40th Birthday weekend - Centerparcs or other ideas please!

[Finbar]

A good friend of mine is about to organise a girls weekend for her 40th. She thought of centerparcs as we could all do various activites and then get together in the evening for the big celebrations?
Do any of you have experience of a girls weekend in Centerparcs and what would you tips be? OR do you have any better ideas ? I think there'll be about 10 in the party.

THanks

i dont have experience of girlie weekend there but i did celebrate my 26th last week with family and some of the women said it would be ideal for a girly party as it has the aqua sana spa and loads of activites.
id defo go there with my friends, if you do go id recommend you pay the little bit extra for the executive accomadation, the 3 bed exec apts in sherwood even have thier own sauna on the patio!!
on the saturday night we had a party in our accom and it was a great weekend.
hth

bet pph has a idea or two

Go to Brighton and trawl the gay bars - it is a hoot and you will have the time of your life - CP always a bit quiet and not really the sort of place to go out and get pissed and make noise and be girlie - wereas brighton is the best - you can invite TC too!!!

There is a clause in the small print of the CP brochure which bans same-sex parties, or at least they have to have special permission! Whether this is because they don't want their family ethos enriched by families of same-sex parents, or to protect families of all descriptions from stag and hen p**s ups, I don't know!

God how dodgy does same sex parties always sound!!!

Always think CP bit boring if you not going for the family thing anyway - you could find somewhere far more exciting - Newcastle if not Brighton!!

I think its for stag and hen parties - if you ring and say its for a birthday and youre planning lots of treats in aqua sana they might not be bothered.
kizziex

but all those kids around finbar ...yawn

go somewhere non kiddy

www.ashecottage-holidaylets.co.uk/
here youa re and near a pub too

and near home!

www.maximise.co.uk/packagedetail.asp?packageid=397&minisiteid=6

have to say that I went to centerparcs last year and thought it was awful - certainly could think of nicer way of having girlie weekend.
what about going to city like manchester, brighton, nottingham. Staying in nice hotel, then you could still do all the beauty treatments etc at hotel but also do shopping, eating, drinking or whatever else.

Other people's children en-masse are always even more hideous than your own! Don't do it. Go somewhere for grownups.

Some friends went to CP on a girls weekend (I "reluctantly" turned it down ). Apart from it being my idea of hell, it's not particularly cheap either. All the luxurious pampering extras have to be paid for as well. Definitely talk your friend into a grown-up city or a cheap flight abroad.

If you look in one of the weekend papers they have hotel deals - the Metropole in Brighton (whatever group that was) were doing 2 nights bed and breakfast and dinner on the first night for a rideculous price!!

We went to cp for a group 30th birthday party of old uni friends - I wasn't very impressed, thought it was v.expensive for all the activities, food not v.good, standard accomodation pretty yucky.
Why not try a big cottage? Hoseasons (they have a website) do ones that sleep large numbers, often with their own pool/sauna/etc.

Go for the luxurious girly option! no kids! Speaking as someone deprived of similar 40th birthday festivities on account of huge pregancy!!!

Finbar - I spent a wonderful girly weekend (10 of us for my hen weekend) in a place called Tuckenhay Mill House, Tuckenhay nr Totnes in South Devon. Huge five bedroomed house with its own sauna in the master bedroom. Beautiful indoor swimming pool -(shared with the smaller cottages but never that busy). There are also two very nice pubs within walking distance that have excellent food. We booked it through English Country Cottages - they give you a "virtual tour" of it on their website - wish I could do links!

wow - thaks for al the ideas.

Have had a girly wekend in Brghton me self and it was a hoot!

Also like the idea of the big cottage with luxurious extras.

The weekend is in march - so not too warm - one of the reasons for the CP idea i think.

Our weekend at Tuckenhay was in January - big open fire in the house (as well as central heating, of course). And the pubs had roaring log fires!

Sandyballs - have you been to Sandyballs - I have with my NCT class - it is lovely!!

Yes I have Twinkie - I love it. We take the in-laws there every spring - they usually offer to babysit in the evenings and me and DH go to that nice little pub down the lane with the horses outside. Beautiful part of the country isn't it.

Yep really pretty - I was actually trying to work out whether you were one of my NCT class but you could be from anywhere so ha ha guess you aren't - how paranoid do I get!!

sandyballs in fordingbridge?

Oh I've done a similar thing - was convinced I knew someone earlier today until she gave away a bit more information and I realised it wasn't her!
There probably are people on here that we do know - strange isn't it!

I think we've got DDs of similar ages - nearly three, is that right?

Nearly 4 - well in July - ha ha - I really wanted you to be one of them (well only one was lovely so hoped it was that one!)