Butlins Minehead

7 readers found this review helpful

Been going to minehead butlins every year for around 6 years now and although it has its downfalls, but if you have young kids then its a great place to go!
True, the accomodation has a lot to be desired, usually stained carpets and dirty or rotten windows seem to be the most common problems we have with budget or silver plus rooms, but they are dry and warm and to be honest,we only use the room to sleep in and to have breakfast. The entertainment is superb, the pool is very good, the funfair is alright and serves its purpose. Our kids are 6 and 4 and love the place, and as long as they are happy then im happy. Theres a cracking beach on butlins doorstep,and the town is a short walk.Theres the steam railway just around the corner too. We spend 5 days there every september and we are never disapointed.
Admittedly we go out of season so the prices are very very low and i can see where people come from when they spend £500-£1000 to stay here for the week in summer holidays and have issues with their accomodation, id probably complain too! Thats the only downfall i think with Butlins,the accomodation.We have never had a "fantastic" room.I think if they invested in upgrading their rooms then i think they'd do themselves a big favour.

8 readers found this review helpful

And I would suggest the same to everybody who reads this.
I booked gold for my family of 4, drove across the county, passed by butlins in skeggy (where we usually go), more cross country driving till we got to minehead. Our room seemed like it had been cleaned by a past guest, with a dirty glass and saucer in the cupboard that had obvioulsy been used as an ashtray as it had blackash stuck all over it.
When we went to the rides, my 10 year old son, who was as tall as the line and able to ride the rides one day was all of a sudden too little the next day with a different ride op.
food was 5/10....not bad but I had expected slightly better quality than a school but there you go I guess....all in all this place was so bad that I have vowed NEVER AGAIN! for all butlins resorts....sorry skeggy you can blame minehead for your loss of business

12 readers found this review helpful

i'm 13, and i go there with my mum, dad, 3 year old sister and 10 year old brother most years. We recently came back from the new year break, and i have never had such a great time. We stayed in one of the log cabins which was absolutely lovely, and the only downside to it was it was extremely cold when we got in there! but whacking up the heaters and putting on the fire soon got us warm. It was well cleaned and spacious. The shower wasn't amazing and my dad said 'he could pee quicker than it' but that was soon sorted by the staff there. On the monday we had an amazing suprise of stacey soloman from the xfactor which was great, about 5,000 people packed into the skyline. We stayed in the skyline most nights, and the only bad thing was the entertainment finished at 8:15, which is alright for the little ones but as i am older i wanted to stay up. Most days if it wasn't too cold me and my brother would go to the fair, although i think the height restrictions are pathetic, and my mum and dad would take my sister to bob the builder land. The pantomine and entertainment was excellent, i really enjoyed rock the country. redcoat party dances will never get old for me, i love them! I watched the barney show with my sister, and i have to say i still know all the words! The skyline gang are quality, even if i have seen them 1000 times! new years eve was actually amazing, never had so much fun in my life, had a massive silly string with redcoat stephen and redcoat chris, my mum was giving them my silly string! the acts weren't amazing for the children as they we're mainly for the adults but i still enjoyed a good old boogie! if you don't like the food or the shop is too expensive then just pop to the tesco's down the road! thats what we did! :)
the redcoats we're excellent and very helpful. especially harry, stephen, michelle, lucy and chris. We got to know them pretty well over the holiday and can't wait to go back to see them!
at the end of the day, it's not about the adults, if the kids are enjoying it then they should stop moaning! BUTLINS MINEHEAD IS AMAZING!

13 readers found this review helpful

After reading several reviews on this site about Butlins the day before we were due to go,i was dreading my holiday.Would it be a holiday to forget? No it was brilliant!We booked a room but maybe because they were busy we were put in an apartment which was brilliant.Everything was nice and clean and well up to standard, the park is quite big we took our little boy there and he loves swimming.We were straight into the pool,went on the slides and the dinghy ride great. At tea time we went for tea the food was great and lots of it. Breakfast was the same,the staff are great i couldnt think of a single thing to fault and the shows at night they were brilliant too i would have paid to see the circus show that was fantastic. we usualy go to centre parcs and i would say that butlins are not that far behind we booked to go again next year.

