Center Parcs Elveden Forest at Christmas

It’s become somewhat of a tradition over the last 4 years for us to have a break between Christmas and New Year with my in laws and this year was no exception. We have previously been to London for the day to see a show and had long weekends in Bath, although this year we gave Center Parcs Elveden Forest a whirl for 3 nights.

With us now having two young children to contend with, this resort was perfect because of the travel time; 50 minutes in a car on a brilliantly easy route doesn’t come with any complaints. It also meant that after the holiday had finished there wasn’t much post-holiday travel – bonus!

We arrived on the Sunday afternoon and it was pretty busy, although the queues were moving quickly. For those of you that haven’t been to Center Parcs before (I hadn’t, this was my first ever experience) then you literally drive up to the lodge style check in booths where they check over your details and hand over the keys, for you to then drive around the resort looking for your lodge/cabin/apartment depending on the type of accommodation you’ve chosen.

Accommodation
We were in a rather wonderful Exclusive Games Lodge which should be available at most villages.  These two storey, four bedroom, detached lodges come with some fantastic facilities but also had their faults.

I’ll start with the bedrooms. We had two twin rooms and two double rooms, all boasting en-suite facilities; ours specifically were two shower en-suites, and two jacuzzi bath en-suites. Yes, you read that right. Jacuzzi bath – great for creating bubbles for the kids! The bedrooms were spacious enough to move around comfortably and had a sliding door leading out to a really nice balcony overlooking some of the forest and your back living area.

However, one thing I couldn’t stand was the beds themselves. They were comfortable enough but the duvet, sheets and pillowcases were the noisiest things I’ve ever slept on. They were also the thickest. We have had a very, very mild winter so to have, what felt like, a 50 tog duvet on at night was almost unbearable for the 3 nights we were there. What made it worse was the fact that we couldn’t control the heating.

Center Parcs say in their information pack that they keep all residences at a controlled temperature to control their environmental emissions etc.. which is absolutely fine, except that controlled temperature was/is 23 degrees. The first night we suffered quite badly as we thought we had managed to sort the heating out, but by the middle of the next day I was on the phone to reception who said that whatever temperature we set would stay for 9 hours, and then we’d have to set it again. We tried that, and it still didn’t work. So we gave up as we only had one night left anyway and just opened the sliding door in the room just to get some fresh air circulating – we had already kept the en suite window open as far as it’d go too.

The kitchen, dining and living area are all open plan and they say the kitchen’s fully equipped, but you will need to take your own whisk I’m afraid (that’s a joke). The sofas are large and comfy, all facing inward towards what I imagine would be a rather lovely log burning fire and a TV set into the wall. We didn’t use the log burner because of the heating issue of course. I was quite disappointed that despite the description stating TV was multi-channel, they were extremely limited and there was no guide.

Having said all that the lodge itself comes with a steam room and sauna, which are situated outside next to the hot tub. The hot tub is the only thing ready for use upon arrival. The others take about half an hour to get ready so make sure to familiarise yourself with the instructions before you get your bikini or shorts on.  The hot tub is absolutely wonderful and could comfortably fit 8 people in. I’d personally recommend the big power jet right in the middle, it’s amazing on the shoulders.

The lodge is cleaned daily by a maid. Ours was called Cindy Lou and she loved playing hide and seek with things. As we were self catered we took quite a bit of food with us but came back after being out and about to find that some of it had been hidden. We couldn’t find it anywhere until we started opening the cupboards, only to find she had tried to be a bit too clean and had stashed everything away for us. The same went for our pyjamas. I thought I was going mad as I was sure I had left them on the bed. Turns out she had hidden them under two pillows just for a laugh. She otherwise did a very thorough job!

On to the games room. Complete with huge beanbags, a TV and a games console, it was like a little den for the big kids (adults!). Toby loved laying on the beanbags and jumping around so this was fab. I’m quite pleased that he’s not old enough for a games console yet as, even though it comes with the lodge, you do have to pay a £150 deposit (yikes!) for the controllers/games which is refunded on their return.

