Center Parcs Erperheide

Quite a mixed review for this trip. Over all, for a Center Parcs, Erperheide has quite a lot to offer for younger children. The communal areas of the park are extremely well cleaned. The pool is great when working properly, you can eat inside the dome but you will never see a piece of food or rubbish in the pool area. Staff walk around with watering cans, watering the floor to keep it clean. The shower and change area is great for families. When we first got to the pool we were pleasantly surprised and excited as the flumes and the rapids were super fast and working properly. HOWEVER, from day 3 of our week long break, the water pumps broke so you had to literally walk down the rapids and jump off the end! The flumes were also slower. When we asked staff if this was being fixed they stated they were but it would take days. They said they either keep them open and not working properly or close them so they keep them open. My children lost interest and spent most of the time thereafter in the main swimming pool. This was a massive disappointment for the holiday as this was the main reason we locked Erperheide. The arcade is great with modern machines and an electronic points on a card system. You pay €16.99 for a card and get 30 credits to spend. The points can be redeemed on prizes but the amount you spend does not equate even remotely to what you can win. But the children had fun winning the tokens. The pony experience was wonderful. The children got to groom the animals, decorate their manes and then go for a walk on the ponies. Bowling was fun and vibrant. The wall climbing was brilliant mainly due to the attentive and knowledgeable staff member who was supportive, friendly and helpful. Silent disco was fun. The silent cinema had no option for the english language so we didn’t get to do this but it looked cute with bean bags for people to sit on. Now, other disappointing and crucial aspect of the holiday is of course the accommodation. We went for a premium lodge, so the medium grade and paid extra to choose a lake view. We could not see the lake!’ When we got to the “lodge” the cleaner was there with a rolled up rug and told us it smelt too bad and she was taking it away. She did offer to get another one but said she thought it would be better without: we obliged as we didn’t want to risk the children spilling anything on a new one. However, after the scent of the initial cleaning products wore off, we were left with accommodation that smelt like a grotty pub. Smoke ash and musty old beer is the only way I can describe it. The accommodation is built with breeze blocks which haven’t even been rendered…. They painted the bricks so it felt as though we were sleeping in a toilet block. There wasn’t a cosy feel about it. There were lots of mosquitos and despite wearing various repellants we got bitten every night. I feel that Center Parcs could make more effort with outside areas as it’s unkept and uninviting. The accommodation also

We really did have an amazing time! We would absolutely return and pay for more activities. It’s really opened our eyes to this sort of environment when we usually stay in hotels. So before I continue I would highly recommend this place. The Europe ones are so so much cheaper than the uk ones so it’s amazing value for money. We thoroughly loved the Baluba and aquamundo (could have been a bit warmer one some days though)! So much to do for my young daughter it was honestly incredible! We could easily have spent our week there alone! My only niggles would be to do with cleanliness, upkeep and maintenance. I don’t expect everything to spotless when we only paid £500 for the week but I do expect basics things like a kitchen towel, bath matt, soap and bin bags! The garden maintenance was shocking and my daughter couldn’t play outside in the garden once because it was so bad. The bedrooms were rather dirty (walls, corners ect). The rest of the cottage was fine though. The farm experience/farm animals (we did the free one) was shockingly bad. It was literally a bunch of animals shoved together in the middle of some sandy banks. The animals don’t look well looked after at all and I don’t really think it’s fair on them to be constantly poked and prodded and looked at. My young daughter loved looking at them and stroking tbem but I just felt sad for them frankly. We didn’t do anything else except for drive around the country and visit the cities. We did have a disabled pass so being able to have the car nearby was a massive bonus and my other half really struggles with a lot of walking, however this place did encourage to do more so it was great! The weather was a lot colder than anticipated so the heating was welcome. Not sure how we old have coped in the heat mind as the heat does not escape well at all from cottage. However we did absolutely love our stay and really can’t wait to come back and try out more

Just arrived and honestly, not impressed. Accomodation standard is about as basic as it gets. Sheets marked and ripped, towels so thin you could spit through them, no closed storage for food, pot handle nearly came off with boiling water in, husband had to fix to make safe, area where loungers are placed, grass is up to the lounger and clearly hasn't been cut in a while, paths to accomodation in poor repair. Honestly not at all what you'd expect from centerparcs brand. Feels tired and old and in serious need of some care to bring up to centerparcs brand expectations. They're trading on the name. Not tried activities or main entertainment hub yet so we'll see how that goes but honestly, at this rate, wish we hadn't bothered.