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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Centre parcs, are they worth it?

55 replies

LittleB · 09/01/2008 14:22

Thinking of staying at Longleat centre parcs with friends this year but it is expensive, dd's (theirs and ours) will be about 3 and 3.6. Is there plenty for them (and us) to do and are all the activities worth the money? Also has anyone got any discount codes?Ta!

OP posts:
murphyslaw · 09/01/2008 14:36

Dont worry there is lots to do! Last year was our 7th year at Longleat and with 3 kids now aged 5 , 8 and 11 there is always something new to experience. The biggest draw is the pool and its included in the price. Its so warm in there you can spend hours on the little water slides, sandpit and just splashing around. Plenty of free entertainment for kids if you study the timetable. Plenty of outdoor playgrounds and lovely walks too!

Creche is fab to give you a bit of time out and there are plenty of classes (extra cost) that you can do with your little ones too. Mine enjoyed the teddy bears picnic at that age. Eating out is a bit hit and miss. Kids are well catered for but we found the food quality to be poor. Although I do understand they are changing things from this year to include brands like Cafe Rouge. Onsite supermarket well stocked if you feel you would like to cook!

Have a great time!

bundle · 09/01/2008 14:38

no

LittleB · 09/01/2008 15:00

THanks Murphys law, we're waiting for the brochure which i guess will tell us more about what is free and what isn't.
Why not Bundle?

OP posts:
Iota · 09/01/2008 15:02

discount code

CP is great if you get a cheap off peak deal

Top price in school holidays too expensive IMHO

knat · 09/01/2008 15:16

do you have to pay for many of teh activities and does it make it very expensive this way?

chocolatespiders · 09/01/2008 15:18

no

activities to expensive on top of hol price

Onlyaphase · 09/01/2008 15:22

Had a villa last year for a weekend. It rained all the time, the villa was too small, old and cramped (having the cot meant that the wardrobe doors couldn't open and DH had to climb over my bed to reach his FFS!) At £700 for the weekend, this was in no way value for money.

Had it been sunny and we had all sat outside BBQing each night it would have been completely different and I might even have enjoyed it.

robin3 · 09/01/2008 15:22

We've just booked and I concluded that for a holiday in October it's worth every penny because the weather in the UK is always awful and to go somewhere warm is too much hassle with little ones and costs even more. If my children were older I wouldn't go there because there are lots of other adventures we could have, but whilst they're small, a warm pool, kids club, cycling, simple walks, other children to play with, simple places to eat out etc. is exactly what we need. We tried a hotel last year and for lots of reasons it didn't really work.

bundle · 09/01/2008 15:23

the only thing that's "free" is the pool and it was much too cold for dd2 who was about 4 months old at the time we went. the food is mostly rubbish, the shop is overpriced and overall it feels like a motorway service station.

robin3 · 09/01/2008 15:25

We booked a newly refurbed villa with a bedroom per child and a steam room. You can tell how much we need an easy holiday!

Onlyaphase · 09/01/2008 15:27

Robin3 - good idea about the extra bedroom per child. Would have made a lot of difference to our holiday.

Lomond · 09/01/2008 15:35

We were at Elveden Forest last March and had a great time. We had a large Villa with 4 bedrooms, steam room, hot tub and there was plenty of space. Although there is plenty to do it would have been great in the summer as we could have had barbecues and spent more time out walking and bike riding.

The activities are expensive but you can book them in advance if this would help?

Agree with the food on site, we would have cooked more in the villa if we had known it was so basic.

murphyslaw · 11/01/2008 09:12

Quite shocked by some of the negative comments on here!!! A motorway service station????? The shop is really well stocked and not at all overpriced. Yes the breaks can be expensive - we have always gone 1st week of December Mon - Fri family of 5 for around £275!!!! Yes if you do every activity you will spend lots but it doesnt have to be like that!

strawberry · 11/01/2008 09:20

I agree with Bundle. Center Parcs is not for everyone but clearly some people love it. IMO the accommodation is very basic. I do not want to cook everyday on holiday but the restaurants are awful. Yes you can prebook stuff but only if you phone up in advance and most activities are at a set time. Not much room for spontaneity.

Oblomov · 11/01/2008 09:27

I too am shocked by the comments. Centreparcs is quite expensive though. But if you like pool, dancing etc this kind of holiday is great. You have to get into the MINDSET !!! We went on a Sun £9.50 break to Devon. O.K. it was basic. We knew it wasn't the Ritz. We had the BEST time. And we did go to Ibiza for £1000 all inclusive the same year. £10000 or £9.50 You have to understand what it is you are getting.

Oblomov · 11/01/2008 09:28

Sorry, not 10 thousand pounds, for a holiday !!!

bogie · 11/01/2008 09:32

accomadation is only basic if you book basic in the last year they have built some new lovley woodland logde villas centerparcs.co.uk/accommodation/By_Type/index.jsp#1 and if you go at an off peak time they are very well priced Dp works for the head office so can get discount codes but they change all the time

MrsPuddleduck · 11/01/2008 09:42

We go to Center Parcs about twice a year (off peak when it is cheaper) and love it.

It is so relaxing and the kids are happy the whole time so it just makes it an easy holiday.

You can have a drink and not have to worry about who's going to drive home and basically just chill out and relax.

IMO the Parc Market is not a rip off and sells some really nice food.