5 readers found this review helpful

Firstly after reading all the other review on here, I can only say your expectations must be a great deal higher than mine. I thought £100 for dinner, bed and breakfast for 3 nights and a full programme of entertainment was brilliant value.
We stayed at a silver apartment and although it was a bit shabby round the edges it was clean. Butlins staff from the bookings team to the cleaners on site were very good and friendly.
Food not of a particulary high standard but certainly edible.
Entertainment first rate, great fun. Bar a bit pricey as you would expect.
Only thing I would say is there are more toilet facilities needed in Reds and Main Event, but maybe they are adequate during normal family weeks.
Definately comiong again.

10 readers found this review helpful

Just arrived back from Minehead Butlins. After reading some of the reviews on this site about damp and smelly I thought I would brave it anyway as my Asmatic wife cant get enough damp and mold.
Firstly we arrived in the dark which can only be classed as a small mercy. We stopped in holincote village where there were rows and rows of auschwitz style accomadation. The rooms were damp and basic although they were functional. The beds were a throwback from the 40's and I can only assume the origianl sturdy bedframes had gone towards making munitions in Schindlers factory.
The redcoats were the most proffesional thing there and went about their duties with an almost german efficiency.
The activites were good though and the swimming pool was excellent although for obvious reasons I didnt dare brave the showers.
The underclasses were out in masses and with reference to my comments earlier Butlins Minehead would have been a great place to have started the 2009 final solution.
In short it's cheap accomidation with expensive activites and more arcade machines than you could fire an 88 at.
AND BUTLINS STOP KIDDING US BY SAYING 'SORRY ABOUT THE CHANGE' and then magically only having £1 coins not notes..... I'll spend as little or as much in your arcades as I want and suggestive psychology will not work me....

9 readers found this review helpful

me and my partner have just returned from butlins in minehead after a four night break after collecting the tokens from the sun newspaper.we are in our early 40s and holidayed without our children.we stayed in silver plus accomodation which had been recently refurbished and found it very clean and well equiped.the heating and hot water was excellent and the furnishings and beds were very comfy and the kitchen area well stocked with utensils...now butlins is what it is and its not everyones cup of tea but everyone there is trying to give their families a holiday so they cant be that bad and on the whole the chav count wasnt that high.the staff were hard working and polite and helpfull and that included the foriegn workers whose english was better than some of the holidaying natives.we use butlins as a base for days out so dont spend much time on site..we had 2 great days walking on exmoor and the coast line..also went on the steam railway and spent an afternoon on a landrover safari spotting red deer, buzzards and exmoor ponies on exmoor all for less than you would shove in the arcades back at butlins.we self catered but the food looked lovely and the restraunts were very nicely styled.so dont be put off by some of the reviews on here but accept butlins for what it is...and enjoy your holiday

