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UK travel

Welcome to our UK travel forum where you can get advice on everything from holidays to exotic destinations, to tips on London travel.

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Original poster

Centre parcs prices - I am totally shocked!

37 replies

Abubu · 30/01/2009 10:39

Hi,

I am aleady thinking about summer holidays. Last year we were looking into centre parcs but we decided our twins were probably a bit too young.
This June they will be 2 and i thought it would be nice to go to Longleat for their birthday week. I have just looked at availability and prices and am totally shocked that the cheapest lodge available in June (comfort plus) will cost us £802!

Am I being naive or is that very expensive?

After 3 years of not having a real holiday (by the time summer comes around) my husband and I are desperate to do something but that just seems extortionate, considering that you have to pa for meals and activities seperately. 5 years ago we went to Mexico on an all inclusive deal for about the same price!

Do centre parcs prices go down nearer the time of booking or are they always high because they know that with young kids there are not a lot of options?

Thanks.
Abubu

OP posts:

pinkteddy · 30/01/2009 19:49

dd absolutely loves centre parcs and we went a fair few times before she started school, we used to pay around £300 for a mid week break in comfort plus accommodation.

Now she is at full time school we decided to go the weekend before xmas to Longleat. Accommodation was filthy, DH had problems with his bike and had to get them to come and collect it (too far to walk) and TV and dishwasher didn't work. Needless to say dd had a ball. It cost a fortune. The thing that really shocked me though was that xmas week was full. They were charging over £1K for a 4 night break - no extras included. We stayed until the end of Monday and the place was packed - you couldn't get into any of the restaurants. Dh and I were marvelling that the country was going into economic freefall and 1,000s of people able to afford £1K for a week at xmas (without any spending money)!

Psychobabble · 30/01/2009 19:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

rookiemater · 30/01/2009 20:03

Hi for the price of one weekend in Center Parcs we have booked two long weekend breaks to Southlakeland Parks. Now it is staying in either a caravan or a basic lodge, but there is a free swimming pool and is within walking distance to all the attractions of Bowness on Windermere.

I like CP too and love to go there, but at 2 your DCs are too young to do most of the activities. You can sometimes get discounts close to the time, but again you can also get great discounts for cottages and other holiday parks. Or alternatively we have booked a week in a gite in the Dordogne for £500 + £450 for flights with a heated outdoor swimming pool and free twice weekly pony rides for DS.

CP is good but I feel they are pricing themselves out of the reach of their core market.

chocolatemummy · 30/01/2009 20:03

they dont really do any decent offers its just very expensive.
There are quite a few other companies now in the UK that offer much better value for money, they might not have Spa's etc but we use Park Resorts and have heard Parkdean are good too

IlanaK · 30/01/2009 20:20

We go every year the first week of the Jan term (my kids are homeschooled) as it is the cheapeast week of the year. This year we stayed in one of their new luxury 4 bed lodges (sharing with another family) and it was fab. The whole holiday (shared between us) cost around £500. That was with a 25% come back soon discount from the previous year.

This year, they are not doing the come back soon discount. And apparantly this is the first year they have not done it. So we are not going next year as a result.

chocolatemummy · 30/01/2009 20:22

they are taking advantage of the euro/pound thing evcause they know even more families will not be able to go abroad now. It is nice and we have been thre times in the past but I do think it is a rip off now, the only thing included is the pool and everything else is either fully booked or costs a fortune

nannynick · 31/01/2009 20:00

With pre-school aged children, don't go during peak season. Avoiding the school holidays can dramatically reduce the cost. I had 4 nights in a 3 bed villa earlier this month for £200 - a travellodge type place would have cost that!

Some families don't get a lot of choice about where they can go on holiday... not all children will get on a plane, on a boat, it can be hard just to get them to travel in a car for an hour or two. Some families need a holiday destination where their children can roam free within a secure environment... Center Parcs has a large fence going all the way around it... children who normally would try to escape, don't seem to do so when at Center Parcs - they make dams in the streams instead.
At Center Parcs on non-arrival days, there are few cars on the roads. Where else does that?

rookiemater · 31/01/2009 22:04

Admit it nannynick you are on commission..

brazenhussy · 31/01/2009 22:49

I read somewhere that for the past two years all 3 CP villages accomadation was 98% full 90% of the time!!!

mumto2andnomore · 01/02/2009 09:15

I think people are missing the point comparing it to France. We are in the Midlands so its a massive journey to get to France whereas we can be at Sherwood in an hour. You dont have to pay for lots of activities at CP either, the pool keeps them happy for hours.I do agree that they put the prices up too much in school holidays, luckily our October half term is a different week to most so we go then.

Im gutted to hear they have stopped doing the code for when you book just after your last holiday as we usually do that.

giantkatestacks · 02/02/2009 19:52

mumto2andnomore - when did they start doing that - I have used mine a month ago for the easter hols and am only paying £350 for midweek at longleat.

We always take gps or other family with us in a 3 bed and when you split it out it comes in really cheaply.

mumto2andnomore · 03/02/2009 08:38

£350 for the Easter holidays is fab ! IlanaK mentioned it in this thread and Ive heard other people say they are not doing it this year too-hope they are wrong.

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