Centre Parcs – Almost Dog Friendly!

Had my first Center Parcs experience this weekend, with all the family and of course the 2 dogs and I must say that we had a really good time.  Transporting 6 bikes was a bit of an epic but I was so pleased we made the effort becuase cycling through the forrest with the dogs attached to the bikes was lovely.

My one big disappointment was the lack of Dog Bins!

They supply you with some poo bags on arrival and ask you politley to make sure you dispose of them only in the dog bins provided in the dog walking areas.  Now you all know dogs don’t go when you want them to, and as there were only 2 specific dog walking areas (very well hidden too), so you can be left with a full poo bag for most of the day!  Thank goodness we had our Dicky Bag.  All we need to do now is to get hold of the retail manager and make sure they sell start selling Dicky Bags to all the other poor souls who haven’t heard about us yet.  Believe me they would sell loads!

Center Parcs welcome dogs and are to be commended on the way they made us, as dog owners, feel welcome.

Our Lodge was lovely (not passed off with some run down, smelly, only for dog owners accommodation like some places) you are free to roam the whole area with dogs on leads and they even provide places to tie up dogs, if you need to go inside, and bowls of water.

I was sceptical about Center Parcs and I hadn’t been before becasue  I found the basic price basic inhibitive and the fact that everything else you might want to do costs extra a frightening prospect.  Having 4 kids means that a quick weekend break could end up costing a small fortune.  I really liked the freedom and safety for cyling and the tranquility, the kids loved the pool and spent a total of 9 hours in there over the weekend (partly due to the fact that they knew we couldn’t afford all the additional activities).  The one activity we did want to do, was something the whole family could join in with and was reasonably priced was Geo caching (treasure hunting) but it only ran once on Sunday and was fully booked – considering the clues and answers are fixed and permantly on display I found it hard to understand this system!

My advice dog owners? Don’t forget your dicky bag if you’re going to Center Parcs.