Center Parcs abroad - whats the best one?

[bottletopbill]

I fancy looking at this other than the Uk - whats your best advice

There have been posts on this before. I've been to Kempervennan and Het Hejderbosch in the Netherlands. Both very similar to the uk in structure though my general feeling is that the European CPs are much more down market than UK ones. They are also substantially cheaper and you can get good discounts if you book early.

If you have older children who want to do activities we were impressed with the coaches and staff who were multi lingual. Guests were mainly German with a few Brits.

I didn't think the two CP's we've been to in France were downmarket at all. The one at Lac d'Ailette - nr reims, two hrs from Calais opened Sept 07, we went in April '08 and it seemed v. upmarket, probably because it was so new but it was really nice.

Definitely recommend Lac d'Ailette for accessibility from the UK and the area its in (Champagne region). It has all the usual things you expect but not an acqua sana spa.

They are cheaper when the euro is weaker against the pound and when you can book at a time that is not a school holiday there but is here so you can avoid the jacked up UK CP prices.

In France the guests were mainly French and British.

We chose Holland as we live in the North and took the ferry to Rotterdam. Once in Holland it was under two hours to CP.
France would be a very long drive for us but I was thinking of trying the Belgian one as I've heard good reviews.

We've had a weekend at CP Eperheide in Belgium. Thought the facilities were great but the accomodation was really basic unless you spent a fortune. They did a fantastic breakfast pack though - loads of jam, cereal, coffee, butter, ham etc and deliver fresh bread to you every morning.

Also in Belgium are Sunparks (owned by P&V group) which had nice houses, and are cheaper. We had a week in Germany last year with Landal. A VIP chalet cost about 450 euros for a week at Easter and we had all mod cons, plus a sauna and sunbed. The swimming pool wasn't a fancy one but there was a huge indoor play complex, and a children's farm, crazy golf etc. DD is always asking when we can go back. www.landal.co.uk.

They have lots of parks with various facilities across Holland and Germany and elsewhere.

We've been to De Emhoff and Heijerbos in Holland. Each park has different activities/ facilities so you would need to check their website.

The first time we went at the end of August, which was a good time. Second time we went in June, not realising that the Dutch and Belgian schools had broken up. So that might be worth bearing in mind.

We have also stayed at a Landal Greenpark in the netherlands, it was v. lose to Aachen on the Dutch/German/Belgium border. It was fine also - bit more basic, only 1 real restaurant, the other was a snack bar, and less activities etc to do (although did have indoor pool) but very good value for money. Not sure if there are any in France though.

The Dutch ones at the end of August are a little bit quieter (and cheaper) as their kids go back to school mid August. Each has their own extra feature so its a matter of checkign what you want, have stayed at Het Heiderbos which has its jungle dome which is great for the kdis to run around screaming playing nicely whilst you can sit and relax, have also stayed at Port Zeland which has access to a fantastic beach, off to Kempervennen this summer with its snow dome.

The other advantage of Holland is that every single member of staff spoke excellent English.

The previous comments about downmarket, I think depends, some have been built by CP and some have been acquired, I guess its a bit like the way some people look down on Whinfell in the UK (which was acquire). Port Zeeland was acquired and you can tell the difference whereas Het Heiderbos was built and is indistinguishable from a UK CP.