Butlins review thread. Non-testers: Tell us what makes the perfect family holiday in the UK and you could win a £200 John Lewis voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

This thread is for the ten lucky MN families who are going on a Butlins holiday over the next few months.

Butlins say “We have been providing family breaks for nearly 80 years, and although we’ve changed with the times, many people still believe that we’re old fashioned and run down. We’re looking to change these negative perceptions and show Mumsnetters that we’re a 21st century holiday destination, which offers brilliant family breaks at great value for money”

Testers are visiting the Skegness, Bognor Regis and Minehead resorts – check back to this thread to find out how they are getting on.
We have asked testers to add feedback at least twice - before they go and when they get back home.

Non testers: Butlins would love to know what makes the perfect family holiday in the UK. Everyone who adds a comment will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £200 John Lewis voucher, so that they can get stocked up for the holiday season.

Please note: comments may well be used by Butlins on social media and elsewhere. Your MN name will not be used.

Testers – please share on this thread your overall opinion and experience plus your responses to the following questions.

Before you go

• Where are you going? How far it is from your home?
• Who is in your group?
• Have you ever been on a Butlins holiday before?
• What are you looking forward to most? What are the DC looking forward to?
• How was the booking process?
• What are your perceptions of Butlins?
• What made you apply to visit Butlins?

When you are back

• Overall opinions from you and others in the family
• Describe your accommodation
• Describe your dining experiences
• Did your break meet or exceed your expectations?
• What activities have the kids enjoyed?
• What activities/entertainment did you enjoy as a family?
• Was there anything that surprised you about your break/Butlins?

How would you rate/ describe...

• Food
• Accommodation
• Activities
• Entertainment
• The Butlins team
• Things to do for adults
• Things to do for children
• Things to do as a family
• Would you return/ try out another Butlins resort?
• What did you think about the value for money – especially compared to other family holidays?
• Any other comments?

Please also do add a review on Mumsnet to the Self Catering pages.

Thanks
MNHQ

PS We've 'highlighted' the testers posts on this thread so we can see them!

Non tester. Perfect holiday is having activities that everyone can enjoy no matter what their age.

Maybe I should have specifically said on my previous post that I'm a tester!

Non tester.

Really, the flexibility of self catering without the bus mans holiday feel some bits of self catering can give you. So:

Flexible eating arrangements and/or menus; we have a VERY fussy eater and he likes things a certain way. Doesn't have to be expensive changes, just being able to have pasta with no sauce, just cheese for example.

Choosing which meals each day you eat in/out.

Easy access to take away food on the nights you can't go out but don't want to cook.

Things you can do indoors if the weathers bad that don't mean heaping 1000s of other peoples screaming kids into the same room.

A good variety of activities. One of ours is an introvert, the other extrovert. We struggle to find 'organised holidays' that suit both.

Space
Activities to entertain the kids at no extra cost
Safe places to let them run wild and let out some energy e.g forest spaces with climbing activities and things to explore
Not overcrowded so no queuing for things
Some where within the site where only grown ups can go so once you have persuaded the other half to watch the kids you can escape it all!!

Non tester

• clean and well kept accommodation
• a separate room for toddlers to sleep
• things to do (during the day/ at night)
• great food
• good value
• friendly staff

Non-tester

Perfect family holiday in the uk would include,
Making lists before you go, part of the fun!
Buying nice foodie treats to take with you
Being in walking distance of everything
Nice quality accommodation
Playing family games you don't normally play
Trying new activities you have not done before
Chilling out with picnics on beach or wherever
Having no time restraints or agenda, just going out for the day

Non-tester: We love holidaying in the UK, you just have to get used to packing clothes for all weathers (we're just off to the Lakes and have dug out the winter woolies)! We like to have lots of outdoor space to run around in, a couple of wet weather options (National Trust membership comes in handy here) and a pub nearby :)

Non-tester:

• Facilities to self cater - fridge, cooker, nearby supermarket.
• Informal cafes which are family friendly - high chairs, colouring in, maybe some toys, do children's portions of main meals and do good quality food with local produce, organic ingredients, homemade food etc.
• Facilities to wash and dry clothes.

-A big bath.

• Activities for good and bad weather: beach, zoo, aquarium, castle, water park, museums, playground.
• TV and DVD player.
• Clean, comfortable accommodation.

The best holiday in the UK is associated with a good value for money/package, accommodation suitable for a family with a little one, location, activities.

Non tester.

As my username implies, we go on holiday a lot in our touring caravan

The perfect break does have to include good weather, otherwise everyone feels pretty miserable and doesn't feel like going anywhere.

I do a lot of research on the internet before we go, looking at the surrounding area and things to do so we're not stuck for ideas when we get there.

Our days out are usually the best bits of the holiday and when we have a day just at the caravan we really enjoy that too.

The best bit about the caravan is that we don't have any nasty surprises about the accommodation when we get there!

Be interested to read the feedback from testers as I admit to not having a great impression of Butlins and am happy to be convinced otherwise!

A perfect UK holiday is somewhere where we can just spend time together, doesn't have to involve anything spectacularly exciting, just some fresh air, good food, quality time :-)

We've stayed in Skegness and found the accommodation a bit tired and the cost of the break a little higher than Butlins competitors but everyone is usually in bed by 9pm as we're all worn out from such a busy, fun day.
For me the perfect holiday is being with my family and at the end of each day when my dd throws her arms round me and says 'thanks mum, I've had an amazing day, can we stay another day?'. We always get that at Butlins.

one thing to make our holiday perfect is a dishwasher. it sounds stupid but one of us ends up doing it at either 10pm or 6am and its nice to be able to just chuck everything in it and switch it on. It's all about the simple things

Non tester.

