Center Parcs Sherwood Forest

Just back from sharing a lovely villa at CP's. Great service, house keeping made efforts to work around family routine. Very friendly and helpful staff in sotres and restaurants - especially the Country Club. Great for the family all to be able to do thir own things from the really active to the totally lazy.

2 readers found this review helpful

We spent Christmas at Sherwood, as we have done many times before. It was magical as always with the beautiful decorations on site and the wonderful woodland to wake up to every morning. We got a villa we had stayed in before so it was like coming home. At night beofre going to sleep we would open the bedroom curtains so we would wake up to the silhouettes of the trees in the morning, then we would watch the sun rise and feed the squirrels, birds and two gorgeous swans which visited throughout the day.
It was so funny because these two swans would nest outside, we would feed them and then they would build up a kind of nest. On Boxing day evening, they were sat outside in the dark, just waiting for us to feed them again.

The subtropical swimming paradise is so much fun, you don't have to be a kid to enjoy it. As soon as Tarzan calls, we rush to be in the waves. But we spend most of our time going round and round and round the rapids until the pool closes at night.

We take our own bikes, which saves a lot of money when you visit frequently. We cycle every inch of the park, around the back of the park is the best where the new fabulous tree houses are. We have also cycled outside of the park where you can really get some good cycling in if you are wanting a harder trek.

Walking around the park is wonderful too. There are so many birds to see, not just at the nature point, everywhere you look. We saw our first Goldcrest, which we were thrilled about. We counted over 30 different birds, fed rabbits with our left over carrots and even hand fed squirrels. The nature on site and being so close to it all, is absolutely magical!

We spend just 5 nights over Christmas, I cooked dinner and we only ate out twice. We didn't book any activities this time. And the reason for this is partly because we have already booked two more holidays at Center Parcs for this year, but you really don't have to spend much money at all if you don't want to. We travel as a couple and want a romantic getaway, we bring our own bikes, food and drink. What you get in with your holiday is more than enough our my opinion. We are busy all day long, in and out with the bikes or walking or swimming.

The lodges are always very comfortable and cosy. The beds are amazing! Our only little criticism would be the sofa, it seems to eat you up when you sit on it for more than a few minutes, but then we don't go there to sit and watch tv. We absolutely love having the fireplace and bought loads of logs. On Christmas day we woke up at 5am with excitement, lit a log on the fire and opened our presents. Then we had a cooked breakfast fit for a king and queen. We even went swimming on Xmas day, which you just would not be able to do at home, well unless you had a pool that is. LOL

We just love Center Parcs, from the moment you arrive the excitement grabs you and you can't wait to explore and go for pancakes, well that is us. A pancake on arrival and a pancake before we head off home. OK, we do sometimes do more, like quad biking and archery etc.. but we can still go to CP and just take advantage of all the best things in life which are free.

I would recommend Center Parcs to anyone, anyone that is who knows how to have a good time and sees life with a glass half full attitude. Our glass feels full after this Christmas break, it is the best Christmas we have ever had, well one of them, and we can't wait for our next break there. Counting down the days now. Thank you Center Parcs for proving this fantastic and unique holiday experience which is great all year round in all weathers.

2 readers found this review helpful

we were there four days it was all centred around our granchild,santa grotto was our first call he was great with here,the area was great as it was just going dark,she also played in soft play in sports bar and loved it,we also took here swimming,and also went keep fit with rupert,plus others, all in all great time.

Do not prebook activities, if for any reason you cannot do the activity you will not get a refund - we missed some activities just because of the time we spent trying to park the car. Parking is horrific and where you park is a very long walk to where your villa is. The ice skating rink is awful plastic - people were walking around it in shoes - we paid over the internet but did not go on the rink it was so terrible - they would not give a refund though. There was nothing festive about the festive treasure trail - a poor excuse to overcharge you for the use of a bicycle for a couple of hours. We paid to go on crazy golf late afternoon - they really should not have sold us this - it went dark and none of the outside lighting in the area worked. The accommodation looks tired and drab. The oven did not work. The staff all looked and sounded miserable. Winter yes. Wonderland? no.

2 readers found this review helpful

once again we had a fantastic holiday winter wonderland was excellent, very festive, loved the fireworks cannot wait till next year. feeding the squirrels is fun but keep doors shut if you do. food is not over priced both eating out and in supermarket. all the staff are helpful an pleasant we will be back next year cannot keep away.

We have visited Elvedon several times but thought we'd try Sherwood, we won't be going back. We had a lovely refurbished woodland villa but the heating and hot water didn't work. We had to call/visit guest services numerous times over the weekend, each time an engineer would come and fix it, then a few hours later it didn't work again. Guest services never kept a record that we had previously called and the engineers never kept any records of what the previous engineer had done to resolve it. We were never offered to move to another villa, in fact their attitude was appalling. We eventually got to speak to the manager as we were leaving, he apologised for the awful service and promised a letter would be with us within 48 hours along with some vouchers off a future visit, that was a week ago and we haven't as yet received anything.
We also found the swimming pool a little dated (sharp tiles on the floor) and cold. There was also a lot of cars diving around during the weekend considering the Center Parcs is supposed to be car free and the service in Hucks was really poor compared to previous visits.

We've been going to Centre Parcs at Sherwood for the past 14 year and we love the place. However when the kids were very young we could go at any time and this was good price wise. If your unfortunate enough to have to go in school holidays you'll pay way over the odds!. In the time we've been going there has been some changes, not all good. One of the reasons we enjoyed going here was the peace and tranquility of the place, but unfortunately they are slowly removing what's left of this and filling it to the rafters with more accomodation, eating away at what's good about the place. This means lots more people on site and places like the pool are way overcrowded at busy times. This needs to be sorted, I don't know how, maybe enlarge the popular pool area, buy some surrounding land, they certainly must be making enough money to do this. I will go again but I don't know how many more times, depends if they lose any more woodland or if we are completely out priced!

3 readers found this review helpful

We have just returned from a 4 night break at Centre Parcs Sherwood Forest. We had an amazing week, stayed in an Executive Lodge which was beyond our expectations, it was very clean and modern and also included a maid service every day. All the staff are really friendly and helpful. Best place to eat was the Sports Cafe where it was really good value for money. Could not find any faults with this holiday and can't wait to go back.

1 reader found this review helpful

We had another brilliant holiday at Sherwood. Tree climbing, zip wire, riding, quad bikes, swimming etc etc. We can't wait to go again!!

2 readers found this review helpful

Great holiday with family and our super little granddaughter. The weather just made it extra bit perfect. Everything was clean and something to do for everyone. With a bar-b-q and patio furniture we were able to enjoy eating outside. The Comfort Plus gave us those little extras of microwave and dishwasher than made life a little easier so we could spend more time relaxing (especially in the Sauna).
Thoroughly recommend to anyone no matter what age.