Top Tips for Budgeting in Centerparcs

While we all know or have heard how fantastic Centerparcs is, I’m sure we’ve also all heard how expensive it is, but there are ways to cut down costs and in this post I’m going to tell you how!

Starting off with booking the trip itself; if you can help it, book during off peak season.  This will make Weekend stays cheaper and Weekday stays even cheaper!  Going during half terms, bank holidays or special occasions such as easter or Christmas will rocket the price, so if you’re looking to go on a budget, they are the obvious times to avoid.  However if you have your heart set on a half term or holiday season (Term time can be difficult with kids), then avoid booking the larger lodges/apartments.  Small lodges that have just the right amount of beds are just as great as a 2 storey apartment with 4 extra beds and dining chairs.  The 2 bedroom lodges are perfect for a family in great locations, close to the pool and restaurants. 

Next tip; Do all of your shopping beforehand in your local (cheapest) supermarket.  Although there is a supermarket on the Centerparcs site, it is very expensive so save the pennies and get your shopping in advance!  The Lodges provide a small amount of the basics like toilet roll and washing up liquid but they don’t provide any food, tea bags or bathroom necessities, bring these things from home where you can.

Relating to that, by making your own breakfast, lunch and even dinner you can save massively on eating out costs.  I recommend having breakfast and lunch in your lodge and then alternating eating out and cooking yourself each night.  This not only saves you money but I find is so much more wholesome and personal for your group, better than being in a busy restaurant every night.

Onto activities, this is where budgeting is difficult, but planning in advance will be your best friend here!  As soon as you book your trip, log in to the Centerparcs website and check out the activities section.  This will show you all the costs as well as the available slots during your stay.  Here you can jot down the top activities that you and your group want to do as well as their prices and availability.  Obviously you may not have time to do them all so having them all in one place will allow you to narrow down the absolute favourites, my recommendations are in my Weekend in Centerparcs post but to name a few; Aerial Adventure high ropes, badminton, bike hire and of course the rapids!  Once you’ve narrowed down your favourites and have an idea of how much they’ll cost, spend the time before your tip saving up your pennies ready to book them!  The best advice I can give for this is to prepare in advance, we didn’t look at prices until the day we got there and had a slight shock when we hadn’t quite put enough aside for all the ones we wanted to do.

As for added extras, such as bike hire, logs for the fire and the spa… these are all dependant on if you really need them.  I absolutely recommend the bike hire, it brings such a great energy to the trip and is so much fun!  For the day it costs £22.99 to hire or its £42 to hire for the whole weekend (a no brainer to me).  Logs/Coal for the fire or bbq, which a staff member can light for you if requested, can be bought at the Parc Market but are pretty expensive, I would buy them from Lidl before you go if it’s something you think you’ll need during your stay.  And finally the spa, most hour long treatments were around £50-65 and the spa experience day was £65 for 3 hours including the robe, towel and use of showers and changing rooms.  We decided to make the most of a morning and chose the 3 hour experience which gave us access to the pool, hot tub and huge range of saunas, steam rooms and relaxation suites.  I think for value for money this is a better suited option as you have a much longer opportunity in the spa and can be a bit more free willed than just being in one treatment room for an hour.  The changing rooms in the Aqua Sana Spa were some of the best I’ve even been in, the showers were fully equipped with all the necessary toiletries, there were great hairdryers, private changing rooms and mirrors with plenty of seats, an experience in itself!

I hope this has given you some helpful tips for keeping costs down as much as possible on your next Centerparcs trip, let me know if you use any of them and where you book, I’d love to hear your experiences too!