Just come back from Center Parcs..........

[strawberriesandcream01]

Hi everyone. Im sure some of you will know I was going to center parcs last week. We have just got back and had a lovely time.

We went for 1 week and I must say that was too long really as we started to get a bit bored and the weather wasn't brilliant. We didn't book many activities beforehand but when we got there after a couple of days booked more things.

Our Villa was ok, just a basic comfort but it had all we needed for the week, including a rabbit, squirrels and 2 ducks knocking on the windows every morning! We took lots of food with us and the supermarket was well stocked but was expensive. We ate out alot and again found this quite expensive, £35 for 2 burgers, kids buffet and 2 glasses of coke in Hucks. We used the tesco clubcard vouchers in cafe rouge. Bella Italia was nice and good value for money.

The swimming pool was good, kids loved it and they had free swim jackets which were great. My 5yr old learned to swim without armbands which was excellent.

Activity side of it I will list what we did....
Pony ride, which was good, a gentle walk around the forest for 10 minutes.
Jack and Jill show which the kids enjoyed.
I went to the spa one evening which was lovely and relaxing (but how can they charge £25?!)
I went tree trekking which was good fun but again comes with a price tag.
Kids roller skating which was good.
Think that was about it. We went swimming everyday of course!

All in all we had a nice time but found it very expensive. I do think they should include some of the more basic activities into the price you pay as we got bored with just going swimming and cycling, we paid alot of the villa and probably an extra £300 on top for food, activities etc so at the end of the day not a cheap holiday. Also a week was too long. We would probably return but only for a weekend or midweek.

Thanks to everyone who helped me a couple of weeks back!!

Hi I missed this as I thought you would post back on the original thread.

I did wonder if a week would be too long, we have only ever done a week once because of the expense and we were lucky to share a villa with some friends so it was half the cost.

The comfort villas and the comfort plus villas are all going as they are being done up to be a "woodland lodge" which are very nice inside. To me the comfort villa looks like a caravan inside

You can make it as cheap or expensive as you want re food, we tend to eat out once a day if that, and the activities do hit the pocket hard but we tend to see it as an opportunity to spend time together as a family (although I am a sahm so get lots of time with ds2 aged 2!!)

I am glad you will go back, but book into a better villa. I always post my discount code onto the message board so it is around 30% but that is in term time.

I think the activities gives you a chance to try stuff out that you maybe wouldn't try locally.

Weather has never been an issue for us and we have been in snow! Maybe you could share a 4 bed villa with some friends, the children tend to have more fun and it means you can go out for an evening and they babysit and then you babysit for them!

Hi fizzy. I wasnt sure if I should have posted on the other thread or not! Oh well, never mind!

The villa itself was fine really for what we needed and we did say if we did go back we would have the same villa.

I guess if we had have gone for 4 nights we wouldn't have spent as much with going out for meals and activities but we got kind of bored in the end so found ourselves booking more activities, and yes it gave me a chance to try something different, I went tree trekking and went to the spa which was lovely. I did want to go horse riding but I ride all the time at home and then I wouldn't have tried something new.

When do you go fizzy or have you been?

Thanks for all your help!