I think that just about covers the accommodation! The only other thing I’d say is that, apparently, there is dedicated parking nearby. However, we saw no evidence of this upon our arrival – we literally just parked in the big car park like everybody. There were unloading bays on the road leading up to our lodge, but no parking.

The Resort and Activities
The resort itself is deceptively big. It’s quite a long way to walk anywhere so I would highly recommend taking your own bikes, or hiring them from the resort if you don’t have your own as it will make life so much easier when you’re there.

Over the Christmas period Center Parcs tend to put on a “Winter Wonderland”. We were initially a bit confused as we thought it was an actual attraction that you could walk through, but as it turns out it’s literally just the resort having lots of lights, freestanding reindeers, polar bears, stars and Christmas trees around the central area of the resort. Don’t get me wrong, it was really lovely to see, but it’s a little bit misleading.

One of the great things about Center Parcs is that you can make it the kind of holiday you want it to be. Whether it’s relaxing, activity based or a bit of everything, there’s something for everyone here. Adults and children alike can attend activities that are age suitable and there are even family based activities. The most popular activity, I would guess, is their incredible Subtropical Swimming Paradise. The entry is completely free and totally unlimited.

Center Parcs Elveden Forest has The Cyclone, if you dare go on it. You basically sit on a buoyancy aid which can seat up to 4 people and you pretty much go down a plug hole –  it’s unbelievably great fun and I would recommend it to anyone. Not only that, Elveden Forest has the rapids which are absolutely hilarious if you all go down together and that was probably my favourite – especially when the sign said “feet first” and I obviously didn’t read it and went down head first. That was amazing!

For the kids there is an absolutely incredible pirate themed area where there are water cannons, buckets, water jets coming out of the ground, small slides and plenty of shallow areas so they can just sit and have a splash. I would highly recommend taking your children in there if they’re not so keen on the bigger swimming pool. Other features of the pools include water slides, a wave machine and jacuzzi areas. There is also a restaurant situated at the side of the pool so you really could have a whole day there.

Of course if you’d like to eat out there are a few restaurants that you can choose from, but equally there is a well stocked supermarket should you wish to cook. One thing I did notice though was that it doesn’t sell chewing gum. I guess they don’t fancy clearing it up around the resort, which is totally understandable given the scale. Unfortunately I can’t comment on the restaurants as we ate in every night but they are all located in the central part of the resort.

We did have lunch in the sports cafe after our morning swimming but this was purely so we could get the boys some lunch. It was pretty busy but there was lots to keep Toby occupied while his food was being cooked. However, I do think the soft play area indoors could do with a bit of updating. Some of the panels were torn and there were sharp bits on some of the padded areas and it’s not really that big either. One great thing about the sports cafe is that there are free jars of baby food. Right on the end of the counter where you order and pay for your meal/drinks, you literally just help yourself. We took a couple but didn’t take advantage and it was a lovely little extra for Ted, although he fell asleep straight after his bottle.

My in laws were very kind to pay for us to have half a day at the spa while they looked after Toby and Teddy for the afternoon. We had been once before in 2014 and it was so lovely. We went with my brother in law and his girlfriend and literally just spent the afternoon lazing around, taking in all the different steam rooms, saunas, showers and even waterbeds which were so lovely to lay on! And it was nice to have a little bit of a break from the children. I would highly recommend it to anybody if you can go, and if you want anything extra, such as a massage or facial, be sure to book well in advance as they usually don’t suffer with cancellations or short notice appointments.

Would I stay again? Yes. It’s definitely our kind of holiday and it will be such a good one to do with the children when they’re older. I can’t wait until we can do all the family activities, but that’ll be a few years yet. I’d highly recommend staying here, although I haven’t experienced any other Center Parcs resorts so can’t compare.

Have you stayed at a Center Parcs Elveden Forest resort before? Or maybe you’ve stayed at another resort? How did you find it? Would you go again?