we also like the bit with the shops and sometimes just go for a walk, few parks, up to get an ice cream and coffee, then slow walk or train back for lunch. Depends where lodge is of course but often there’s a destination of sort with an ice cream!

hope you find something suitable.

sorry just thought - for the pool you can take towels and things in to pool area. So you could take warm things for a break and cuddle. There’s cafe in there too!! Then warm up, snack and rest and back in again if he wants. There’s cabanas you can hire - little huts with tv in pool area.

Center Parcs was amazing for us when the DC were younger, they both loved swimming, cycling and seeing the ducks and rabbits around the villas. A funny quirk in our county is that half term is different from most of the rest of the country so the price wasn’t too bad. At some point Center Parcs caught into this, the price shot up and we stopped going every year.

The many playground areas, the woodland walks and the pool are great, although the pool does get very busy and all are included in the villa price. There’s loads of other activities you can book but most are overpriced tat, I wouldn’t bother with them, far too expensive. We always took bikes with us, it’s lovely to cycle around (mainly) car free roads. You can hire bikes there but omg £££. We always take loads of groceries with us as well as their Parc Market on site is like an expensive Waitrose. They have chain restaurants like Bella Italia, Cafe Rouge and Starbucks on site but they are always excluded from any discount offers which makes them very spendy, we don’t eat out as often as we used to there now. But we definitely used to get through lots of £££ when we were there, more so than any other UK holiday.

I like the spa there as well if you can offload the DC for a bit. Made me smile that one of the first holidays my 25 year old DS booked for him and his girlfriend (after a few years of boys booze holidays) was Center Parcs. We’re going later in the year with both DC and their partners, taking advantage of the price dip when the schools return. I don’t see my DC as often as I’d like now they’re grown up so I’m looking forward to spending time with them while drinking wine and beer. Like you do.

Love it. Have been most years for the last 8 years. We go back to the same one and are familiar with the site now which makes it easier. It is expensive yes but all holidays are unless you go in term time. We are going back in December, can’t wait. £700 is a fab price for a weekend in school summer holidays, we have paid that for December out of term time.

Centre Parcs’ year-round occupancy is an astonishing 97%, so their customers obviously think the product is “worth it”. And their pricing policy is obviously spot on, too, because people are evidently prepared to pay what it costs. The appeal of ‘a British holiday which the British weather can’t ruin’ seems to be as strong as ever.

CenterParcs pool is 29.5 degrees all year round. There are slides and the wave pool, if the weather is good swimming in the outside bit is lovely.

We have been going to CP for 20 years. Free stuff, lots of playgrounds, walking around just spotting wildlife, the ducks on your patio and being in the forest.

As for restaurants everybody's booking window opens at the same time for that week so saying places were fully booked means people looked later than invited by CP.

Activities are not cheap, 45 minutes of badminton would be about £15 for the court. We do one activity a day but not on check in or move out so just Tue, Wed and Thurs. We do bike rides instead and we swim every day including Mon and Fri. Sports Cafe doesn't need booking and all menus are online. A lot of the restaurants have a children's play area inside so they can run about clambering whilst you wait for food. As my children are now adults this is not something I pay attention to anymore.

We love it, it is expensive but we are nowhere near London otherwise we probably would drive over the the European ones. We have been to all the UK ones except Longleat.

If you want forest and a holiday site, what about warmwell in Dorset?

I think CP is much better than Warmwell, dc liked the ski thing though.

The pool centre environment is really warm and they have splash park bits and pool, rapids, wave bits but also from memory it’s really quite warm. There are family cabanas you can rent within the swimming area which we did when one of ours was a baby which has a tv and soft drinks and chairs so you can have some ‘time out’ between the swimming which might be a nice option too to wrap up in towels in between short swimming bouts. We love centre parcs and if you take (or hire bikes), do the swimming and parks that are free and then do a BBQ at your lodge and bring food for wildlife on your patio you don’t really have to spend much more unless you want to

I thought it was the biggest rip off ever and I wouldn’t go back.

Feels like living in The Truman Show

We don't eat out much though, the food options aren't great

We go annually with a big group & love it.

Grizedale Forest in the Lake District has bike hire, Go Ape, Woodland walks, a planetarium and and a great cafe. Lakes Lodges about 1 mile away have superb accommodation. May be worth a look?

What about a centre parks in Belgium? We went to one recently in may half term and loved it. Cheaper than the uk. We packed the car with food from home and self catered. Pick carefully as some don’t have a mega big pool. The one we went to had a large indoor beach/play area included in the price too so we didn’t feel the need for extra activities.

If you want forest and a holiday site, what about warmwell in Dorset? Lodges in the woods, it does have a small pool, mini golf, playground, roller rink or it did and nature trails. If you’re willing to splash you could even have your own hot tub.

We love Center Parcs. Never understood the weirdos 😝who don't. Although our child isn't of school age yet. We'd probably feel it was not so worth the extortionate prices once we are confined to school hols and half terms!
For us, we love:
The surroundings
The animals that come up to our lodge (our little boy loves the muntjac, squirrels and ducks, which come up to the lodges for monkey nuts)
The sub-tropical swimming pool

We went to Whinfell Forest recently and honestly I found the pool a bit chilly, although that might just be me being a bit pathetic . We also found the pool was full of pretty noisy stag / hen parties, lots of pushing and clamouring around the slides etc - not sure if we were just unlucky. It was really busy and this was out of peak time. The food situation also felt pretty dire and we couldn't have got any bookings for the restaurants even if we’d wanted to as they were all full once we looked, as were most of the activities! It was a peaceful relaxed holiday but there was no room for spontaneity apparently!

If you’re not going to be able to take full advantage of the pool I wouldn’t.

I dare say Butlins would be a better choice, depending on which one, use the splash pool inside one day then soft play, huge parks, fair ground rides and such all included in the price. Also the children’s mini shows just in the pavilion.

No. It’s well worth it in January/February out of school holiday time. But that’s it.

I once paid less than £300 for four nights for 6 people.

Butlins is as good/better.

OP, the pool is the only thing to do there that doesn't cost £££££, other than riding bikes/walking in places that are less nice than you could find anywhere else in the UK that has any sort of countryside.

So if DC isn't going to want to spend hours in the pool, I wouldn't bother.