CP Kempervennen, Holland. Your thoughts? DS, 7 and 9 AND making sense of the CP website!

[miljee]

I'm inclining towards this Centre Parcs location. Trouble is, I've been told to book ahead for certain attractions/activities but the CP.com webside pages in English are rather sparse- eg skiing costs 59 euros. For what? An hour? A day? How did you manage to work it out AND did anyone find that booking using a European friend as a go-between helped pricewise? People say 'book direct through the Dutch website' but how?? I guess I shall have to call the site direct and hope for a good English speaker! Whatever, it'll be better than my Dutch!

If you need any help with Dutch, email me as am Dutch. 99% of Dutchies speka very good English

If you need any help with Dutch, email me as am Dutch. 99% of Dutchies speka very good English

You are a gem and I may well need your services! Thanks

Skiing at Kempervennen is very reasonable. I think one round of lessons (6 hours) is about £40 (kids). Last time my dh got a weekly pass for £50 or something...?

My memory has failed, and I can't seem to remember the exact aamounts. I do know that it is MUCH cheaper than the ski hills in the uk.

Also, the Montana Snow Centre thingy is attached to Centre Parcs, but is not operated by them, so we had to book the skiing seperately, but they (being Dutch ) spoke perfect English, so it was not a problem.

We have gone 3 times and really enjoyed it. In the summer, my ds had almost 1:1 ski tuition, and the hill was nearly empty

Have Fun!!!

hth

ooh, just read your thread title
They only do skiing under 8, you have to be over 8 to snowboard

Ski hire is included in the lesson price, but I don't believe glove hire was, and it was about 1.50 euros each time. We just go to Decathalon and stock up on sports stuff we need.

happy to help just shout

For all going to the Kempervennen a real must is: De Efteling. My DC are nearly old enough to appreciate it, we still used to go once a year till we were 16 ish. Lovely place

efteling

Pickle, do you know when the Dutch school holidays are and do you think this will have much bearing on the busy-ness of Kempervennen? I guess I'd also need to know the German school hols, too!

I'd love Efteling BUT DS2 is petrified by mannequin type figures! An animatronic Santa's Grotto had him clinging onto my neck and whimpering- more so with 'lifelike' figures, even models of people set up in museums etc, NO idea where that comes from but I gather from the website that Efteling has rather a lot of that sort of thing! DS1 loves rollercoasters and such like, mind!

The skiing sounds like a good idea- they've done a 'dry slope' lesson at a Haven holiday place in Dorset and both did quite well. I do worry (I'm a MUM!) whether DS2 would fling down his poles in disgust if he couldn't instantly master it which is his default setting for most things that require effort (except, interestingly, football where he's noted for his tenacity... Go figure, as the Americans would say).

The rapids looks great (I found footage on YouTube) again, possibly too much for DS2 but DS1 would love them.

I think Kempervennen will be our choice though I'm now erring towards 'out of school holiday time' in that seeing as 'the main attraction', the dome is all-weather and I've read many reviews of people who've had a whale of a time in February!

Thanks for all the input.

school holidays will have a large impact on busy-ness as CP is very popular in Holland (small country relatively many parcs).

Re dates, sorry cant help you there but if you look at the prices of CP when it is more expensive then it tends to be holiday!

DS2 sounds like my brother, my DM couldnt bribe him in front of the Fire spitting drake! It is a great park ofr all ages but maybe not for your DS2!

Hope you have a lovely holiday!

PS nearby Tilburg is a lovely little city ( I used to study there)

my ds (7 last time we went) was fine in the rapids. Just put a life jacket on them, and DON'T hang on to them. Chances are, you are heavier than them, and you will drag them down!!! My ds just bobbed along on the top

BTW, the spa there is a nude experience. Wed morning is only for females, but it is mixed every other time. I went, and for awhile it was just me and 2 nekked german guys . There are a few different areas to it, but naked is naked....

I pretended I was wearing a fabulous evening gown, and was thankful I would NEVER see those people again!!!!

We went to Kempervennen August 2006, and it was fine wrt crowds. No problems getting places in the pool, restaurants, etc.

We went to CP in Belgium in the October hols (De Vossemerren) and I booked via the website, but found it really helpful. You can always call the booking centre and they will hep you out. We did this to pay the deposit for the booking as they were having problems with the on-line booking and the call centre were very helpful and put us through to a fluent English speaker.

The whole experience was fab. Having been to CP UK, we were impressed by the facilities and the cleanliness as well as the business and of course the price.

We hope to go back next year too.

