Which Elveden Forest activities are free? A Center Parcs holiday can be expensive when you start booking lots of activities for the family to enjoy. There are however plenty of free things to do at Center Parcs. Save some money by mixing in these great free ideas into your Center Parcs stay.
Swimming
The swimming pool is included in the cost of your holiday and is one of the best Center Parcs activities. You really could swim all day and all night if you wanted to. My top tips for swimming on holiday are to:-
- take more than one swimming costume, so you can dry one whilst wearing another.
- take more than one swimming towel. Center Parcs towel hire is available, but they carry a charge, so squeeze an extra one into the suitcase and take advantage of the heated towel rail in bad weather to dry them. Or we found there were plenty of places to hang them in the villas.
- Don’t get sucked into buying food and drink on site in the pool area. Enjoy an early or late lunch in your lodge and enjoy the quieter times over the lunch period in the pool.
- If you enter the pool area and can’t find any empty seats, walk around to your left, and either go over the bridge to find hidden chairs, or continue on up to the top of the lazy river. We always found empty chairs here.
- Explore on your first day so you find all the hidden gems this pool site has to offer, and believe me it has some lovely finds including
- two more whirlpool hot tubs past the starbucks entrance
- the entrance to the family adventure cove is hidden past the heated walls. Well worth a look if you have children, and there is plenty more seating in here too.
- Go swimming in the evening, it’s a lot quieter, and there are barely any queues for the water slides.
- You can take your own inflatable rings into the pool, so take your own and don’t pay inflated prices at pool side.
Wildlife
There is always wildlife around, so keep some bread handy for feeding the ducks, and you can provide plenty of free entertainment for children. Outside our villa door alone we had ducks at every meal time. We also spotted rabbits, deer and geese.
It was great seeing them so close. We would often be stopped in our tracks on the paths to let the duck families cross the road. This was a great sight to see which always amused us.
Playgrounds
On our first night here, we walked past a playground, and upon closer inspection realised there was an even bigger one just behind it. Playgrounds are one of the best things to do at Center Parcs that keep the kids entertained for ages.
As it didn’t start getting dark until around 9pm during our stay, we were in the park two out of the four nights. When we realised we could sit on the terrace of the sports cafe and enjoy a drink, and still see Abby playing in the park, it was even better.
As it didn’t start getting dark until around 9pm during our stay, we were in the park two out of the four nights. When we realised we could sit on the terrace of the sports cafe and enjoy a drink, and still see Abby playing in the park, it was even better.
Beach
If the weather is kind to you, pack the picnic blanket, bucket and spade and pop to the small beach area. You can watch the watersports and make sandcastles. Just no swimming in this water.
Put your coat, sunhat, wellies, sensible shoes on depending on the weather and get out there and enjoy the fresh air and free activities at Center Parcs. You wont run out of walking space at Elveden, it’s all flat, and you’ll get some great exercise in.
We debated whether or not to take our bikes with us, but actually found that everything was within walking distance and we probably wouldn’t have made good use out of them if we had taken them.
Enjoy your holiday!
Why not book a festive break at Center Parcs
we’ve been there once and it is great for kids! thanks for the tips.
pleasure
Looks great, would love to go there one day, my 2 would love it. The wildlife looks lovely, really nice for young children to see.
you should go Fiona.
We’ve never been to Centre Parcs – will have to try it one day.
My husband keeps trying to convince me to go to Centre Parks one year. It does look and sound good!
Centre Parcs do look fab but for the cost of them, I’d sooner go abroad LOL
I do love the look fo a center parcs holiday but it is on the expensive side, great tips tho if you don’t need to spend extra once there then its much easier x
this is all really useful to know, as I have heard centreparcs can be expensive but this all looks good! hopefully will try it out one year!
Excellent tip about taking 2 swimming costumes! I like that 🙂
it’s so easy to forget
I think the boy would have a fab time
Looks Fab! We have one not far from us, really must visit!