For years and years I have wondered what the big deal was about Center Parcs. I’m 31 and it’s taken this long for me to finally get to experience it for myself. A couple of weeks ago me, John and Erin headed off for a midweek break at Center Parcs with my sister Natalie and her fiance Chris. We live in Norfolk so our nearest Center Parcs was Elvden Forest in Thetford which is only about an hour away by train.
As we are a family that don’t drive we had to be pretty careful with how we packed. We had to cart our cases full of both clothes, and food etc, for 5 days away on 2 trains and then into a taxi from the station. I can imagine it is so much easier to pack and take absolutely everything you need if you have a car and can drive to Center Parcs. I would have packed differently had this been the case.
When we arrived at about 12pm, we headed straight to the security/ welcome lodge so we could check in and leave our luggage. We were able to leave everything we didn’t want to cart around with us until we were able to get in to the lodge at 3pm. They even offered to deliver it to the lodge for us! How amazing is that?! Check in was super simple as I’d already put in all of our information online so we were pretty much given 2 wristbands for our lodge, which were our keys, and told where we could go if we needed any extras. After this, we were free to explore!
I’m going to be writing quite a few posts about our holiday to Center Parcs so I thought in this one, I’ll break it down day by day to tell you what we got up to.
Day 1 – Monday
- 12pm – Arrival and check in
- Lunch – Sports Cafe
- 3pm – Go to lodge and unpack
- Afternoon Activity – Swimming
- Dinner – Huck’s American Bar and Grill
Day 2 – Tuesday
- Breakfast in the lodge/ feeding the animals outside
- Morning Activity – Sensory Play (30 minutes – £7 per child)
- Lunch at the lodge and naps all round!
- Afternoon Activity – Swimming
- Dinner – Cafe Rouge
Day 3 – Wednesday
- Breakfast in the lodge/ feeding the animals outside
- Morning activity – Feeding the ducks by the lake/ on the beach
- Lunch at the lodge and naps all round!
- Afternoon activity – Adventure of the Senses (Roughly an hour – £7 per person)
- Dinner – Sports Cafe
Day 4 – Thursday
- Breakfast in the lodge/ feeding the animals outside
- Morning activity – Owl Babies (45 minutes – £10 each)
- Lunch at the lodge
- Afternoon Activity – Target Archery (55 minutes – £24.50 per person)
- Afternoon Activity 2 – Spa Session (3 hour spa session for 2 £70)
- Dinner – Bella Italia
Day 5 – Friday
- Breakfast in the lodge/ feeding the animals outside
- 930 – John and Chris went to drop luggage back at the security gate
- 10am – Leave lodge
- Morning Activity – Swimming
- Lunch – Pancake House
- Drinks in the Sports Cafe
- 2:45 – Leave!
I was so happy with our lodge. It was clean, modern and there was loads of space for the 5 of us. Erin loved being able to have the large patio doors open in the morning to feed the animals outside and she also loved laying on the corner sofa and colouring. The lodge had both a bathroom and a second toilet which is perfect if you’re sharing with friends and family.
We didn’t book in too many activities as we were trying to do a holiday on a budget. Some were better than others but with there being so much to choose from, there really is something for everyone. Swimming at the Subtopical Swimming Paradise is free so it’s worth making the most of this. Also, going to be beach/ lake with Erin was loads of fun and feeding the ducks kept us occupied for ages.
Meals can be expensive, especially if you want to eat out a lot. We did eat out a fair bit and honestly, as nice as it was, we could have eaten/ cooked at the lodge and been just as happy. Center Parcs has a decent sized but slightly overpriced supermarket so you can pick up pretty much anything you need. However, I would certainly recommend packing loads of food and taking it with you to save money.
Although I haven’t gone into detail here about what we got up to all week, I will say that we had an AMAZING time. I could have quite happily stayed a few more days. I loved our midweek break At Center Parcs and I’m itching to book again for next year.
