Taken from my Tripadvisor Reviews
“Excellent! Can't wait to go again!”
We just recently got back from our first Center Parcs trip and we are
already looking into booking again for March. After reading some of the
reviews on here before we went I was a little worried but we had a
brilliant time and can't wait to go again.
I cannot fault the place at all. I have a few little niggles if I am being really picky and there are a few things worth knowing before you go but like I said it was a brilliant holiday.
We stayed in a 3 bedroom New Style Woodland Lodge in the Pine area (367). The lodge looked exactly like it does in the pictures on the website and we loved it. My only little niggle is that the water in the lodge wasn't drinkable and was full of lime scale, however, I may just be being really picky because where we live the water is drinkable, but we were able to buy bottled water in the Parc Market at an average price. Also a point to note is that the microwave was too small for our baby's bottles and steriliser but we anticipated this after experiencing this problem before and took our own microwave. But apart from that the lodge was lovely. It was about a 15 minute walk from the Plaza and that was taking our time with a pushchair. Lots of people on here have suggested getting a villa near the Plaza but it can get rather noisy the closer you get to the Plaza so the middle area is a good compromise, no noise but still only a 10 minute walk to the Plaza. On the Center Parcs website when booking, there was an option to pay an additional £49 to book a lodge in the middle area, we did not do this and just chose the "no preference" option and we were still allocated a lodge in the middle section.
When we arrived on the Monday it was a bit chaotic but that was too be expected. We went on the 8th October and even though it was during term time there was still an awful lot of children there, probably because of how expensive it is to go during school holidays, so just be aware that if you are going during school time hoping that it will be quiet this wont be the case.
I have noticed that a lot of people on here have commented on how expensive everything is but the cost of all of the activities and all of the menus from the restaurants are on the Center Parcs website so you are able to budget for this and it is not a shock when you get there.
We decided to take our own food and eat all our meals in our lodge to save money and the kitchen was more than adequate to do this. We did buy a few extra items in the Parc Market and we were pleasantly surprised with the prices of things. Some items were more expensive than in our local supermarket but many others were either cheaper or the same price. While we were out at Longleat Safari Park we decided to pop to a nearby Tesco to pick up a few items as well.
Even though we were not planning on eating out we still did on two occasions. We had lunch at the Sports Cafe, just because we happened to be there when we got hungry and the food was lovely and so were the staff. However, I do think that £19.95 for two sandwiches and 2 drinks is a bit much but we were expecting to pay this amount. On our last night we decided to treat ourselves to a meal out and I would strongly advise you to book if you decide to eat out. We did not book and got turned away from Hucks because we did not book, even though the restaurant was almost empty and over an hour later the restaurant was still almost empty. We then went to Ortega and again because we hadn't booked we were told that we could only have starters and had to be gone within the hour. Again the restaurant had lots of empty tables that were still empty when we left. The food was lovely though so we will definitely be going there again just this time we will make sure we book first.
We hired bikes but we wont be doing this next time. I was only advise you to hire a bike if you are an experienced rider, I have not rode a bike in over 20 years and Center Parcs is not the place to try to learn how to ride a bike. There are paths that are just for bikes and others just for people but a number of times I got forced off my bike by people walking on the cycle paths, which are extremely narrow and I also got forced off my bike by someone on a bike coming the other way because the path wasn't big enough for 2 bikes. We also had to spend the week avoiding cars while we were out on our bikes. Center Parcs say that you are not allowed to drive your cars around the village but there were a considerable number of cars and also staff vans driving around every day. The people in the lodge next to us used there car all the time and even parked it outside their lodge rather than in the car park which did annoy me a bit.
We went swimming a couple of times and we were expecting it to be warm since it is called 'Subtropical Swimming Paradise' but it was extremely cold. Also the first time we went we had to wait 20 minutes for an available family changing room, but the second time we were able to go straight in. The actual pool and everything inside it is really good and we had a lot of fun but like I said it was freezing so we couldn't stay in too long with a baby.
