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| The Lake near the Sports Plaza |
We're just back from a midweek break (Mon-Fri) to Center Parcs Longleat. We first visited in 1995 whenour firstborn was just under a year old, and have been back many times since. I've blogged a few times over the years about our visits here 2020, 2012, 2010, 2008 and 2006.
In many ways, there's little to add to these previous posts, but this post will no doubt regurgitate some of of what I've said before. The basic premise is a weekend or midweek break away in a forest lodge with time to do as much (for a cost) or as little as you'd like, with the centrepiece activity the sub-tropical swimming paradise, complete with hot tubs, heated outdoor pools, and various slides, lazy rivers, wave machines etc. There are several restaurant choices or the lodges are superbly equipped for self catering needs, supported by the well stocked onsite Parcmarket. Additionally, (free) wifi is near universally available over the whole site and fast enough for streaming (take an HDMI cable to attache to the TV), which also helps because depending on your service provider, your phone signal may be non existent. We stayed in one of the two storey executive lodges close to the main Plaza which had the added benefit of its own sauna, but frankly, all of the lodges are well enough equipped and comfortable enough for anyone for a 3/4 day break.
Over the years many available activities have changed, some have disappeared some have been modernised, and plenty of new ones have appeared but the bottom line is there's something for everyone irrespective of age or ability, loads to do if you want to, and plenty of opportunity to just chill out if you don't.
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| About to enter the Rapids |
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| Girls on the Rapids |
It was noticeable that several things weren't available/open during our visit. The high ropes weren't in use (low ropes for younger kids was), the zip line wasn't even up. The smaller of the "big" rides - the "Typhoon" in the sub-tropical swimming paradise remained closed all week. The Pancake House was closed for refurbishment, and the Foresters restaurant in the Village square was open but had scaffolding all around. There may well have been other activities that we didn't look at that weren't on, although how much of this was due to restricted use due to covid rather than refurbishment I couldn't tell.
Talking of covid, there was plenty of hand sanitising stations, masks were worn by some people, but I'd argue the majority weren't wearing even in indoor areas (this is England of course not Wales). It was table only service in the bars in the Plaza and Sports Plaza (I keep calling it by it's old name, the Jardin Des Sports - maybe they changed it because of Brexit?), but you needed to download an app and register to get table service - a bit of a faff as it wasn't the most intuitive app to register and there were (as far as we could tell) no options to pay via Apple or Google Pay.
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| Lads in the Sports Plaza pre snooker |
We've always visited in January-March or October/November, avoiding the school holidays where we could due to eye watering price hikes on the basic accommodation fees at those times. And this is the kicker. A Center Parcs break is generally not cheap, either for the accommodation or the activities (although the sub-tropical paradise swimming and slides are all free) - especially if you're in a bigger group, but at the end of the day, it's a holiday and we planned and budgeted for it
There were 5 of us this time, with my son's best mate (he's virtually part off the family anyway) tagging along as his girlfriend unfortunately couldn't get the time off.
With the situation around the pandemic easing, plus being in England, there was thankfully fairly little evidence of restrictions dampening the holiday experience. We understood the place was roughly at 85% capacity due to a combination of opening up gradually and a significant amount of lodge refurbishment going on. As always, apart from arrival day which is always a bit busy, the rest of the stay was pretty relaxed - the place was busy but nowhere near full on - and although we were officially outside of half term, there were lots of children in evidence.
A handy tip for people who haven't been before. Time your activities well and there's plenty of availability for certain activities. We were in the sports Plaza at around 4pm-6pm on Wednesday and it was dead. Only 1 of the 10 (I think) Badminton courts was in use, there were plenty of spare table tennis and snooker and pool tables available. This is likely due to people going back to their lodges for tea and to put younger kids to bed! You can (and it's recommended to) pre-book activities, but you can also book onsite on the day - we did a virtual walk up booking for one activity. Restaurants you almost certainly need to pre-book.
Our stay also caught the end of Center Parcs Winter Lights experience, with many of the walkways lit up with twinkling, or cascading lights, as well as full on Winter Light walk in the Village Square complete with music - if anyone local to us in South Wales did the Bute Park light trail, it was pretty similar (if much smaller) and even though we're several weeks into 2022 and Christmas is a distant memory, it was still a magical experience and especially so for the younger clientele.
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| Winter Lights I |
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| Winter Lights II |
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| Winter Lights III |
As we are all a bit older now - well basically it was two retired/semi-retired oldies and three twentysomethings our activity choice has changed a little over the years. Nevertheless, we got stuck in and our week included cycling around the site (2 of us hired bikes, which also reminded us both how unfit we are!), badminton, crazy golf (indoor and out), table tennis, snooker, spa sessions (for the girls), a falconry experience, 10 pin bowling and of course plenty of sub-tropical swimming paradise fun in the pools and on the slides and rapids.
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| The Gang mid-Badders |
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| Adventure Golf Basically outdoor crazy golf - 9 or 18 holes |
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| Challenge Golf (basically indoor crazy golf - only 8 holes though?) |
Just a word of note on the sub-tropical swimming paradise. On our previous visits you could just go any time you likes whilst it was open (until 9pm) but currently you have to pre-book a 3 hour slot, with a maximum of 4 slots available for a midweek stay (one a day effectively). There is no restriction after 6pm though - so if you're cute and booked a slot from say 4pm, you could actually stay until closure at 9pm.
This didn't prove problematic at all, and we made sure to include one session in the evening when it was dark - being in the well heated (basically like a bath) outdoor pool under the stars and going down the rapids in the dark is a CP must do!
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| Rapids at night |
We bookended our week with a meal at the Indian restaurant "Rajinda" on the Tuesday, and "Las Iguanas" on Thursday, our last night. There's normally a £5pp deposit with your pre-booking. It's worth noting that Las Iguanas doesn't do the same deals as its "normal" restaurants (e.g. 2 for 1 cocktails), presumably because it has a captive audience. It also had a few things not available when we sat down at 7.15pm on Thursday (which we vaguely recall happened on our last visit) possibly because it was end of week and they'd run out before the weekend refill.
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| Everything is well signposted |
One of the potential benefits of a CP stay is the chance to see nature and wildlife close up - we've seen deer on our lodge patio before now. Sadly we didn't see any deer, foxes or badgers this time - out lodge was very close to the Plaza, but there was plenty of avian activity - as well as the usual garden bird suspects (robins, blackbirds, blue tits) we saw Jays, buzzards, long tailed tits and a tree creeper. There were also plenty of squirrels, an odd frog or two and some baby rabbits.
As has always been the case, the one guarantee is that you come away from your break, whether a weekend or a midweek stay felling like you've genuinely been on a break and are all the more chilled for it.
It can be pricey, but it is recommended, and as I've said in some of my previous posts, we will be back.
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