Center parks - a bit tacky?

[9uygjk]

Just back from our first trip to center parks. Went to the one in Woburn and honestly I just thought it was a bit tacky. Apparently it's middle class Butlins but is it? Maybe am being particularly picky but I still thought it was a bit like Butlins. Is it just me?

we went in 2003 and paid £300 for a mid week break, which seemed like decent value considering it’s a mobile home park with a big pool. The same break costs considerably more now and not worth it.

I agree about the lodges. I found the beds comfortable though, good quality mattresses. Not parking at the lodge is part of the experience, so that you can walk around and enjoy the peaceful forest surroundings without noisy gas guzzlers passing constantly.

Yes to French Eurocamps. The last one we were at had freshly baked bread and croissants, pains au chocolat etc every morning and excellent coffee!

Surely it depends on what you want from a break? We always go as a group & it's just easy with stuff for everyone.

We love CP, it’s quieter, there’s lovely scenery, walks, wild life, plenty to do, some choice of half decent food in certain places. Butlins is brash, loud, tacky, crowded, chaotic, noisy at night, a fucking dreadful place to relax and have a half decent holiday!

It's an easy family break, entertains a range of different ages, it's a lovely forest setting and I've always come home more relaxed than I went. It's a good middle ground of competing interests, the staff are brilliant but it isn't cheap for what it is. I don't think it's tacky.

The french campsites are fantastic but it's a lot of driving, it isn't a weekend job.

I haven't been to Butlins but we have done group holidays to other caravan parks. Enjoyed those too but CP wins for the best swimming for the dc.

Totally agree with others about French eurocamps - they are much cheaper and a lot nicer. Yes, I expected nicer something to justify the cost. We live in London and don't drive so walking everywhere is not that special. Plus we have lots of woods near where we are and I don't want to say it....but maybe even a Gail's would be better than Cafe Rouge and I don't usually like Gail's as the bread is crap.

I have also done lots of holiday parks abroad but who wants to travel hours for a long weekend?

It was ok back in the day, but now it is just getting more and more run down each year as they cream off profits and reinvest naff all of you thousands you've paid back into the sites

We wanted to keep liking it, and tried many different parcs, many times but when you pay through the nose and see increasingly delapidated facilities each year it tastes sour. where is the money going??

@9uygjk As a Londoner I really appreciate the lack of cars when cycling, there are lots of cars in my part of London...

The food options are pretty crap but we take Cook stuff & someone in the group loves to cook, we only ever eat out once per trip.

No, I don't. Love the facilities on a french campsite but nothing knocks the shine off a break like spending a whole day driving home with shattered kids.

It is expensive though but what isn't these days

Disappointing and overpriced wank, yes.

Tacky, no.

@ThePhantomoftheEcobubbleOpera yep, completely different trips for me.

Rude to describe Butlins as tacky tbh. What does it mean in all honesty?

it’s a perfectly good child orientated holiday, and when you’re there you see hundreds of children happily enjoying everything. There are great shows that they feel grown up going to. Wide choice of food. Swimming every day. Redcoats who are lovely with them.

Do, pray, tell me what’s ‘tacky’ about that?

The restaurant food and service was pretty dreadful when we went, and it is dated, and really overpriced.

But, our kids loved it, and it’s a fairly relaxing atmosphere (aside from the crowds), so it has a place. You’re right though, tacky isn’t quite the right word, but it’s very expensive for what you get.

Yeah I get you. We enjoyed it when the kids were little as it totally fit the bill and we will go again as love the biking with no cars element and can take Nanna with us (food chains are crap but ideal with very little kids). I think everyone harping on about it being middle class doesn’t help as it really isn’t these days….. It’s just really expensive….The ‘middle class’ that people are referring to were doing Centre Parcs years ago as UK breaks and are now doing their own campervans or airbnbs in Rock or St Agnes or Cornwall stays in Carbis Bay, Scotland at Crieff Hydro or the Scottish islands centrally the Woolley Grange type hotels (but these are probably ‘behind the times now’ too). Where the masses are the ‘as were Boden wearing’ middle classes are not…. that’s the nature of change and not wanting to be doing what everyone else is…

So I actually did expect it to be a bit like St Ives in cornwall, over priced totally but actually quite nice. And yes we often do go to Scotland, Cornwall or Broad but this was a last minute pre-going back to school trip. And it's actually my eight year old who complained about the food and the pool. Perhaps it's also Woburn as it's so small that cycling seems a bit pointless really.

I’ve been once and hated it. I wouldn’t describe it as tacky but would describe it as overpriced, very over rated and poorly maintained. The ‘lodge’ we stayed in had black mould around the windows and was damp. Not enough chairs to seat everyone around the table and a very basic kitchen with limited number of plates and cutlery. It was packed everywhere we went. Not enough seating by the pool or poolside cafe area. Expensive (and very short!) activities. You couldn’t pay me to go back.

Gail’s 😂😂😂

I think you need to get out of London more.

”We have a lots of woods near us…” So what exactly were you expecting going to CP based in a forest? Are the CP trees too tacky for you? Are the woods not middle class enough?

I can see why your 8 year old didn’t like Woburn. I think it’s much better for small children. Elveden or Longleat is better for that older age group. The pool in Woburn is tiny.

Trying to tie in a class with a holiday is surely outdated these days. Particularly when the middle classes are shrinking! Somewhere like Carbis Bay would cost almost the same per night as 3 nights in CP so that only caters for a very small strata of the middle class.

@9uygjk I was in St Ives this summer and CP earlier in the year. To me the people were pretty much the same but more Europeans in St Ives.

Who on earth would equate St Ives and Center Parcs?