to think that center parcs is over priced and over rated?

[minxofmancunia]

have just returned from a 4 night "break" from whinfell forest and couldn't be more pleased to be home.

It was tacky, tatty and just a bit crap really. Food in restaurants absolutley minging so ended up cooking all the time, hardly a break.

"executive2 lodge grubby, dark and decorated like a travel lodge.

Sports plaza cheap and nasty, very artificial atmosphere. Why do people rave about it?

I've never been anywhere so culturally devoid i my whole life.

Only ever been to a Belgian one at Eperheide. We had a nice weekend, though the indoor playroom cost extra . Landal and Sunparks do better value parks in my opinion. Landal's acccommodation was far superior.

Its all a bit institutionalised. But you get over that, and throw youself into the activities its OK

When we went we had a couple of days walking in the Lakes and tbh those were the best days of the holiday.

Probably won't do it again for a good while

I actually think you are being a little bit unreasonable.

We are CP virgins, and have just booked for a 4 night break at Whinfell in September.

Prior to DD, cultural holidays-were-us - our idea of bliss was a city break, or a ticket to somewhere we couldn't prounounce and a week spent driving around between interesting cultural sites, usually staying in odd/dangerous/scarily cheap Eastern European hotels. For a UK hol, we would look for a cottage that was so far in the middle of no where, it may not have electricity. Certainly anywhere with tv reception was ruled out on principle.

Now we have a 3yr old, we do some some of the above (toned down with child-friendly ammendments), plus (shock horror) some complexes with (OMG) facilities that families like, including on a number of occassions, Disneyland Paris.

We have seen the CP dvd and read the brochure, so hopefully we know what to expect - we will, as far as I can see, not need a Fodor guide, a Michelin guide, and the accommodation will be a (nice-ish) shed in a wood. We wouldn't normally eat at a Bella Pasta or Cafe Rouge, so we will bring our own nosh. Am perfectly capable of packing some parma ham and a buthcher's steak pie if I dont' fancy cooking (though usually I quite enjoy it).

We have had a lot of and comments from acquaintances about liking Disney (we think it's great) - but there is no reason you can't enjoy a week in a remote villa in Tuscany or a holiday cottage in the Highlands eating local seafood or whatever grabs your goat AND have huge fun at Disney or CPs. You just need to READ the brochure, understand what you're getting, and enter into the spirit of it.

And you did get "culture" - popular culture that is.

I've just read previous posts.
You can see badgers and other wildlife almos everywhere!
If you want to see wldlife and proper countryside (pine woodland is pretty poor in ecological terms!) then go to the Lakes surrounding CP!

We got every year.

I can't STAND it. Overpriced (waaaay to expensive), food junky and expensive, activities extortionate. Also I am soooo not an outdoors girl, so not really for me.

That said, DH and DDs love it. I suck it up.

Oh yes, and I totally don't get why it gets a reputation for being "family friendly". None of the doors are automatic. Did you hear me? NONE OF THE DOORS ARE AUTOMATIC!!! This is in a place wher EVERONE has a Phil and Teds and we're all struggling through heavy glass doors! And it's bloody expensive. And the food is crap.

Did I mention that before?

We went to Whinfell and it was very peaceful. We cycled everywhere and it was very easy to see red squirrels. One of the TV channels was the woods at night and we could see foxes and badgers. The DSs tried scuba diving and I went sailing. It was only a few day and different. It was expensive and I wouldn't want to do it often, but we all really enjoyed it.

If the doors were automatic, the animals would get in.

And you take your own food if you don't like the restaurants. I love cooking though.

Going in the summer holidays sounds expensive. Like I said, £200 for a 6 bed villa with 3 ensuite rooms and a sauna. I think it's v reasonable. Off peak though obviously.

We had a duck hatch eggs on our patio just this week. Lovely.

Exactly SaintGeoff. We do very little in the way of organised activities, we go just outside the school holidays, thanks to my niece's school's lovely habit of taking all their inset days at the end of the summer term and we love it. We've been going for 9 years, take turns to cook. It is what you make it and if you go a misog you'll come back one.

piscesmoon I thought there were only red squirrels on Brownsea Island?

Are you sure they weren't dyed red by CP ? (in manner of playing cards painting the roses for the Red Queen in Alice!?)

saintgeoff £200 is cheap but I am sure in early March you could find a nice SC cottage for a short break for less than that. Which I for one would prefer. Tho as I say, early March is no good for us anyway.

No-one's tried to persuade me to go in summer hols I see!

WTF do you need automatic doors. Actually, scratch that - there are automatic doors on all the swimming pool entrances, look for the disabled sign and a silver pad to press . And it encourages the more enthusiastic cyclists to dismount before entering Cafe Rouge

We went last year and there were a few problems with the accommodation which they didn't manage to sort out - mainly the cooker was filthy and when we tried to use it, it set off the smoke detector. Oh and the remote control for the TV had no cover on and DS was sucking on the batteries . But they sent us a £200 voucher off our next visit to say sorry (and yes we are going back in a couple of months but to Elvedon).

But look the reason we go is to prevent arguments between me and DH. My idea of fun is strapping the kids into the carrier on my bike and cycling up mountains to show them the top of the trees etc. His idea of fun is sitting in a cafe, reading the newspaper while drinking wine. At Centerparcs, both can be achieved. The urchins are delighted, they get to go to yoga/fairies/throw themselves into puddles and over slides/poke small creatures and eat crap food for a week.