Perfect uk holidays simply involved having a good standard of accommodation, outside space and birth indoor and outdoor activities to do with kids. Oh, sunshine helps too ;)

non tester:

perfect holiday. not too hot so not so much worry about putting on the factor fifty to my redhead/freckled children.

beach. not too busy. easy access to toilets and baths and washingmachine and dryer to get clean.

supermarket so can buy the food that is allergen free

tv for ds to calm down and prevent autistic meltdowns.

Non tester-
We got back from butlins skegness at 10.30 last night after a Fri-Mon trip.
It cost £614, 2 adults 2 children for gold apartment and premium dining.

My son is 11 and has asc/aspergers. He is totally and utterly obsessed with water parks, especially space bowl slides. His favourite one is at splash waterworld.

This is our 7th trip in 7 years, I wish we could go more frequently but we just can't afford it.
My son is a different child when he's at butlins, he suffers with anxiety but never there, he lives and breathes for his next trip.

A few things to note, I think the dishwashers in the gold apartments are a waste and a washer/dryer instead would have been a godsend.
Daughter is 3 and only just potty training and always filthy in general so that would have been a great addition.
The premium dining was great but the vegetarian options I've found were actually better in food court dining.
This was our first time in premium.

Splash waterworld needs more changing rooms!

I have 2 brothers, both with children, we would all love to go on holiday together.
1 brother loves c parks, 1 brother loves f land.
I would not give up my annual butlins holiday to try either!!

My kids cried yesterday when we left:(

So did I when I saw the mounds of dirty washing today:)

Non-Tester
For great UK holidays we need:
clean and well looked after accommodation.
Options to self cater or dinner our.
Affordable(not astronomical prices for school holidays)
Clean swimming polls and kids activity zones.
It would be nice to predict sunny and warm weather but in UK it is impossible,that's why we need huge assortment of clothes for different weather.

Non-tester:

Something for all ages
Something for all weathers
A safe environment
a feeling that everyone else staying there is looking for the same thing
Being in comfortable and homely accomodation
Knowing that there are pre-planned activities that aren't going to add hundreds onto the final holiday cost
Friendly happy staff

and just for me a feeling of nostalgia, the great british holiday, we went to Butlins Skegness every year when I was growing up and each and every memory made there is priceless to me.

Non tester

Clean, spacious accommodation.
Quiet
Lots of outdoor space
Close to attractions

non-tester

a good UK holiday - somewhere where the children have a range of things they can do safely, and some inside stuff too in case the weather isnt too good.
Somewhere where I can get some peace and quiet and people are not right on top of each other
An area where we can go out and do stuff away from where we are staying
nice range of food available, not just the usual kids menus

Non tester
good quality value for money accommodation. Plenty outdoor space to explore something to so in bad weather like swimming pool or museums and preferably sunshine

I am a tester - going to Butlins Bognor for Halloween half term break - approx 60 miles from my home.

It is me, DH, and DS9, DD7 and DS5. We have been to holiday parks before but never stumped up for Butlins overnight - only a day pass which was amazing and had us swearing we'd be back for more!

We are just back from a 3 week holiday in France that was lovely for us but boring as anything for the kids - and also a lot of hard work as self catering. So, am looking forward to happier, less bored and entertained kids and no cooking for me! Kids esp like the look of the shows/archery and swimming.

We returned from holiday to our booking details - we had to do nothing and have been allocated the ocean hotel with the neptune room/s - king size bed for us, sofa bed for 1 DC and other 2 in twin room - we have agreed they all get a turn on sofa bed so everyone gets two nights in kids room.

I think Butlins has changed bigtime since my dad went as boy - every year he'd go to Skeggie and even won Mr Knobbly Knees one year.
It looks to me like one of the genuinely most family focused holidays. We applied as we have realised that happy kids makes a holiday - even if we are not getting to tour vineyards we should be able to keep the kids so busy they don't have a change to notice let alone fight each other.

DH is more excited by this than our recent holiday - it is harder to tell if he is more excited than the kids!

Roll on next 9 weeks!

Tester
Where are you going? How far it is from your home?
We are going to Skegness for their Christmas Fantasy break on 19th December, it is about 100 miles from here and will take around 2 and a half hours.

• Who is in your group?

There are 6 of us, me ,my 2 teenage ds' 16 and 18, my DIL (yes we get on!!) and my 2 grand children who will be 3 and 2.

• Have you ever been on a Butlins holiday before?

I vaguely remember going for a day trip about 15 years ago.

• What are you looking forward to most? What are the DC looking forward to?

All the Christmas stuff ,having done previous festive breaks at CP and Disneyland Paris will be very interested to see what Butlins have to offer

• How was the booking process?

Didn't have to do a thing as MN took care of that, we are staying in a gold apartment with a premium dining plan so apart from a snack at lunch time everything included.

• What are your perceptions of Butlins?

Having read some recent threads on here, maybe not quite what I expected when I filled in the application! I think it's a bit of a Marmite experience and tbh not sure I will like it but am open minded and fully prepared to admit if I am wrong!

• What made you apply to visit Butlins?

Every year my family all go away together, Disneyland Paris when they were younger and CP in recent years but it's getting so expensive to accommodate all of us so really interested to see what Butlins have to offer at a more reasonable cost and if there is not only things that we can enjoy individually but all together too.

Non tester....Perfect UK holiday involves a windswept castle on a hill, cosy pubs with crackling log fires, narrow gauge railways, quirky attractions, lots of nature and history and an intimate B+B with an unforgettable landlord or lady.

Perfect holiday has good weather!
Holiday parks need to have a good balance of free and payment things, nothing worse than every activity needing to pay extra for.