A World Within A World, Without Cars (Center Parcs)

Member Name: nykied

Product:	Center Parcs
Date:	28/09/09 (167 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything's on one fairly small area

Disadvantages: Quite expensive, especially for a family

I went to the CenterParcs located at Sherwood Forest for a hen do. It was a lot better than I expected it to be. We rented 4 of the standard cabins which were nice, fairly clean (only one spider that we saw! I didn't go in that bedroom!) and within easy walking distance of all the amenities. One little gripe that we had was that, although we made the booking of 4 cabins together, they were all fairly far apart.

CenterParcs is like Butlins used to be but better. There's a fantastic water park bit, where there's a wave pool, a lazy river, a not-so-lazy river and even a cold dunk pool. The lazy river actually takes you outside and although I was dreading that, what with it being September and cold, you couldn't actually tell as the water was at a nice temperature. The cold dunking pool was horrible though. Something that you'd perhaps do once and never do again - I shrieked like a little girl as I was trying to get out as fast as I could!

The food available on the site was good, although a little expensive. It's worth bringing some food from home as there are good cooking facilities in the cabins. In my opinion, the best and nicest place to eat is the House of Pancakes. Sit inside though if you're scared of wasps - still lots around even in September.

There are a few pubs which are fairly family-orientated, although they do also welcome groups of hens dressed up in fancy dress and generally being silly! Again, the prices were quite high.

There are also some nice shops on the site which are only about as expensive as the standard highstreet shops, although they do have an overabundance of CenterParc presents, as expected.

The activities available are good and there's a lot to choose from, both for adults and children. We tried laser quest, which was done outside, so pretty much like paintball but without the mess and the bruises! If you do try the laser quest though, one word of warning - follow the map not the signposts on the site! They've quite recently moved it from one corner to another and not changed the signs. We arrived about 45 minutes late due to this oversight and had to rebook for the next day.

It's a world within a world, one with no cars (you have to drop your stuff off at your cabin and park in a perimeter carpark until you leave) and it's definitely somewhere I would go again. Indeed, another visit is already being planned!

Summary: Fantastic place for a mini-break, somewhere I'd love to go again!