Like I said at the start we had a brilliant time and the points I mentioned above are only because I am being really picky and we can't wait to go again next year
I cannot fault the place at all. I have a few little niggles if I am being really picky and there are a few things worth knowing before you go but like I said it was a brilliant holiday.
We stayed in a 3 bedroom New Style Woodland Lodge in the Pine area (367). The lodge looked exactly like it does in the pictures on the website and we loved it. My only little niggle is that the water in the lodge wasn't drinkable and was full of lime scale, however, I may just be being really picky because where we live the water is drinkable, but we were able to buy bottled water in the Parc Market at an average price. Also a point to note is that the microwave was too small for our baby's bottles and steriliser but we anticipated this after experiencing this problem before and took our own microwave. But apart from that the lodge was lovely. It was about a 15 minute walk from the Plaza and that was taking our time with a pushchair. Lots of people on here have suggested getting a villa near the Plaza but it can get rather noisy the closer you get to the Plaza so the middle area is a good compromise, no noise but still only a 10 minute walk to the Plaza. On the Center Parcs website when booking, there was an option to pay an additional £49 to book a lodge in the middle area, we did not do this and just chose the "no preference" option and we were still allocated a lodge in the middle section.
When we arrived on the Monday it was a bit chaotic but that was too be expected. We went on the 8th October and even though it was during term time there was still an awful lot of children there, probably because of how expensive it is to go during school holidays, so just be aware that if you are going during school time hoping that it will be quiet this wont be the case.
I have noticed that a lot of people on here have commented on how expensive everything is but the cost of all of the activities and all of the menus from the restaurants are on the Center Parcs website so you are able to budget for this and it is not a shock when you get there.
We decided to take our own food and eat all our meals in our lodge to save money and the kitchen was more than adequate to do this. We did buy a few extra items in the Parc Market and we were pleasantly surprised with the prices of things. Some items were more expensive than in our local supermarket but many others were either cheaper or the same price. While we were out at Longleat Safari Park we decided to pop to a nearby Tesco to pick up a few items as well.
Even though we were not planning on eating out we still did on two occasions. We had lunch at the Sports Cafe, just because we happened to be there when we got hungry and the food was lovely and so were the staff. However, I do think that £19.95 for two sandwiches and 2 drinks is a bit much but we were expecting to pay this amount. On our last night we decided to treat ourselves to a meal out and I would strongly advise you to book if you decide to eat out. We did not book and got turned away from Hucks because we did not book, even though the restaurant was almost empty and over an hour later the restaurant was still almost empty. We then went to Ortega and again because we hadn't booked we were told that we could only have starters and had to be gone within the hour. Again the restaurant had lots of empty tables that were still empty when we left. The food was lovely though so we will definitely be going there again just this time we will make sure we book first.
We hired bikes but we wont be doing this next time. I was only advise you to hire a bike if you are an experienced rider, I have not rode a bike in over 20 years and Center Parcs is not the place to try to learn how to ride a bike. There are paths that are just for bikes and others just for people but a number of times I got forced off my bike by people walking on the cycle paths, which are extremely narrow and I also got forced off my bike by someone on a bike coming the other way because the path wasn't big enough for 2 bikes. We also had to spend the week avoiding cars while we were out on our bikes. Center Parcs say that you are not allowed to drive your cars around the village but there were a considerable number of cars and also staff vans driving around every day. The people in the lodge next to us used there car all the time and even parked it outside their lodge rather than in the car park which did annoy me a bit.
We went swimming a couple of times and we were expecting it to be warm since it is called 'Subtropical Swimming Paradise' but it was extremely cold. Also the first time we went we had to wait 20 minutes for an available family changing room, but the second time we were able to go straight in. The actual pool and everything inside it is really good and we had a lot of fun but like I said it was freezing so we couldn't stay in too long with a baby.
Like I said at the start we had a brilliant time and the points I mentioned above are only because I am being really picky and we can't wait to go again next year
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