Prepare for a sore bottom! (Center Parcs)

Member Name: hpoulton

Product:	Center Parcs
Date:	07/11/01 (5960 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relaxing & laid back, Nice accommodation, Plenty to do during the day

Disadvantages: Not much for adults to do in the evenings, Can work out expensive

I am pleased to see Center Parcs not listed in amongst family holidays because although I know that is what they mainly gear themselves to, I don't think it is exclusively for families.

I went to Center Parcs just over a year ago with a friend for a short break. We visited the Longleat Forest resort: the other two are in Elveden Forest and Sherwood Forest, but all three are pretty similar, based on a European Concept. We went in the off-season (February) and paid about £130 each for five days four nights in a two bedroom chalet (we went for two bedrooms as the one bedroom one only offered a double bedded room, no twins). We also paid a £10 supplement which allows you to be allocated the nearest available chalet to the Plaza (where most of the facilities are - more about that later!) and at the time we booked there was a special offer on where you got £75 of vouchers for money off during your visit. You can book more upmarket apartments, but ours was fine. The bedrooms were very small, but the living area was huge with a well-equipped kitchen, lovely bathroom and separate toilet. The chairs in the lounge were EXTREMELY uncomfortable, but other than this, and a temperamental temperature control on the shower which led to a lot of leaping out of the shower screaming, there were no complaints! Everywhere was spotlessly clean and most things looked new. There is a TV and radio, and a handy system whereby if a friend or relative needs to contact you while you are away they can phone through a message to the reception, and the message will get flashed up on your TV screen! One thing worth noting is that bath towels are not provided - you have to hire them at a cost of £5, and you are not allowed to take them to the pool!

You can book a 4 or 5 day break, from Friday to Monday or Monday to Friday - they do offer longer breaks, but this is about right, and the majority of people do just stay for the short time. Check in and out times are very hectic as
basically the whole park is leaving or arriving all at once, but this is done for a very good reason: cars are not allowed in the park apart from on check in and out day. You check in at a drive up booth (very convenient!) and then drive to your chalet and unload your bags before driving back to the car park. I have to say that driving in the park on check in/out days was a nightmare - the roads are narrow and not really designed for cars, plus there is little parking (in fact, my friend managed to knock over a bollard and we had to return in the dead of night to put it back in the ground!!!) but once you've taken the car back to the parking area you are ready to relax! You can then hire bicycles to get around the park. We had no intention of cycling anywhere, but after a day or two realised that the bikes would be invaluable and did give in to hiring them! As neither of us had cycled for years we did come back with sore bums! Longleat is quite hilly however, so we didn't cycle everywhere, preferring to use the land train which connects one end of the park to the other! You can take your own bicycles with you if you wish, which would eliminate the cost of having to hire bikes.

Now, on to the main facilities. The Plaza is the undercover dome which I am sure most people associate with Center Parcs. It houses the tropical swimming paradise, which includes a wave pool, waterslides, hot spa pools, river rapids (which go outside ? not for the faint hearted in February I can tell you!), sun beds, café and numerous seating areas. All the swimming facilities are free and changing areas and lockers are provided. Also in the Plaza are shops, including the Parcmarket supermarket which stocks a good range of goods, souvenir shops, a boutique and sweet shop, plus several bars and a ten pin bowling alley. Finally there are several restaurants including Italian and American, where they have entertainment throughout the week, including discos and theme evenings. O
ther restaurants in the park include the pancake house, which is highly recommended, and also hosts a fondue evening once a week, which was great fun! This is situated in the Town Square, a little way from the Plaza, which also houses the customer service office (where you book all your activities), medical centre and quite an upmarket restaurant.

Finally, over the other side of the park (hence our use of the land train!) is the Lake (where watersports are on offer), the Country Club, which has two more restaurants plus sports facilities, including aerobics, badminton and snooker, a sports shop and even a cinema ? which doesn?t show the latest releases, but did have a few fairly recent films showing, and finally the Aqua Sana ? my personal favourite thing about Center Parcs!

The Aqua Sana is a Roman style building, which is home to a health spa ? with saunas, steam rooms, turkish baths, spa pools, hot and cold plunge pools and a relaxing area with tables and chairs, log fires and free drinks. It costs £10 to go in, but that is for the whole day. We went to an adults only session ? be warned, swimming costumes are optional, and although the au naturel option was not overly popular there were one or two middle aged men striding around in the buff ? not a nice sight! However I think this was probably preferable to a family session when it is supposed to be a relaxing activity! Also in the Aqua Sana is the health and beauty centre where you can choose from all manner of treatments, including inch loss body wraps, a variety of facials and massages. I opted for an aromatherapy facial, back, neck and shoulder massage and a manicure ? all of which I would highly recommend! The treatments were quite expensive, but it was worth it to be pampered for a few days! After your treatments you can have complimentary herbal teas in a lovely conservatory area.

With hindsight, we would have preferred to be close to the Country Club and Aqua Sana than the P
laza, and would bear this in mind when booking again.

Other activities available in the park include Archery, Nature walks, children?s clubs and horse riding. The only one we went for was Horse Riding, for which we had to catch a minibus out of the park. I didn?t particularly enjoy this experience as I spent most of it being terrified of falling off, but my friend seemed to enjoy it!

So, to sum up my visit to Center Parcs. Well, it does have a reputation for being expensive. You could make it a cheap break if you self-catered, filled up your apartment with people (as you rent the apartment, rather than paying per person) and just spent every day swimming, but it does become expensive once you start eating out and doing activities. As I said before, I don?t think it is just for families, as we really enjoyed ourselves and it was a lovely relaxing, pampering break, but on the down side there wasn?t much for adults to do in the evenings as most of the restaurants and bars seemed to empty by about 10 p.m. so we didn?t have many late nights and stayed in with a bottle of wine a few times. This was preferable to wobbling back on a bicycle after one too many, and in any case we had been so busy during the day that it was nice to have some early nights. I do think though, that Center Parcs could capture a whole new market if they offered a bit more evening entertainment for adults, as much of the day time activity on offer is ideal.

On the whole I would definitely recommend it for a short break with friends or for couples, so long as you are prepared to spend a bit of money on activities and are not looking for non-stop partying - or are happy to make your own entertainment in the evening! Oh yes, and you should also prepare to come back a bit saddle sore!!! Don?t bother taking smart clothes with you, as you will soon realise that once you start cycling everywhere practicality is the key!

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