Decent alternative to Center Parcs?

[meganna]

Can anyone recommend somewhere southish of Bristol for a holiday in June/July? Have been looking at Longleat for a Monday-Friday break but was wondering if anyone has any other ideas?

2 adults, 2 children age 2 (almost 3) and 6. Would like an indoor pool, play area/playpark, close proximity to pubs/restaurants. Would be hiring a car from Bristol Airport so somewhere within about 1.5-2hours max would be ideal!

Thanks in advance 😊

Bluestone - the affordability centre parc alternative!

butlins Minehead?

Don't know how important direction is to you - it's west of Bristol in Wales not south and a bit over 2hrs

I have looked this up actually, but reviews recently have been extremely mixed saying everything is looking very tatty and in need of an upgrade so I'm a bit wary! Have you been recently?

Not a fan of Butlins, sorry should have mentioned that in the OP!

European centerparcs

No I haven't but I only ever here positive things from those that go. I guess you have to weigh up the "affordability" (against that of the extortionate CP which I hear is crazy prices) against the accommodation might be a bit tatty but you get all the activities. I suspect they'll do different standards of accommodation

• hear 🙄

I took my children ranging from 13 to 2 last July and they really really loved it. We hired a golf buggy and spent a lot of time just zooming round. The facilities are amazing and there was plenty to do. It wasn't tatty at all. Our lodge was a little dated but very clean and comfortable. Definitely prefered over Center Parcs.

Bluestone. Went 6 weeks ago. Clean, tidy, buggies are excellent.

Had a cottage in the village

Another one for Bluestone. Absolutely brilliant for little kids in the Serendome.

I will admit the pool looks a little tired, and it doesn’t look as great as the CP ones do in the brochures (I’ve never been).

But our lodge was fine and honestly the serendome and hive are just great for small ones (we’ve been twice and DS has just turned 3).

Cotswold water park.

I have had another look at Bluestone but it's actually more expensive than Center parcs for the dates we are looking. 2 bedroom Caldey lodge (their cheapest) is 840 including a 10% discount, and the 2 bedroom new style lodge at CP is 799 for the same week.

I do love the look of the Serendome though!

Exactly this. Pool is a little tired looking and if you had teenagers there aren’t any really cool slides like at CP, but for younger kids the slides are fine. Our accommodation was lovely too.

surprised to hear it’s actually more than CP?! That said, it would still work out better value in my experience because the activities are priced more reasonably and there’s more included, so I’d still go for it over CP.

I will definitely consider Bluestone. One thing putting me off CP is the age cut offs for activities, our kids wouldn't really have much to do together and I can already imagine the meltdowns when DC2 can't play with his big brother! The Serendome looks much better for their ages

The serendome is great. Water play, sand play, indoor park. There’s also a theatre and we went to a couple of kids shows there which the 4/5 year olds in our group loved.

there’s also another bit with soft play/indoor adventure play/bouncy castles etc. all included and no booking required!

Are there many options for food on site or close by and would the food be better quality or value than CP? We will be flying wherever we go so can't fill a car with supplies from home.

Bluestone is nice, but no cheaper than CP in my experience and the pool isn't as good. It's a slightly different feel, with people going off site to visit local attractions more than you tend to do at CP. It's a bit too hilly for bike riding, especially for young children.

I haven't found anywhere elae in the UK with a pool as good as CP.

Over the years we tried to find and alternative to Centre parcs and failed- it is possible to find something with pool on site but the range of activities is usually quite limited compaired to CP. Also we value centre parc for being able to do things indoors (badminton, fitness classes, pool, snooker, etc), when the weather is not that great.
I am still hoping something like Clubmed will appear in the Uk but I doubt it.

Bluestone Iver center parks anyway of the week. We've done both. The pool could use an upgrade but the other indoor places are brilliant. There are paid for activities as well and compared to cp much cheaper. There's an over priced gorcery store in the bluestone village with most bits that you'll need. We did go to the tesco just outside of bluestone though.

Pubs and restaurants are OK and reasonably priced for what and where they are. No chain pubs or restaurants which was great.

It is very hilly and we left the buggy rental to late. We stayed at the other end of the park to the pool and tbh the walk wasn't bad at all. Couple of argh bits but by the end of the week it was all good. Great for hikes and walks in the surrounding areas. Went swimming every day and to the hive. Visited the coffee shop daily as well. The accommodation was one of their newly refurbished houses and it was great. Everything that we needed and very clean. I would say though the heaters (electric wall mounted) took a while to heat up and then pumped out heat.

We wouldn't do the shindig again. The food was was mildly warm and not great, it was far too loud and over stimulating for the kids but it was a nice walk down and back.

Great trails and things to see and playbwith along the way. Great little play park in the village. We stayed a week and could have easily stayed another.

Next time we go (already planning a second visit) we will do the amusement park next to it, visit Tenby and see some more of the coast. I say all of this and this was in the original plan, but there honestly was so much to keep us busy.

Oh and the staff are fantastic. Every single person we dealt with was smiley and nothing too big of an issue not that we had many. (We doubled booked an activity and were charged twice - they sorted it quickly including the refund and gave us vouchers for the inconvenience) they also don't accept cash.

When we went there were food vans inside the serendome selling things like fish and chips and burritos for reasonable prices you’d expect to pay at the beach/a fair or whatever. There are also some restaurants, we went to one (a BBQ place I think) and tbh it was a bit overpriced, similar to CP. I imagine there would be a supermarket nearby and you could do a click and collect if you’ve got a car.

Really helpful, thank you 😊

What kind of accommodation did you stay in? Is the village area noisy if staying in the cottages do you think?

The Mole Resort, North Devon. It's a lot smaller, but had quite a few activities. The lodges are beautiful.

We stayed in one of the upside down detached houses. Bedrooms on the bottom floor with kitchen and living room on the second and a balcony. It had a masdive shower room with toilet off one of the bedrooms and the main room had a decent sized en suite. We felt fairly isolated in a good way! Much better than the attached properties.

Not sure how noisy it gets in town as we were away from that area. It wasn't overly loud besides some entertainment happening but that was finished by 8.30/9 pm. We spent a bit of time there in the evenings in the way back from dinner at the pub or grill.

Overall everyone seemed very well behaved. Mostly younger families, and lots of grandparents accompanying