To wonder why on earth anyone goes to Center Parcs?!

[CakePigeon4]

I’ve had several friends who have been to various sites and raved about it, but to me it just looks like a slightly more upmarket Butlins?! It’s extortionately expensive, the chalets look like they’re furnished by Premier Inn, you have to pay for activities, you’re stuck on site eating at their overpriced restaurants... Am I missing something?!

But you’re still sleeping under canvas with no loo, shower or kitchen next to you aren’t you? Not really comparable

Under canvas on the ground 😭

OllyBJolly de kampervanaan, holland. Flew into Eindhoven. Beautiful city.

Lindormilk

Very true - always 😳😳!

We were made to go with DHs family once.
Accommodation was grim, ‘forest’ is an overstatement, food choices were crap.
It rained the entire time we were there.
BIL goes every year - he one spent £2k on a 3 night stay as they did every activity and ate out every meal. Then complains he can’t afford ‘a proper holiday’.

I always said to DH I probably would do if I was very wealthy just for the DC to use the pool. Otherwise no.

De Kempervennen is the Dutch CP we went to. 10 nights plus a couple of nights in Bruges. The ski instructors were fantastic. I wouldn't book a UK park now as the prices are ridiculous.

In the UK it's a paradox really, if you have toddlers and neither parent is a teacher you can book a termtime 4 night break for £450 but your DCs will be too little to do the best activities. If you book in the school holidays for older kids you'd better remortgage. Sky high prices plus paying for activities.

I felt exactly the same a few years ago - it didn’t appeal at all, it wasn’t my sort of thing etc - and then I gave it a go. We’ve been back every year since!

I love how there are no cars and waking up surrounded by greenery. Many of the lodges don’t look appealing from the outside but they’re cleverly designed so that you can’t see your neighbours from the inside. Our lodges have always been great. There are deer, rabbits, ducks and squirrels wandering around which the children love. No cars makes it feel safe for our young children to explore it on their bikes and walking.

We feel truly relaxed by the end of the week.

Everything is within walking distance; forest walks, amazing heated swimming pools and water play areas, adventure playgrounds, a lake and beach, restaurants with play areas where the children can go off and play so you can relax, numerous indoor and outdoor activities.

People who say it doesn’t appeal often say they can go abroad for the same price but personally I don’t see the appeal of that with young children. We go every year to visit family and it’s at least half a day of travelling at awkward times, it’s often too hot, we have to hire a car to visit anywhere like water parks, the roads are busy and there’s very little within walking distance. The cost of a day in a water park makes CP with its subtropical paradise seem like fairly good value - we go swimming every day in CP.

I’m glad we discovered it while the children are still young; I can see them enjoying it for many years to come as there’s also lots for older children.

You can't compare the swimming pool at (LL) CP to your bog standard leisure centre. They are like chalk and cheese

My family love a water park and we haven't come across another anywhere near as good as (LL) CP in the Uk.

Why are people so obsessed with Center Parcs that they won’t look beyond the brand to other companies that provide a similar product?

Warmwell in Dorset, for instance, has lodges and activities, (and it’s about half the price of CP) and OMG you can ride bikes there!!! The bigger Haven parks have really good activity programs in the school holidays, and guess what? Yep you can ride bikes! 😉. Butlins has entertainment day and night, and it’s nothing like it was in Hi-de-Hi. Sunparks in Belgium are cheap and quiet and set in woods, and have more bikes than cars.

And bumsex on every bloody CP thread isn’t funny any more, it’s fucking tedious.

I'm wondering if some CP are worse than others. We go to Woburn, it's always been very clean (baffled by descriptions of CP as "grubby"), including the pool there are ovens in the kitchens, microwaves, dishwashers, coffee machines etc, plenty of equipment to cook properly if you wanted to. We've gone outside of school holidays so perhaps why it hasn't been that busy.

There's no way we could get for a similar cost in the south east of the uk, a self catering cottage of that quality. Not in addition to the following within a 10 min walk: 5 days access to a pool with slides & rapids, 3 or 4 large well equipped children's parks, a small lake with a beach, a shop with mini kids trolleys, a choice of restaurants all with children's menus and soft play, & zero cars.

The one we go to is within a couple of hours away.

We tried Bluestone which is a similar thing but it didn’t compare for us. We thought the swimming was poor in comparison, there were golf buggies driving around everywhere so it didn’t feel as safe for the children, and the restaurants weren’t very child friendly (the play areas in the restaurants at CP make a massive difference to us).

I grew up near a butlins..... my parents still live there. All I will say is thanks but no thanks!

