Putting your families at the centre of the fun

The family which left the new Center Parcs in Woburn was unrecognisable from the harassed, bickering, stressed and tired group that had arrived less than 48 hours earlier; unable to see how a weekend away was going to help matters.

But even a cynic like me, who hates joining in, sneers at anything vaguely wholesome and avoids communal holidays like the plague, was converted quicker than St Paul on the road to Damascus.

The turning point? Perhaps it was sitting down with my daughter in the pottery room and carefully decorating our pots. When was the last time I had done that? School? Or being flung down a long tunnel in a rubber dinghy screaming with laughter in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise, or swimming around the jungle stream torrents on the Wild Water Rapids.

Perhaps it was when the staff were singing happy birthday to my daughter in Cafe Rouge or when I turned to see my whole family following me like ducklings all pedalling frantically on bikes through the forests. But it didn’t take long. I was a pushover actually.

It takes a while to get used to Center Parcs because having arrived on a dark and rainy night, nothing could have roused our spirits, even the charming Scandinavian forest cabins, or our meal at Strada. It seemed that Centre Parcs was divided up into zones and that everyone else knew what they were doing, as if we had missed the indoctrination course.

But with a whole host of activities to prepare for, a good night’s sleep made all the difference. Waking up bright and early and peering out of the windows of our lodge, it was as if we’d landed in a Disney film. Families were cycling past in the car-free park, smiling and chatting, off to swim, or play badminton, or eat pancakes, off to make use of the staggering facilities, because Center Parcs has thought of everything.

From the aerial adventure in the trees to fencing, aqua jetting to massage, archery to bowling, horseriding to canoeing, there really is no excuse not to join in.

The enormous indoor swimming pool complex, with more thrills and spills than WIlly Wonka could manage, is free, but everything else is extra. You pay for your accommodation, book what you want to do and then go for it. Once you have swallowed this fact, you can get on with enjoying yourself.

Which is exactly what everyone was doing wherever you looked; grandmas painting happily next to their grand-daughters, families racing on the Segway track, friends trip-wiring through the trees over the lakes together, framing the kids playing on the beach. Everywhere people were laughing, doing and interacting. This is the leisure utopia of our generation where, when you need ‘quality’ time, it’s all laid on. So dads can try the quad bike safari with their kids or hang with the rangers in the woodland awakening tour, while mum can have an hour in the spa.

In the evenings there are lots of restaurants to choose from, from Café Rouge and Strada to Hucks American Bar and Grill or Dexter’s Kitchen. But more than that, everything works in a most unBritish fashion, and runs smoothly. Aliens landing would think we had it sorted.

And so we shot each other in the woods with laser guns and raced down tubes and rapids in the swimming pools, and ate pizzas and painted pots and went bowling and ate pancakes and I managed a facial and tried archery, and cycled and swam and laughed and breathed and relaxed so that by the time we left we were quite different people.

Center Parcs converts say that the new Woburn Forest site outside Milton Keynes, which opened last month, is the most futuristic, modern, eco, contemporary brother to its existing counterparts, but having never been before, I take my hat off to them because it works. And it’s just 90 minutes from Oxford, Put it this way, we are already saving up to go back.

FACTFILE

Woburn Forest boasts 362 acres of forest managed by a team of Center Parcs rangers, 625 lodges, 75 hotel rooms and six spa suites for luxury spa breaks.

It has more than 100 activities available. The Aqua Sana Spa is 7,200sq m in size, the largest of all the Aqua Saunas. There’s also a new children’s club concept, ‘Activity Den’ 

It takes 1,500 people to run Woburn Forest, with 90 per cent of these people living within 15 miles.
Woburn Forest is the fifth Center Parcs in the UK. It opened after two years of construction, on June 6.

A short break at Center Parcs Woburn Forest starts from £349 (midweek break in a two-bedroom Woodland Lodge at Woburn Forest). 

Go to www.centerparcs.co.uk or ring 08448 266266.