Center Parcs Het Heijderbos

Our second visit to this Center Parcs, we last went in 2004 and I did feel the standards had slipped a little. This park is almost a carbon copy of the Sherwood Forest Center Parcs. The pool and rapids are the same apart from the fact that there is no big raft slide.
My general feel of the Dutch CP is more friendly, more relaxed, better food and cheaper by far than the UK version. They are a little more down market though and in need of some updating. The staff are lovely and all speak English. My children did all sorts of activities - climbing, archery etc. and the instructors gave all the lessons in both Dutch and English. We always make the effort to learn a few words of the language and this is much appreciated.
During school holidays children under 13 eat free when an adult meal is bought. This made eating out even better value. I did not like the Market Buffet restaurant because it was a bit of a scramble, more like a school canteen than a restaurant and overpriced compared with the other restaurants. I also found that smoking was allowed in all the restaurants. A non smoking table is really no use if the next table is smoking.
For trips out I can recommend the National War and Resistance Museum at Overloon, about 20 minutes away and also Efteling which is about 1 hour away.
We went overnight on North Sea ferries which was lovely (paid for in tesco clubcard tokens). You can only book the Dutch CParcs via the internet. This cost me about a third of the UK cost for 7 nights and included cycle hire.