So you can stay rurally, with a massive swimming pool, spa, multiple activities, kids clubs, restaurants, play parks and shops all within (safe) walking distance? All for less than £450 a week?

You doubt you can do that in centre Parcs either though. Your break is costing over £500 because the activities and kids club and spa aren't included in the chalet cost and I bet your not getting a full week for that price.
We have had 7 nights in half term in a luxury 5 bedroom house with a hot tub for £350 (£700 shared with another couple) Huge property with table tennis, air hockey and games room, enclosed garden for the children, safe walking distance from a beach with some lovely cafes.
Water park, theme park, farms park with giant soft play, adventure centres, castles as well as countryside a little town with shops, restaurants and beautiful beaches. Even with paying say £500 for activities and eating out our break cost us well under the cost of doing the same at centre parcs for the same amount of time.
Yes we had to drive but let's not forget this is the uk with a high chance of rain and that dome in centre parcs only covers the pool, cycling in the sunshine is glorious. When it's cold and wet in February or October not so much.
Last time we stayed in CP it was over £1000 in half term just for the chalet and pool. Not including activities, bike hire, food, in a musty lodge where we couldn't even take advantage of the cleaning service we had payed extra to have because she would only come at 9am.

Out of interest I have just been on their website to see how much a week would cost just for me and DH.

In October (not the half term) the cheapest 1 bed lodge is £878 a week! Of course if we wanted to do any activities we would have to pay for those on top.

How anyone thinks that is cheap I really don't know. They certainly must live in a different world to me.

We are going away next week to a cottage (in UK) . It is on it's own, has a large garden, has a living room, kitchen, dining room, bedroom, bathroom so bigger than a lodge. It also has Sky and Netflix, a dvd player, cd player. It's costing £520 for the week.

We booked that through Airbnb. We could have got a cheaper cottage but this one looks really lovely

You can't compare the swimming pool at (LL) CP to your bog standard leisure centre. They are like chalk and cheese
I don't think anyone is, but the two CP sites we've visited, Whinfell and Sherwood were no better than the water park at say Alton Towers.

In October (not the half term) the cheapest 1 bed lodge is £878 a week! Of course if we wanted to do any activities we would have to pay for those on top. How anyone thinks that is cheap I really don't know.

Never paid anything remotely costing that. A few weeks ago I could have got a one bed apartment thing (as opposed to a lodge) at Woburn for £330 for Monday - Friday.

This is the cost for three nights for a similar set up to our previous holiday same half term

@notso plenty of people have suggested renting a cottage and going down the local leisure centre

I have been to splash landings. It's ok. But the LL CP is a lot better (one reason we choose LL as it looks like it offers the most)

@notso the treehouse accommodation is the highest spec. And tbh for the amount of time you spend there (and the location of them is not the best at LL) I wouldn't choose one.

We love CP and go every year. The kids absolutely love it and ask to go back again and again. We don't do a lot of activities (only the horse riding for the kids) and spend the rest of the time in the pool or cycling. We bring all our own food with us. We just like the peace and quiet and always come back feeling very chilled out. Each to their own I guess!

It sound like one of those places where there would be a lot of illness like cruises are. The pool must be a bit soupy with all those young children in it, I don't think being a bit better off, means that the DC don't wee or worse in the pool. Also as it is not completely in a bubble as the old ads led you to believe you would still get a bad weather.

Prayingandhoping I know it's the highest spec, I chose the closest to the accommodation we had booked privately for the closest comparison. The bog standard lodge would still be over £1000.

I've only seen sarcastic comments about going to the local pool not actual suggestions.

Mydog you must have got holiday dates wrong. You may find that its half term in a different week in a neighbouring county.

We pay typically £450 for a 2 bed lodge in a good location in June.

We do almost no paid activities/spa and don't use childcare on holidays as we both work, we want the time with our son.

For us, it works out really cost effective compared with finding a cottage near a water park & other facilities and having to pay for entry to the park etc. Self catered accommodation in our part of the South East is terrifically expensive.

I have to say that CP has never appealed to me. But then my kids aren't interested in organised activities and prefer to just play and explore. We have done quite a few camping and caravan holidays, but the park is just a base to explore the local area. And we much prefer to be near the beach. Forests are lovely but it can get a bit dark and damp under all the trees.
Those of you who say that you can forget about the car and everything is under one roof, don't you go a bit stir crazy? I know I would!

We're off to De Kempervennen next week! For a family of 4 we're getting a non budget 3 bed accommodation for £1300 for 7 nights. Even when you factor in travel costs its over £1000 cheaper than UK equivalent. We've done CP loads of times in UK and love it, but the cost is ridiculous. Hoping this will prove to be the perfect solution!