Center Parcs Park de Haan

Please believe the poor reviews because it is true. I booked the vip lakeside which is supposed to be the premium and the best they’ve got. It is the worst place I’ve ever stayed. The whole house is so dated, dirty and unclean. For the amount we paid, it is absolutely not good value for money. We’ve been to centre parc in Terhills in Belgium and it is much much better. There was hair on the bed, the bathrooms with stains, first and dust under the bed, curtains fallen off, bed poops on window and around the patio, the towels was terrible, the swimming area was so busy and unclean. Customer service was not the nicest. It is close to Dunkirk if you are going on the ferry. The animal farm is nice for kids. I would recommend you go to another centre parc, it is a waste of money!!!

Accommodation is basic but fine. Good sized fridge and cooking facilities were fine to cook any meal. We had a premium and the little garden was nice. Swimming pool excellent and the play spaces all great. On site food was expensive for adults but okay for children. Shop on site was obviously more expensive but we just used it to top up and went to Aldi for the rest. I did have a delicious meal in the centre cafe. The soft play serves beer, which is great. The accommodation was basic, the floor was so noisy upstairs it was not easy when the children were sleeping. No towels or toilet rolls are provided. The pillows were awful and not plentiful, bring you own if you can and duvets too if you have space. The activities on site were all really good and we booked in advance so the expense was spread out. Highly recommend walking the Alpacas. We also did climbing, Archery, the safari car (super cute) and other little craft activities. Overall our children 6 and 8 had a lovely time and we enjoyed some lovely family time. We visited the nearby De Slierberg on the way to the beach, had a whole day on the beach and dinner and ice cream in De Haan. We also went into Bruges which was lovely and the children enjoyed.

My review won’t be as brutal as some I’ve seen but it’s fair to say it’s seen better days. Where do I start, the park is smaller than its UK equivalents. This means much of what’s on offer is scaled back. The farm was a surprise which our 2&5 year olds enjoyed. Sports offerings are not as plentiful but that may be true of the larger UK sites as tastes have changed. The restaurant offering is confusing, the Pizza restaurant doesn’t do take away but the buffet restaurant does? However it’s on paper forms which feels so dated compared too so many places now. Staff were generally friendly but some were a little unfriendly until you engaged with them and recognised that they were short of staff, leading to overload. The park doesn’t have the forest feel of its UK counterparts. Overall all areas were looking tired, hedges needed trimming, lawns being cut. Our villa (4 person, in 8 zone) was adequate in some areas but woefully short in the kitchen area. The tiny Whirlpool combi over/microwave was hard to figure out and was definitely not big enough for a large group (family or friends) The lounge floor is worn out and needs replacing. The villa wasn’t especially clean, loads of dirt under the beds. Away from the villa the soft play is also tired with cushions worn out. The ball cannons were plentiful but only a couple of those worked. We tried bowling but the software kept resetting and used up our time so much we couldn’t end the match. We were offered a €1 refund? The lane next to ours failed completely and the family got a refund Finally the shop on site is OK but the Co Markt in De Hann has more choice, a little difficult to reach due to a one way system but worth visiting. Definitely avoid the Aldi along the road, worse than its Worst UK cousin!

This is a superb location. Little over one hour from Calais and minutes away from an outstanding clean sandy beach. The place itself needs attention. The water park was built in the 1990s and hasn’t seen a lick of paint since. That is obvious from the overall dilapidated appearance and ought not cost much to make good. Likewise the soft play area is run down with splintered wood in areas of the climbing zone. The Italian restaurant on site is shockingly bad. We were first in, ordered promptly and one hour went by before they started to cook the mains. We left.

The main problem was the lodge. I didnt mind too much having to make our beds but the lodge was dirty. It was covered in dust and dirt, we had to put the hoover round. My husbands asthma was awful. There were loads of food stains on the floor from previous guests, and when I wiped up a small spill I'd made the wipe was black, it was absolutely disgusting. I would've mopped but there wasn't one. The toilet downstairs was tiny and furniture was uncomfortable. The second thing was that everything was so expensive, food and drink. You do expect it to a certain extent, but the all you can eat for example was €40 per adult and €20 for children. There was only 2 other restaurants to choose from and one fast food place which was at treble the price of McD. There were no other places to eat nearby. The site is quite small which in turn means the pool is small compared to CP in the UK. A disappointing holiday unfortunately.

We booked De Haan as an alternative to Longleat UK, as we had heard that the Belgium Center Parcs were as good as the UK alternatives, but a little less expensive. So, we thought a rood trip to Belgium, followed by a stay at a different Center Parcs might be a fun adventure. To our misfortune we didn't check if this applied to all Belgium Center Parcs, so we only have ourselves to blame. Rule of thumb, check TripAdvisor before booking anything, and Google Google Google, then Google some more! Research suggests that the De Haan Center Parcs is terrible compared to the others. We arrived on site to find "check-in" was just a couple of staff wandering around the entrance road, who then checked our details and gave us our wristbands (and a pamphlet detailing what is and what isn't acceptable to wear in the pool!). Nothing like the check-in experience in the UK, where you feel welcomed and well received, like old friends revisiting, and where you are furnished with a wealth of information. Our accommodation was a four bedroom unit, and as soon as we walked in the smell of damp hit you. It was unpleasant, to say the least. And it never left. The rooms were all quite dark, due to small windows and very little in the way of lighting, and this didn't help with the overwhelming feeling that we had made a poor choice. There was a huge crack in the wall of the ground floor bedroom, and the kitchen was also very small considering the property had a maximum occupancy of eight! The ground floor toilet was tiny, and barely gave you room to get your elbows in. And again, with no natural light felt horribly claustrophobic. The furnishings weren't particularly comfortable. Our living room furniture was actually garden furniture! The outdoor furniture was also covered in bird droppings. The property was very hot, and there was no air conditioning, and not even any fans as a make-do. We couldn't leave windows open as the noise from surrounding properties was so loud that even with the windows shut, it still felt like our neighbours were in the room with us. This must have been a bizarre acoustic issue to do with our neighbours' living room doors being exactly in line with our front door, and the eaves of the roof. Plus, even with the windows shut we were bitten dreadfully by mosquitoes (or possibly bed mites, as even when we heard no mosquitoes innthe evening, we were still bitten by the morning). When we arrived none of the beds were made, that was down to us to do. And we had limited towels. We could buy more towels at a cost of around €10 per person, but felt aggrieved to do so, as this trip had already costs of nearly £2,800.00! To make matters worse, there was no option to launder anything, so buying new towels was the only option. Basically, they've got you cornered in this matter. We also asked if it would be possible to use and iron and ironing board, and we were actually laughed at! The outside space of the accommodation was overgrown and untidy. We