Thanks, everyone! ScienceTeacher, did you book the skiing/ bike hire etc before you left (I'm assuming you're UK based!!)? Is it a 'big' site? I've only ever been on a day pass to Longleat and it struck us how FAR some people would have to go to get the the waterpark! esp as it's all v. hilly there! And are there a reasonable number of cycle paths (ie I guess all the roads there!) to keep a 9 yr old amused for a bit? And Pickie, where else would you recommend for 'days out' around the CP? Bearing in mind your brother and my DS2's fear of mannequins! I looked Tilburg and it DOES look lovely! Purpleduck- I can't wait to get me kit orf!!- perhaps.....

And IS smoking everywhere a problem? I grew up in a smoky household so I 'tolerate it' thru gritted teeth, my DH can be a bit of an anti-smoking zealot!! But he can just put up with it if THAT'S the chief complaint!

We booked the bikes beforehand - there was a small discount for doing this. There were loads of bikes on the day we arrived, but they did all seem to get rented out.

We didn't book the skiing ahead. DH and the two boys went, and there was no problems with space on the slopes - it was quite quiet really.

We booked a food package (which I think was a breakfast, main meal, snack meal, and delivered meal). It didn't look like a huge saving up front, but in reality, the meal they delivered was so huge that we got three meals out of it. We also booked an activity package for each child, although you can't book the actual activities until you arrived. Some were fully booked, but there was no problems finding something to do.

The parc is big, but you can select your cottage at booking for something like 25 Euros. With bikes, though, the distance isn't really a problem (everything is flat), and there is also a shuttle bus. We ended up with a pretty good location, near the sports centre, water skiing and farm.

ah, miljee, the smoking. That is the one downside. I did find it quite smoky inthe dome. I don't know if they have had a smoking ban in the meantime (we went in the summer last time), but there does seem to be alot of smokers. Some places are worse than others, and there were non smoking sections.

ScienceTeacher, is there somewhere I can see a map of the site? So we can select a particular area? The website is a bit 'thin on the ground' and even the one in Dutch is no better! I am going to ask them to send me their brochure tomorrow, albeit in Dutch! Then I'll get Pickie to translate the difficult bits!

I AM a bit concerned about smoking, I must say- we're now so used to not being around the smell of smoke it really hits you when you are. I hope it won't turn DH into Grump Central (it doesn't take much!).

We booked our villa ahead of time, so I must have seen a map. I don't think it was a hard copy, because I think I booked shortly after discovering CP.

I didn't find the site too bad - went to the Dutch site and said we were American in order to get it in English.

I don't recall smoke being a problem (I hate it too, so would notice if it interfered with us).

As you go through the booking process you get to a point where you have the option of either choosing an area or a specific villa - at that point you can download a pdf of the village.

You can see the map before you get to booking. Here is a link:

Kempervennen Map

I think we were in villa 194, which is fairly near the sports centre. For perspective, I think it's about a 10 minute walk from the dome, although we always biked it. Your location options are largely dictated by the size and type of accommodation.

We went to Kempervennen last April and had a great time. Hired bikes beforehand and cycled everywhere. There is a great cafe not far from the site to cycle to, a mile or so, which has a playground and trampolines outside.

Did the ski slope too but husband and I had to do it separately so didn't find it much fun. Will wait til we can do the real thing with real snow and real views. Is good to try it and am sure it is more fun if there are a few of you.

Kids loved the animal farm, feeding the goats and other animals. The playgrounds are fab too.

The pool and slides are great. My Ds's 4 and nearly 3 at the time both went on the big slides and loved them!

Enjoy!!!

Thanks again, everyone! hotpot, presumably you got the option on bike hire of bikes + carriers suitable for little ones? My DS2 is hardly a 'little one' in that he'll be 6 weeks from finishing yr 2 by the time we plan to go BUT he has shown great reluctance to ride a 2 wheeler even with stabilisers. I am going to work on him come the first suggestion of warmer weather because his unwillingness to ride is both baffling to me (I was competent at 4!) and a bit restricting as we can't go out bike riding as a family as I don't want the expense of a tagalong for what SHOULD be no more than a couple of months! Sorry to bang on about the cycling bit but it'd be good to know what they do have for such a child. He's not big- the size of an 'average' 5 year old, really.

Me again! I see in the extras package stuff about 'sheet sets'. Am I right in thinking that the villas don't come equipped with them?

We had the middle type of villa - deluxe, I think (not the VIP), and it came with sheets and towels.

Miljee we had 4 bikes and a bike seat on the back of mine for longer rides. My boys have always been good on bikes, so we just used the bike seat when we went off the site (took a lot of bribing to get him in it tho!). They do the carriers too there.

We booked ours in advance, am sure they will have plenty even if you need anything extra. Seemed to be loads when we were there.

Not sure about sheets, the best thing to do is call them before you go. They all speak great english. I think we had to pay extra for sheets but cant remember.