Centre Parcs is great – there I’ve said it! A few short words, that a few short years ago – when my holidays were spent on backpacking adventures, bungy jumping, canyoning and sledging – would never have passed my lips. They were the pre M days of course, because there is a caveat to my opening statement – Centre Parcs is great… when you’ve got kids.
We arrived on the Monday with grandparents in tow, we had managed to get a very reasonably priced 4 bed woodland lodge, on one of the many special offers you can find during the year, during term time. Perfect for parents with toddlers and babies.
I love to ride my tricycle!
Our first stop was to collect the bikes, J and I had been looking forward to this – seeing the oldies on bikes and trikes turned out to be as amusing as we had hoped it would be. A few wobbles though and they were off, recapturing their youth with every turn of the wheel.
Unfortunately, our amusement soon turned to frustration when our little madam refused to get in the trailer we had got for her. We tried bribery, we tried pleading and eventually we tried force – which resulted in a monumental tantrum (her and me) and then we gave up.
As we grumpily set off walking back to our villa, we started to point out the other kids in their trailers hoping that this would persuade her that she was missing something truly exciting. That is until we realised that most of them were screaming their heads off too, they just hadn’t managed to escape before their parents had ridden off.
As M gave us a smug grin, we felt slightly comforted in the knowledge that we weren’t the only ones who had a stubborn child. That’s the beauty of CentreParks, no matter how bad you think your little monster is behaving, there’s a worse one just around the corner.
Our woodland lodge was lovely, well decorated, with everything that you could possibly need and M’s room was far enough way from the living area, that noise wouldn’t be an issue after she had gone to bed. We all settled in quite nicely.
Lake at Centre Parcs
Over the next couple of days we made excellent use of the many facilities. The sub-tropical swimming paradise caters for all tastes, from toddler and larger pools, to rapids and slides, to jacuzzies – so everyone was happy. M in particular loved it and would have happily stayed there all day if we had let her.
She also had a great time on the little sandy beach, next to the lake at Elveden Forest. Little boats were stacked up along the beach and M was soon climbing into them and asking us to push her into the water. Encouraged by her enthusiasm we decided to take a rowing boat out and make the most of the sun that was peeping through the clouds.
M also spent a lot of time in the many indoor play areas and the outdoor toddler swing park, all of which she enjoyed immensely. J and I decided that we would try to get a taste of our usual holiday adrenalin rush, by taking on the aerial adventure. We got our harnesses on and tackled the Postman’s Walk and Burma Bridge, and then got to the spider’s web.
The Spider Web
As M looked up laughing hysterically, I smiled back through gritted teeth wondering why on earth I was 40ft up a tree clinging on to a bit of rope. I pushed on through the Hanging Platforms and Indiana Bridge and was rewarded with the rush of the zip wire at the end and of course a big kiss from my little girl.
Our days were packed with fun and our evenings were filled with good food from restaurants that had indoor soft play areas – what more could a toddler want? We all took away good memories of a happy family holiday and the desire to go out and buy a bike…
