Why do you like Centre Parcs?

[lalalove]

I really struggle to see the appeal of Centre Parcs. If you love it, and go there frequently, what are your reasons?

Personally I can’t get over how expensive it is, when for the same price you could travel aboard and experience a different culture/climate.
Even for a staycation in the UK you can stay in much nice accommodation/locations for less. Does it not feel like just being at home? Having to cook and clean up after the family? And if you do eat out there are just a limited choice of dull chain restaurants.

Don’t hate me, but it just seems like a glorified butlins with an outrageous price tag (nothing wrong with butlins, at least it’s more affordable which I get!)

The majority of activities are chargeable as well aren’t they? So what are the benefits of going there!?

I think I’m in the minority so maybe the comments can change my mind!

I don’t go frequently but did go recently - off peak so low price.

i loved the lack of cars. I loved being on site and not feeling obliged in any way to make the most of the area and day trip everywhere (though of course that is an option).

I loved that I could be in the pool and other half could be doing something different, yet there was no commuting time between is choosing different activities. And the pool is so lovely and warm!

Ii even liked most of the restaurants we tried.

if you choose to buy all the addons and activities it becomes extortionate, but I didn’t so it was grand.

I’d definitely go again.

Anal sex 🤣🤣🤣

I think it's absolutely dreadful. I do not see any appeal at all - driving in through the security made me feel like I was in prison

I pay £400 for a mon Fri in Jan, because DS isn’t at school until 2026. I don’t think that’s really expensive especially when split with another family member. I don’t drive but manage on public transport because they do shuttle pick ups from the station nearest.

DS is still only 3 so hours at the swimming pool, biking around, the disco, play areas, feeding the wildlife and maybe one paid activity is enough for him. That time of year they have the light trail too which is always nice.

We don’t eat out, just do easy stuff like sandwiches made in the villa and taken out and pizza and easy meals etc in the evenings. The little shop is expensive but not that bad for stuff like eggs and milk and they do a lot of good reductions in the afternoons 🤣

I like it because my son loves it and keeps him totally entertained for a week, and I’m happy to see him happy and having fun. I don’t really do it for myself but I still enjoy it. Horses for courses I suppose, some people don’t see anything as a holiday unless they’ve been able to fully relax or have some sun 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh, and I loved not having the hassle and delays of plane travel for a four night break.

When I went in 2022 it was like being transported to another world, without the hassle or journey time of travelling abroad.

Things I liked included being surrounded by trees, how safe it felt for kids to cycle, and the pool facilities (which were free) being enjoyed by all ages in our group.

Would I go again? If I wasn’t paying, definitely. But otherwise - only off peak sadly.

We go at Christmas, it started when the kids were young and they love it so we keep going.

The village is beautiful with all the lights up, we eat out so no cooking and we do a few activities to break up the long walks and swimming. We tend to swim in the evening when the pool is quieter and it’s dark outside, then go back to the lodge for games and hot chocolate/wine. It gets more expensive every year and I’m not sure it’s worth it, if it was just me I wouldn’t bother.

Different strokes and all that. I wouldn’t go in place of a summer holiday abroad. People like different things! My friend is on a cruise at the moment, it’s her favourite kind of holiday but it sounds like hell to me.

I can’t see the attraction myself, but I’m obviously not the right demographic. I had more fun at butlins! I suspect people are paying to not have to mix with those of us who like a livelier evening.

I don’t. I’d rather go the Butlins hotel only Bognor of if I had to make a choice. Most of the lodges are tired and need of updating, on site shop is extortionate, same as the restaurants and you have to pay for activities on top.

YANBU I think it’s the biggest rip off ever. Selling people the outside world!

It feels easy compared to a lot of holidays. Don't need to figure out where to go / where to park/ where is child friendly / what the backup plan is if it rains. It's all just THERE.

You're 100% right it's extortionate. You need to either have money to burn or really prize the ease of it!!

The variety of activities close by is nice. Eg it's a good way to try out table tennis / water sports / laser tag / horse riding / climbing / etc without that being the whole focus of your day. If the DC don't like it then you go back in the pool again. I wouldn't do too many things like mini golf which we already know we like and can do more cheaply elsewhere.

Also the first time we went it was because other plans fell through, and we hadn't expected how much the DC LOVED it. Cycling everywhere plus swimming plus activities really ticked their boxes. So although it's super pricey, it felt like good value for money in terms of how much enjoyment we paid for. We've been to other UK and overseas breaks and the only thing they've enjoyed as much as CP was Disneyland. They like holidays, but the bits they don't like eg the car journeys to go out for a day, or the cultural things DH and I might want to occasionally prioritise, or the good old fashioned going for a hike, are all removed at CP. It's fun for them basically 100% of the time.

HTH 🤣

A few reasons:

We can get to Woburn by train easily - we don't own a car so this is important for us

The swimming is just totally different to anywhere else in the UK - it's so hard to go anywhere with this combination of things, slides, rapids, lazy river

We live in London so it's nice to see some greenery - it's a really nice calm environment and I always come back feeling relaxed

We book the kids into a couple of activities and can have a bit of child free time for a chat

The accommodation is a lot nicer than Butlins

We go for a long weekend around an inset day so it's not super expensive

I have been going since I was a child so there are lots of memories, which is a big reason for me but won’t convince anyone else why it’s good.

