We’ve been to Woolacombe Bay, we’ve been to Great Yarmoth, Butlins and to many other holiday places, but I have always heard people talk about Center Parcs. Now that two of our children have hit the teenage age, we have decided to go for it and go to Center Parcs Elveden, which is the closest one to us, for an entire week long holiday! We booked in the middle area, so it was a ten minute walk from the center of the park, and made sure to stay on the side closest to the water park as it was clear that was where we’d be spending most of our time.
We arrived well early on our first day, car packed full of stuff, as you can start using the facilities ahead of your 4pm check in time. We did a huge walk around, where everyone was very impressed with how big the place was. There were bike parks we passed, an entire sports hall with little offset rooms for crafting, a bowling place, tons of different places to eat, several different types of shops, a gym, the massive splash park, and lots of outdoor spaces like parks, climbing areas, archery – it’s a massive place and it does take more than week to really see and experience everything there.
Our Family Lodge at Center Parcs Elveden
Our family lodge was a three bedroom lodge, with a good sized living room, dinning room table, and kitchen. We also had a backyard with a large table and chairs set up. When we arrived, Kai went over and had a look at the food package that had been left for us while Robin and Amelia started drawing on the chalk board. The place had plenty of space, lots of storage, and it was very easy to start spreading out! I quite liked the fact that the TV had loads of cables, so you can plug in your computer and watch movies from there – something we did a lot in the evenings. I do feel the lodges could use a washing machine, as there are no washing machine facilities on the park, and the pots themselves were not the best, but otherwise there was everything we needed!
During our stay, as Center Parcs Elveden is in a forest, we saw muntjacs, squirrels, ducks and moorhens, many of which visited us on our stay, coming to our back sliding door. We were right near a small body of water, which they seemed to visit in the morning before visiting us.
Subtropical Swimming Paradise
We spent a lot of time at the Subtropical Swimming Paradise at Center Parcs Elveden, going every single day for several hours. They had a main large pool that had waves, a smaller lazy river off to the side of the large pool, and lots of cabanas that can be rented. These cabanas had a TV in them, couches, and you could order food to them, though they do need to be booked up before your stay really! There a neat lagoon in the main pool area, off to the side, which wasn’t as deep and looked like it was inside a cave. Robin really enjoyed the lagoon when taking a break from slides. Inside Subtropical Swimming Paradise, there were tons of slides. A really fast blue one and a covered green one, two open, almost park-like sides that you could go on whenever really, which rarely had a queue, and a giant tycoon slide that Robin wasn’t quite brave enough to go on, but that the rest of us really loved. Kai, Amelia and Dann went down this funnel a ton, as you need at least two people – it was fantastic.
We also spent a large amount of our time on the rapids. We are a rapids household, and love the way it pulls and splashes. These rapids have a rest area quite near the start, before the intense rapids kick in! Inside this swimming pool, there is a small shop that sells floating devices, along with tons of free life jackets to use, with a larger swim shop outside. They also have a bar with a bunch of snacks – we got snacks each day – and the locker room outside the swimming area has plenty of lockers, which are included in the price of your stay. It’s just all very well organised, as you can expect.
Activities at Center Parcs Elveden
Whenever we go somewhere for the first time, we don’t go activity heavy as it’s new and we aren’t sure how it’s going to be. With that in mind, we did book a few group activities, a few for Kai and Dann, and a few for Amelia, Robin and I. Kai and Dann did archery in the forest, which was quite a long class, shooting at various different animal targets. The bows were massive, real bows, and it was neat for them both to bond and enjoy doing the archery! All of us did pottery painting, where most of us made new bowls and cups, with Kai making a giant shark. It is a bit weird that you cannot put your name on the things you have created, and instead need to put your cabin number – even with that they ended up misplacing my bowl and it took ages to find, but we got them in the end. Their pottery selection wasn’t as big as others, but it’s real glazed and fired pottery, which is fantastic. All of us also went to a baby owl visit, where we each got to hold and stroke different owls. These owls were so beautiful and Amelia’s favorite activity in the end!
Kai, on his own, did an activity where they let him jump off a building at various heights, which was both fun to watch and fun for him to do. These sort of activities designed just for teens are fantastic, and we found them to be such a good idea for Kai. Amelia, Robin and I also did a cupcake decorating class, using fondant to decorate yummy cupcakes, which they both loved doing. All three of our kids did Aqua Jets, which we’ve done previously, and they loved! It was more of a free-to-swim area with the jets, allowing them to go under water to rings or just have fun. We did book on the day to go bowling as well, enjoying some drinks and bowling at their bowling lanes.
Places to Eat at Center Parcs Elveden
We ate at nearly every place you can eat at Center Parcs Elveden, but they do have a fully stocked shop that has some pre-made and easy to heat up food, if that is what you are looking for. Most of the places have a lunchtime deal at their restaurants, which can be a big savings really. We went to Las Iguanas twice, which was our favorite, ordering burritos, calimari, fish and nachos. They have robot cats that deliver food, and we were able to pet them on our second visit, which was so magical. Pancake House was a second favorite of the whole family, where you can choose between savoury or sweet waffles, pancakes or Dutch pancakes. There is also a whole omelette menu. You basically pick what you want, pick one of their flavors, and then can add more on top. The pancakes were fantastic and the omelettes were so stuffed!
Huck’s was only open for dinner, but themes itself as an American-styled restaurant. They had TVs playing inside, which was very distracting for Robin and the service was very slow on the day we went despite it not being very busy, which was a let down. Their food was only OK, but maybe that is coming from an American, as Kai really enjoyed the food! It’s got a mix of burgers, wings, and the like. We also ate at Cafe Rouge, which was a French inspired food place, though the food didn’t super stand out to us. They do have a pizza place and Indian place that we didn’t end up getting along to. It’s worth noting all of these places have play areas for little ones, which Robin thought was so much fun, especially when waiting for food to arrive or adults to finish eating.
We all really enjoyed Center Parcs Elveden. It’s very much worth the price tag and there is absolutely tons to do and see, for all ages. Every little detail feels fantastic and we cannot wait to go again next year.
You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!