Butlins... Skegness or Minehead?

[DaynaS]

Hi all,

We've been Centre Parcs a fair few times, but first timers at Butlins.. We're in Cheshire and have a 3.5 year old daughter. I've booked a comfort plus apartment with the various dining packages for Skegness as it's the least travel, but having read some reviews about undesirable guests, I'm a little worried. Not sure if I should change to Minehead which might be a bit more chilled but a little bit further to drive?

Going late September, so it's term time, which makes me think it'll be OK but hoping to hear others views..

Having spoken with their customer service, I can change destinations for a £20 admin fee which I'm fine with, just want it to be the right place for us as a family! So whichever is best for activities, entertainment, swimming, etc...

Many thanks!

We've been to both. Minehead better in nice weather. Has an outside pool, and nicer beach. Skegness beach is not nice at all. But the pool at Skegness is far far better for kids. Loads more for them to do. Minehead pool is pretty crap for kids.

At Skegness you check in in your car. So they check occupancy and it's also obviously easier. At Minehead you check in in the big tent thing where the stage is. It's pretty crap, it's loud and big queue but most importantly, they don't check occupancy. Which means there are loads and loads of adult only groups. Never noticed any in skegness. Minehead was half full of groups of men being dicks, ruin the bar areas, ruin the pool, wrestling and throwing eachother about.

Minehead close most of the pools on Mondays and Fridays, so only the wave pool is open, it felt really dangerous. Even when Skegness had the fire and only had one pool open entirely it was never like that.

September I would go Skegness.

I went to the one on the south coast with a toddler, it was awful. Didn't compare well to centre parcs, you might be in for a shock

Minehead is a total dive. Rubbish everywhere due to overflowing bins, rats under every bush, tatty decor, damp mattresses, fag ends, coke residue in the bathroom if you're lucky.

Butlins' money-maker now is the adult weekends and it absolutely shows. The mid week stays are just awful, they'll still be clearing up from the adult weekend just gone. We went for a pre-Christmas week a couple of years ago and I was fucking horrified. How people ever go more than once is totally beyond me. The swimming changing rooms in Minehead were the filthiest thing i've ever seen and I promise you i don't use that term lightly.

If you go with Centre Parcs experience then tbh I don't think you'll enjoy at all.

Cancel Butlins and go to Bluestone, it's a world away.

Butlins is a totally different vibe to Centre Parcs. It depends what you want.
IMO Centre Parks has better quality accomodation and surroundings geared to adults and teens but with limited ( and expensive) facilities to keep younger kids entertained.
We switched to Butlins when our children were obviously bored with the lack of entertainment at Centre Parcs
Butlins ( Skegness) has a variety of more modest accomodation, we paid for Gold standard and it was fine for a short break.
Unlike Centre Parcs, the camp doesn't look very picturesque from the outside, but it's fine once you are in the complex and there was definitely more to keep the kids entertained, especially in the evenings, which allowed us as adults to relax more.
We didn't encounter any rowdy behaviour, but our accomodation was away from the main complex. It's worth checking what events are on when you go and steer clear of the adults only weekends.
When we went there was a dance competition and our 5 year old daughter was very taken with the glam teen dancers all done up in their sequins wandering around the site.
When we went it was off peak. The site was clean, the pool was excellent and although we were self catering, we used the restaurant a couple of times and it was fine.
Some friends raised eyebrows when we said we were going to Butlins, but honestly, they do what they do really well as long as you expect "Blackpool vibes" rather than something posh.