I was a Bognor Butlins Daytripper! (Butlins (Bognor Regis))

Member Name: azana

Product:	Butlins (Bognor Regis)
Date:	20/08/09 (274 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap way to experience butlins

Disadvantages: we didn't stay overnight

*this is a Butlins as a day trip review only*

I like to think that my sense of adventure has not quite deserted me, but these days as a mum of two my ability for spontaneity is limited. Still, on perhaps the only proper day of sunshine to date in the what is loosely known as "Summer" holidays, I found myself at Butlins Bognor as a day tripper. This certainly wasn't what I was expecting when I woke up that morning.

Butlins, as I am sure most people know is a holiday camp, but you can buy day tickets and at the entrance to Bognor itself there even road signs that say "Butlins guests" and "day visitors to Butlins" which seperates people off nicely in a goats and sheep manner. This is a review of Bognor as a day facility only - you can stay there in a chalet or one of the new luxury hotels on site, and many people do, at greater expense of course.

So how did I become to be one of the day sheep?

My journey started a while back, in 1989 precisely where I spent a heady Summer working in Butlins Minehead, thus ensuring a full understanding of the inner workings of the camp and a slight reluctance to ever go back as a paying guest for no sinister reason other than 8 consecutive weeks at Butlins is very possibly enough for one lifetime.

I hadn't been back since working there, however when my first plan of the day to go to Wittering beach was foiled by the world's biggest traffic jam. A quick "is there sand at Bognor?" call to Granny, lead to her googling Bognor and coming up with the rather optomistic view that yes, there was some, and Bognor is great for families. When we arrived to rather a high tide and wall to wall pebbles Butlins beckoned. If nothing else I was curious to find out how much the Butlins experience had changed in the last decade or so.


Butlins is right on the seafront and for day trippers there is a public car park, at a reasonable £1 per hour-ish. A tip off from a man at the gate meant we popped to the nearby tourist office and got a £9 discount leaflet for day trippers - meaning for a family it was £30 for the day to use the same facilities as longer staying guests.

Once inside we had a full day to check out all that Butlins could offer, for an extra £10 we could have upgraded to have a cinema pass, game of bowls and some go-karting.

Since my Minehead circa 1989 days Butlins has installed so-called "pavillions" on all their sites, basically a huge tent type structure to shelter from the weather and housing food outlets, 3 entertainment areas, soft play and fairground rides for the little ones. I don't think soft play existed in the 80's, but apart from this, the Butlins feel hadn't changed much - family fun in one guise or another, some bits looked a little bit posher but some things hadn't changed an iota. They may have introduced a few funky attractions like a trip wire (new for 2009) and a recording studio experience for teens, but basically Butlins is as it ever was in my day.

Once we had entered the gates we decided to try to make the most of our day. The children had a lot of fun on the rides, a little car, ladybird and plane ride, that weren't the most modern but still good fun, especially with no queues and the freedom to go on them as many times as you liked. Outside there was a larger merry go round and a couple of other more thrilling rides for taller guests. There was also a good play area, go karts (for a fee) and also pedal cars for hire, crazy golf for £1.50 and new a climbing wall that looked quite challenging. All this was overlooked by the newest of the shoreline hotels, which looked quite swish but a little incongruous next to some of the older parts of the site.

As we were blessed with a sunny day we were able to have a look at everything and we also went into Splashworld, the indoor pool, to cool off. This is a good pool with a wave machine and lots of flumes and the like, though very busy on the day we visited it was extremely well staffed, which was lucky as some of the teenage guests seemed to have a blind disregard of their own safety and that of anyone else in their way. The changing rooms were not the cleanest ever, but overall the pool was good, particularly the flume you could go down in a dingy, though queues were long.

To eat there was a wide choice of options. We were fully fuelled with a copious breakfast so not able to make use of the "all you can eat" buffet or pizza buffet, fish and chip or other choices, and Burger King did not beckon for us. We bought a couple of sandwiches from the onsite supermarket which seemed fair value for self catering onsite guests too. I think you would probably struggle to find many healthy eating choices to buy on site, though there is a costa cafe as well as Butlins' own restaurants. Maybe healthy food is not the point here.

In the pavillion we saw some of the entertainment, a puppet show, Bob the Builder and a strange robot. The red coats were as full on as I remember with permanent smiles (in my day they used to be allowed to the front of the queue in the staff canteen and were the creme de la creme to us lowly waitresses) and the kids seemed to be enjoying the football club - there are Sports facilities and you can book a range of activities. The entertainment wasn't ever and still isn't my thing - I don't like enforced jolliness - however everyone seemed to be enjoying it and to be fair my children liked the shows aimed at them.

We did find that after 5 hours or so we had probably done as much as we wanted to onsite, and we were happy to go off to the beach, which by that time had plenty of sand.

I can't comment as to the standard of the facilities for staying guests these days, however the families that I spoke to seemed to be having a great time. There was a Butlins travel agent on site and some holidays were available for £800 or so for 4 days for a family including dinner and breakfast.

For us, I felt that £30 for the day was good value, and we had experienced quite a lot of what was on offer, I didn't feel that we missed out too much from not being on site overnight, actually I was quite glad to head to the comforts of home. With our day pass we had been able to go on and off site as much as we wanted, like regular guests, so if you want to experience Butlins and are within an easy journey distance this is a much cheaper way of "doing" Butlins.

I would visit for a day again, if I am brutally honest a week would not appeal to me at all, and a day for me was ample, but I appreciate it does appeal to many. If you do visit for a day only I would advise getting your hands on one of those discount vouchers, and also not arriving too late on sunny days. Though last entry is 4pm for day guests, we arrived at 11 and by midday they were full to capacity and not allowing anyone else in. For a fun day for kids I can fully recommend the Butlins experience, we certainly had a memorable day!


http://www.butlins.com/ for more details of what is on offer and the latest deals

Summary: butlins as a daytripper