Admitedly some of the basic accommodation does resemble a prison war camp but as long as you upgrade to comfort plus (which isn't that much more in the great scheme of things) it is absolutley fine.

lailasmum · 11/01/2008 09:48

We went to center parcs a couple of years ago and hated it. We went to the one near nottingham. I do hear very different things about different sites though. The one we went to had terrible food, the pool was freezing and everyone was huddled around it with hot drinks, the chalets and general site wasn't in the best state of repair and there was very little to do for under fives other than what you could do at home or at your local park. All the other activities for older children were very expensive. Not an experience I would repeat. My sister went to the same site a few months later on a hen weekend and had a bad experience too. You can do a lot better for the money with a UK holiday.

hertsnessex · 11/01/2008 10:03

we are off to cumbria CP next month, booked an exec lakeside refurbed lodge blah blah, found a discount code an i think it cost around £400 which is v cheap to be honest.

i think cp is great - i think the villas (stayed in most from comfort to 4bed exec posh lots!) are all fine - exec being better though.

we dont sit in much, only evenings once kids are in bed and normally we are out late doing something.

i think for what it is - a UK holiday - it is great. we are off next yr to a biggie at walk disne and then grenada - but i will still look forward to my cp break aswell as it is so active and fun.

cx

hertsnessex · 11/01/2008 10:04

p.s. longleat is nice - but hilly!
sherwood we didnt really like
elvedon is good
cumbria - will let you know!!

p.p.s i was never a cp type of person - would have been my worst nightmare before kids - but its great!

mumemma · 11/01/2008 10:06

We went to Elveden last Spring and despite what I'm about to write, we had a great time and would go again.

If you can afford the better accommodation, like Lomond's which sounds like the Executive Lodge (is that what it's called?) and also find the newer accommodation, then do it. Some of the accommodation is really run down and the basic villas really are very basic. We had a mid range villa and it was just about acceptable. The posh detached ones with hot tubs, etc looked so much better. If you've got taste in decor, you'll just have to leave that at home as their idea of stylish decor is a bit different to anyone else's.

I have to say I do understand the 'motorway service station' comment. It's pretty lacking in atmosphere and the architecture is pretty mundane, not as much effort as Disney say but you have to take it for what it is.

You need to prebook your activities the minute you get the timetable and booking info as everyone else who is going the same week as you will have got theirs and be booking like mad. Book the spa treatments first if you can, there wasn't availability for even as much a manicure when I tried to book! You can cancel things and get a refund when you get there so if in doubt, book it.

I thought the food was pretty disgusting and totally overpriced but at the same time, unless you've prebooked it was quite hard to get into most restaurants. They have a captive audience and no competition so they get away with murder, imo. I wasn't very impressed with the supermarket (fruit = apples, bananas and oranges) but Elveden has a fantastic farm shop next door which was a lifesaver and we decided to do our own cooking after the first couple of days. Might be something similar around Longleat?

I found the lunch arrangements very strange with hardly any restaurants open. At Elveden only one place was open but it closed pretty early, at 1.30pm or 2pm, and only seemed to serve microwaved potatoes with baked beans and burgers. I would have welcomed a sandwich or salad place and if they do bring big brands in, something like Pret a Manger would be ideal. I came to the conclusion that most people made their own lunches.

It is expensive and you need to be really organised to make the most of it but the pools are free and there are lots of nice play areas, most of which will keep dcs of 3 happy without too many extra activities required. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather as that makes such a difference - we had good weather every day. The creche was very good with great activities for our DD of 3 but this is an additional charge.

After all that whingeing, we really did have a good time. Living in a city, we really felt like we were right out in the country. The dcs saw squirrels and rabbits outside the villa and cycling through the trees each morning with no cars and the dcs in a Burley trailer behind was lovely.

Google for lots of specific reviews for each location - I got loads of information online before booking. I think you need to use different spellings - Center Parcs and Centre Parcs. I've seen various comments and I think Longleat is the one that's hilly which can be an issue for pushchairs.

Hope you do go and that you enjoy it.

mymama · 11/01/2008 10:13

I am from Australia and spent 4 nights at CentreParcs Longleat in December. Absolutely loved it and wished we had something like it here in Australia. We paid 244 pound for 3 bed villa with a discount code off ukhotdockets.com. My dc are 9, 7 and 4. We spent most of the time in the pool and the playgrounds and paid for the older two to go rockclimbing. They loved it.

JudgeNutmeg · 11/01/2008 10:22

We are centreparcs experts. We know when to book so that we pay peanuts per person, what to take with us, what to buy when there and what activities are worth the dosh to us.

The freedom that the kids have is wonderful. I spend most of my time pottering about and reading whilst the kids ride aimlessly or swim for eons. I am that fully dressed woman you see by the side of the rapids shouting 'Get out NOW, you've been gone for 4 hours!'

There is always someone with more cellulite that me and always at least one familiy that has completely missed the mark with regards to practical clothing. Centerparcs has the best people watching ever especially Longleat on a rainy morning down at the Sports Cafe place. I have never seen so many women wearing the same boden outfit in one place before. Hugely amusing.

My advice, get a great big suitcase, pack everything you need. Add some more clothes and random kitchen appliances. Now, leave that all at home. Take a spare fleece, a nice top, two cossies and some deodorant. Sorted.

My kids advice is to take a scart lead, dvd player and dvds for the evenings when mum and dad are too tiddly for scrabble. Exec lodges have dvd players I think.

Anyway, I have extremely low standards and quite like living in a mini ikea box for a few days, the kids adore it, my dh tolerates it and we keep going back.

Oblomov · 11/01/2008 10:34

LOL Nutmeg. " Now leave that all at home"