Centre Parks Woburn Forest

This is my last post about our trip to Europe this summer. Read about our four weeks in England here, here and here, and about our week in Spain here. This post is about the week we spent at Centre Parcs in Woburn Forest. Centre Parcs is a UK family holiday park. There are six locations across England and Ireland, and each are set up as a village with apartment accommodation, indoor and outdoor on-site activities and a variety of restaurants and cafés. There are tons of different activities to choose from, such as tennis, horseback riding, crafts, climbing, kayaking... the list goes on. There is even a gym, spa and daycare. That is my kind of family holiday! Cars are not allowed in the village, there is a big parking lot where you leave the car for the week, and everyone walks or bikes throughout the village. It is a very easy place to holiday with kids as there is so much to do for all ages, and everything is very family friendly.

Visitors to Centre Parcs can choose to stay for four nights/five days during the week (Monday to Friday), or three nights/four days on the weekend (Friday to Monday). We visited another Centre Parcs for the weekend with Andy's family back in 2012, before we moved to Australia. This time we were doing the Monday to Friday stay. 

We left Andy’s parents Monday morning at 9am for the two hour drive to Woburn Forest. Access to accommodation is from 2pm, but you can arrive anytime to check-in and enjoy the facilities. Upon arrival we headed over to the Sports Café for some lunch. It had a soft play area and an outdoor playground which Ollie and Ella both loved, especially after the long car ride. We had a long lunch and play there until we could get into our accommodation. 

Our accommodation was a four bedroom, two bathroom lodge with a generous sized living area and a very well equipped kitchen. The lodges come with a cot and high chair which is helpful when travelling with a baby. As this is a newer Centre Parcs location (it opened in 2014) the accommodation is in very good condition. We have a small back patio that overlooks the forest, and the lodges are positioned so that you can’t see your neighbour’s backyard which makes you feel somewhat secluded. Our lodge is located very close to the main activity centres. We had to pay extra for this but we figured having to bike everywhere with the two kids would be a pain. 

Once we could check in we spent an hour getting settled into the accommodation, unpacking clothes and the food we’d brought. We brought most of the food we would need for breakfasts and lunches with us, but there is a grocery store in case you've forgotten anything (or of course you can eat in one of the restaurants or cafés). Andy and his parents then took Ella swimming in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise while I stayed back with Ollie so he could have his afternoon nap. The swimming paradise is a huge (mostly) indoor centre, heated to 29.5 degrees, and consists of several pools, adventure play areas and slides. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside the swimming paradise so this is the best I could get - a picture of the outside (where you can kind of see the rapids, an adventurous version of a lazy river, along with some tube water slides), and an obscured picture of the inside. If you are interested, there are much better pictures here.

We spent a lot of time during the week in the Swimming Paradise. It is very well designed, and accommodates both young children and those wanting to go on more adventurous water slides. The fact that both the air and water are heated to such a comfortable temperature mean you can walk around in a wet bathing suit without getting cold. There is a Starbucks and a snack bar inside so you don't even need to leave to eat (or get your coffee!). Ella love, love, loved it and we pretty much had to drag her out (sometimes kicking and screaming) every day. Ollie also really liked it, I think the warm water helped enormously and there was a toddler pool with water play that he could spend an hour or more playing at without getting bored. 

Ollie and I met up with everyone for dinner at Strada, a popular Italian chain in England. Like a lot of restaurants at the park, there was a soft play area which was great for the kids while we were waiting for our meal. We managed to have a fairly civilised dinner, a rare occurrence with a one and four-year old. The adults even managed to have two rounds of drinks!

On Tuesday morning Dave took Ella to a Baby Owls session, where she learned about owls and was even able to have one perch on her gloved arm. It was a perfect granddad & granddaughter activity!

There weren't a lot of activities for Ollie, so he mainly spent time in the Swimming Paradise, but I did book him in to a baby sensory class which he seemed engaged in. It was located in the daycare, and the educators that worked there seemed lovely. It would definitely be a nice rest to book your kids into the daycare for a couple of hours during your stay. (We didn't do this as between the four of us we were all able to get some adult only time at some point during the week.)

Andy's brother Russ and his new wife Lauren came to visit us for two days, arriving late Tuesday morning. Andy's family used to book holidays at Centre Parcs regularly, so they had a great time doing loads of activities together, just like when they were younger. First up was "football pool", which is, you guessed it, a game of pool on an oversized tables, using your feet and footballs instead of pool balls and cues.

Ollie was dying to get in on the action:

Later that afternoon I brought Ollie back to the lodge for his afternoon nap while everyone got in some swimming time. I had the afternoon nap shift with Ollie most of the week, which gave me some time to just chill on my own, reading, doing yoga and catching up on this blog! It's rare that I have that much time to myself these days, so it was a real treat to have some peaceful moments to myself with Ella occupied and Ollie asleep.

Russ and Lauren brought a pasta bake and salad with them, so we had a nice meal that evening in our lodge with everyone.



On Wednesday morning Lauren, Bunny and I headed to the spa for a massage. We then had coffees and a chat in the spa café on the balcony overlooking the forest which was very peaceful and relaxing.

Next up the boys went on a Segway tour of the site. This was Dave's pick for activities. By all accounts they had a good time, but it was harder than it looked!



While they were doing that we took the kids swimming, and for an ice cream afterwards. Getting Ella out of the water in an agreeable mood was best achieved with an ice cream bribe.



Next the Nobles all played tennis table and mini-golf while I, you guessed it, took Ollie back to the lodge for his nap.







Before I left we managed to get a pretty decent group shot:



That evening we went out for dinner for Huck's American Bar and Grill. We all enjoyed our meals and had some pretty epic desserts to finish them off - most notable was Dave's crazy milkshake:

One of the two playgrounds in the village was right behind the restaurant so we had a play after dinner before heading back to our lodge for bedtime. Russ and Lauren left after dinner, as they were leaving for their honeymoon in Iceland two days later.



Our last two days were pretty chilled out. Ella went on a pony ride with Dave and we spent more time swimming. By the end of the week Ella was very confident in the water, even passing a swimming test so she could go on the rapids ride. She had to swim 5m by herself without a life jacket and was super proud of herself every time she passed this test. Ollie was loving it as well, the warm temperature of the air and water definitely helped get him used to the water.



All in all we had a pretty fantastic week, and I'm sure we will visit Centre Parcs again in the future. One thing I will mention is that it is not a cheap holiday. We were lucky as Dave and Bunny treated us and paid for the accommodation, which meant we could spend a bit more on activities and food without having to constantly count our pennies. (All of the activities except the swimming are extra, and again they are on the more expensive side.) However, you are paying for a super convenient and easy holiday with children, and "easy holiday with children" is not a term that is heard often! I think it will be brilliant as the kids get older, and who knows, maybe in a few years Ella and Ollie will have some little cousins to visit with as well ;)