12 readers found this review helpful

First time at Butlins Minehead I visited with my partner and 10 year odl daughter,having been to Bognor Regis Butlins several times I was expecting the same standard,how wrong was I. I have divided the review up into parts.
Accomodation:
We had a 2 bedroom Silver room,fromt he outside it looked ok and was in a really good location just a minutes walk to the dining room and about 2-5 mins to all the entertainment venues and funfair.The inside was okish, both bedrooms were clean and tidy with more tham ample storage space, the bed covers were clean and the curtains met int he middle (in my experience of butlins this is not always so), the bathroom was gross the shower curtain was mouldy as were the tiles around the shower.I gave it a little clean but some of it was too ingrained.
Food:
Foul,foul,foul.I actually lost weight because I although the breakfast was passable so I ate a large fry up in the mornings the evening meal was almost inedible. The meat was the cheapest money could buy, the veg so watery it was swimming and the curry was not curry it was cheap meat floating in some nasty tomato sauce I couldnt even eat the pasta as it was completley over cooked and stuck to the plate. The only thing I will say is the children's meals that are made by Annabell karmel are very good and my daughter really enjoyed the chicken curry, paella and the lasagne.
Entertainment
Did not go to most of it as we enjoyed walking round the arcades and my daughter loves watching Karoke on the Irish Pub, this is prob one of the better bars as you can actually get a seat. We went to reds one night and although we were quite far to the the back of the queue we got a seat it was just a shame the woman doing the kylie tribute could not sing. We went to Centre Stage but it was full by about 7pm and we did not want to stand up all night.
The pool was great the queues for the slides were fine, the chnaging rooms however were really dirty and disgusting and the lockers keep breaking. The fair ground was ok but some of the rides were not open while we were there.
The best days we had were when we left the resort, the surrounding countryside is amazing and Dunster village is well worth a visit. There are lots of places to go nearby and the beach is fantastic, really big and sandy.

3 readers found this review helpful

My husband myself and our three granddaughters aged 14, 13 and 3 spent the day at Butlins minehead yesterday 1.09.09.
We had a wonderful day.
We arriv ed at the camp at 12.30 after having a picnic lunch on the promenade in Minehead. It was a showery day with heavy rain at times, but our day was full.
The two older girls spent a very happy two hours in the swimming pool and we had to drag them away. It was huge and full of things for them to do.
We spent alot of time in the skyline where the entertainment for our 3 year old granddaughter was first class,with music, dancing, fun and mesmerising acrobatics.
The funfair was dated but still fun for all of us.
We found the toilets very clean and the dome itself was constantly being cleaned. Everything very reasonable priced and staff very friendly. Couldn't fault it at all. We left at 7 p.m. (only supposed to be there as a day visitor until 6) and we could have stayed there longer as we hadn't seen everything and the girls were having such a good time.
A very reasonably priced day out for our family and I would recommend it to everyone who has children.

7 readers found this review helpful

Firstly can I just say that you all need to contact the Environmental health as I did today the phone number for the Minehead area is: [--], and report your experience.
I just got back from minehead, and was lucky enough to get moved to a lodge and enjoyed the last two nights of our stay.
When we first arrived in our "silver"? chalet, the first thing we noticed the smell of sewage coming from the kids bedroom, and indeed the rest of the chalet as a result.
the carpet was wet and the source of the smell.
When I told a member of staff she insisted that a window had been left open and rain had got in and they had tried to dry the carpet by leaving the heater on.
They did offer us alternative accomadation at this point but it looked worse than the one we had!(reminded me of slums)
We exepted this and moved the kids beds (with their help) into the kitchen dinner, not ideal but I was'nt letting the kids sleep in the bedroom.
We were told the smell would soon go, they changed the section of underlay and left the heater on.
However the smell did not go, the kids spent the night in the kitchen, and me and my wife tried to sleep in the other bedroom.
My wife ended up in with the kids, and I could taste the sewage in my sleep.
In the morning I went to complain.
I told them that I was a builder (which I am) and I knew that it was not due to rain, as I only noticed in the morning that there is a 4ft roof overhang outside the window, and would take the fire brigade to get water through there!
I told them I knew exactly what the problem was, and where it was coming from.
Which was flooding, basically from what I can see the drainage is insufficient drainage, and when it rains the drains "back up", causing foul water to come back up through the shower traps.
They looked at me speachless!
They told me to go to reception as I had requested a refund!
When I got there, there was a set of keys waiting for me for a luxury lodge.(which was nice but I wouldnt even call that luxury.
It is a shame about the accomodation as we found the entertainment fantastic, and we an the kids loved it.
When we got home we discovered we had got worms and had to take some medication! yelch!
Please report you experiance to Envioromental health, because if you just moan nothing will get done!