I have very young children now and the idea of an abroad holiday isn’t particularly appealing with airports, flights, hiring a car, hiring car seats, lugging all baby stuff to another country. Whereas it’s an easy journey to cp, we can get there in a little over 2 hours and just chuck everything in the car, no weight limits etc.

If the children are up really early we can literally just put on shoes and head out the door for a walk without any prior planning or having to check our rented accommodation would be near walking routes. There are no cars about so my children can walk around freely without me worrying about that. They can spend the whole day outdoors with limited effort, there are enough play parks to just move from one to another all day. We could easily spend whole day in the swimming pool, the children love it and it’s no extra cost.

My children are not school age so we can go during the cheapest times (Jan-Feb half term and Sept-beginning of Nov). We tend to go with other families and share accommodation so it’s not too expensive (£280 each family last time we went). Then the children all go to bed and adults have some downtime.

Restaurants are pricey but if you plan ahead there isn’t too much cooking/cleaning and if you go with friends you all chip in.

Basically it’s worth it to me as it suits my life at the moment, probably won’t continue but currently it’s a great holiday. Ideally we do cp and then another less ‘holiday village’ type uk break and it’s worked really well the last few years.

We go regularly as a three generation family. I love being in the outdoors, walking and on our bikes and the swimming pool mainly. A lot of the time we eat out but have taken homemade frozen stuff like chilli con carne or bolognese, it's no bother.
The DC love the pool and we spend hours there every day, we only ever do a couple of other activities like crazy golf or bowling. The weather is an important factor in this country so having the Dome is ideal. Mainly, it's all being together and having fun. I agree it's expensive though.

I've never been able to bring myself to go. It's not much cheaper than Gleneagles or Four Seasons Hampshire and looks so grim by comparison. I might give it a try one day but I have a suspicion it won't be for me.

I never got the chance to go as they only had 1 accessible lodge where you could take your car to the door, it was premium priced and rarely available. Ha being heard others say they’ve had to wait an hour for the accessibility minibus, it seems we’d spend most of our time waiting about.

I agree that it is expensive, but we really enjoy all activities on offer. Our days are usually booked up from the morning till late evening - badminton, climbing, table tennis, tennis, high ropes and adventure, bowling, swimming (well, not actually swimming but slides and rapides), pool. While none of the activities are unavailable at other locations as such, there are no other places where you can do them without any hassle and all in one place. We have been trying to find an alternative but did not succeed
It is also nice that it is safe and car free, lodge rather then hotel, forest, lake, and no travel required.
The only comparable place is Clubmed, but you need to fly to get there.

We absolutely love Center Parcs. I’m a single parent and it’s an easy holiday. Very few cars, so it’s great for young cyclists. Everything is within cycling distance and on one site. I don’t need to drive when we get there.

Going abroad just doesn’t appeal to me as a single parent. Too much faff and after the hidden costs of everything else I don’t think it’s worth it. You don’t really experience much of the culture of another country if you’re there for just a few days anyway.

Personally I’ve found Butlins et al to be very similarly priced in school holidays and I’d rather go to CP which is familiar and I know where everything is and don’t have to figure out how it all works.

I don’t think you can compare going to CP with anywhere else. I never get the argument of “oh but you could go abroad for that amount of money”… I don’t want to 🤷‍♀️

Different strokes for different folks. I don’t get what’s not to get, everyone likes different things. I don’t come on here demanding to know why people like Majorca or Ibiza so much.

The kids could cycle everywhere safely and they spent most of the days at the pool area. I spent the time in the woods with my binoculars or sitting out back with a book.

I gave them a daily budget for table tennis or bowling or whatever and left them to it until mealtimes. It was quiet and relaxing for me while they could do the things they liked all day.

So with young teens it was one of the most stress-free holidays we had. However, it was a year our LA school holidays were out of step with most of the country so it was actually affordable for a change.

For us it's not a replacement for going abroad, we do that too, though not AI resorts which don't appeal at all to us.

CP is a long weekend once or twice a year thing.

I realised that I didn't add that we hate sharing a room with the kids which seems to be the norm at hotels so we also really like the lodges approach at CP.

We have the opportunity for a break at the end of May start of June, we are a family of 5 (3 teenage kids). Between 3-7 days, we are really flexible. I was initially wanting to take the kids to Barcelona for a few nights, but flights, accommodation etc, meant I wasn't getting much change from £4000. Looked at London, and it was going to be about £2000. Looked at Aviemore, was still going to be £1200. Was tearing my hair out

I got a weekend at CP for £800. Okay, still not cheap, but its 4 bed lodge so each kid gets their own room (almost essential after the fights from the 2 boys when sharing on holiday last year). Its relaxing, quiet, the kids adore the pool. We eat out once a day at either lunch or dinner, and because of all of our kids being coeliac, the restaurants are great, very highly trained.

I know its not for everyone, but I don't actually find it that expensive.

1. I am in the Netherlands and it is a lot cheaper over here
2. The pools are second to none. We went for 2 nights recently and we went to the pool 4 times with DD7. She would have gone even more often if it was up to her.

It's just... Nice.
It doesn't attract people who want to sit drinking while an "entertainment" act blares out at them.
It was easy when the kids were small. Chuck stuff in the car and go. Arfid meant we'd be self catering wherever.
I like the rapids.
I like watching my kids have fun.

I’m with you OP. Literally can’t think of anything worse.

I can’t lie these are very reasonable and convincing replies!
it seems like kids absolutely love it and that’s the main reason for going, and that off peak is relatively affordable