In terms of value, it's up to you. Personally on holiday we would look to have one meal out a day. Probably lunch. Otherwise we sort ourselves out at the lodge.

We book one activity per child plus anything we want to
do, in DH's case, bugger all, in my case anything at 6am or 8pm which involves leaping about. Probably £20 a day on activities. To keep me happy and the kids happy. DH probably spends the same on vino but ho hum.

The older lodges are manky, tis true - always go for a Woodland Lodge if you can, they have been decorated this millenium and the sewerage systems work (oh yes, that was one of the things that went wrong "excuse me but there is a big flashy light and poo bubbling up next to our lodge" telephone calls were actually quite funny two glasses of wine later).

Frankly though, I'd go anywhere to avoid having to deal with airports/passports particularly at the moment.

Oh and MP I actually have a lodge in my garden, we have badgers, squirrels and deer as well as the occasional pie in waiting pheasant ambling along at regular intervals. Should I register it as a CP annex and charge £1000 a week to sit in it moaning about the rain?

Clary, yes I probably would prefer the cottage but my parents go, they love it, dd adores it and they allow us to tag along for free. So actually it costs me nothing.

Me? I like camping and would choose camping/cycling/hiking holidays over anything else but my dad has bad arthritis and I relish the opportunity to have a holiday with him that he enjoys, dd is only 2 and CP suits us just fine for a free week away in basic but functional accommodation with lots to do if you have an imagination. No extra funds required.

there were things that were good about it, the forest was lovely and I did like the wildlife, saw ducks, red squirrels, frogs and a badger on the badger cam. I enjoyed cycling around with dd in the bike seat through the trees.

I just hated the "village centre" bit, soooooo tacky! But it was brilliant for dd so much for her to do. I think part of the reason i wasn't really into it was we had dd (3.5) and ds 6 months and we went on our won so i was quite lietrally left holding the baby. eg we'd all go to the pool and ds could only go in for half an hour or so so cue me sat on the side with him wrapped in a towel whilst dh and dd go hurtling down the slides having fun. DD and dh go family pony trakking whilst I supervise ds sleeping in his pram, you get the picture.

We did do quite a few activities (well dd did) but I still think it's nice to be somewhere you can have a bit of downtime and chill out for a couple of hours a day rather than being on some sort of military schedule. The accommodation just was simply NOT a nice place to be in. The washing machine broke and the clothes all stank and the bathroom was pretty rank. I'm glad I got a cheap deal (exec villa for £300), if I'd paid full whack I would have been severly disappointed.

Also I'm not really a spa person, find it poitless and boring. Would have LOVED to have gone horseriding but literally did not do one single thing for myself all week. Just looked after ds whilst dd enjoyed herself accompanied by dh. He did not think to facilitate me doing anything despite me not having had a childfree break for 6 months and being up most nights, but that's a separate issue.

Went to Sherwood 10 years ago, was working on a psychiatric secure unit at the time and took 8 pateitns there for e holiday!!!! All I remember thinking that time was what a lovely place it was and it was a shame I couldn't enjoy it because all they wanted to do was stay in the lodge and watch sky tv, and smoke. Sherwood seemed better than whinfell then so may try that one again, with friends and make sure I do actually manage to do something for myself!

sounds like butlins to me, but only for the middle class.

well saintgeoff that sounds great and I can totally see why you go.

Red squirrels are in Cumbria see here We saw lots when we were walking or cycling around.

We have red squirrels in our back garden!

I have also always wondered what the attraction of CP is - but we are going to give it a go later this year anyway, just so we know for sure we don't like it . We have friends who love it so willing to give it a try.

But last week we went to a cottage in a little village in Derbys for £180 for 4nts. Took the kids swimming, did Chatsworth Hse, an otter farm and had lovely pub meals - and the cottage provided all the toilet rolls/washing up liquid/cling wrap etc we could possibly need. Much better value and more enjoyable all round I suspect (and we could park the car outside the front door )

Hoseasons!

It used to be lovely. Loads of wildlife and very relaxing. We went every january for 15 years. However, the last 3 times I have absolutely hated it. The only upside to the horrid commercialism and shopping culture is that the walking paths in the forest are virtually deserted...

We go skiing now.

ooh piscesmoon and neenz, that's great about red squirrels.

That had totally passed me by somehow, must tell the DC.

As I said at the beginning we love it, some thing for all the children to do. DS's 17&8, DD'd 15& 21m. We've had deer, squirrels, ducks, swans & assorted other wildlife on our patio and in our chalet. Great fun for the little ones. Our garden at home has plenty of wildlife, but no so tame that the DC's can feed them by hand!
Nice to hear of red squirrels by the way, we only have black ones round here, they are genetic mutation and are beating up all the grey ones.but they had it coming for doing over the red ones for so many years.

LittleSilver I am with you.

The only other thing I would add, is that I found the public areas filthy. (Dirty nappies in changing cubicles of pool, cutlery stuck to the tables in restaurants etc).

We went in October half term-maybe that is better than the summer but it was fine. Generally we have a cottage somewhere but Centerparcs made a nice change-we wouldn't do it as a regular thing. It was quiet and peaceful with lots of wildlife, we walked and cycled and swam everyday and did the extras like scuba diving which was all easy to arrange. We only ate out once, which was nothing special, but we knew it wasn't going to be so weren't disappointed. It was only for a few days and it was long enough. I think it was fine for what it was-it was quite clear on the brochure- so don't go if you don't like that sort of thing-it isn't a cheap option.