Top Tips for Center Parcs with Babies & Toddlers

We recently returned from a family holiday at Center Parcs and had such an amazing time. It was great to spend some real quality time together as a family, enjoy some of the great outdoors and teach the girls more about nature and wildlife. Having been a few times now with both one child and two, both as babies, toddlers, and now as young children, I thought it would be useful to share my top tips for Center Parcs with babies and toddlers, including hints, tips and tricks for making the most of a Center Parcs break with your little ones – babies and toddlers and children under 5. I hope you find them useful! If you have any other questions about our experience please ask!!

Top Tips for Center Parcs with Babies and Toddlers – Before You Go:

Selecting your accomodation

• When making your Center Parcs booking, you can pay a little extra (£60) to pick the exact lodge where you will stay. We found that this was worth doing when young children are involved, particularly when you have been before and know where you are likely to spend the majority of your time. This year we paid to have a lodge closer to the pool and an outside play area, knowing that these were likely to be our frequent visits and a popular choice with the children. Alternatively, you can choose whether you want a lodge in the central, middle or outer areas of the park, obviously with less walking / cycling required the closer you are to the centre. If you have children with little legs who don’t like to walk, and you don’t fancy lugging a pushchair back up a hill, this will be money well spent.

Checking in online

• Don’t forget to check in online before you arrive (including details of your guests and your car registration number). This speeds up how quickly you can get through the Center Parcs arrival desks. That said, they email you a few times regarding this so it is pretty hard to forget! 🙂

Don’t forget the essentials

• Take some toilet roll with you. Unfortunately the lodge we stayed in only supplied one roll in each bathroom, and as such it doesn’t last very long, particularly when you are also wiping your babies’ or toddlers’ snotty noses!

Upon arrival at Center Parcs:

Make use of the facilities

• On your first day at Center Parcs, don’t forget that although you can’t check in till the afternoon, you are still able to arrive early on your first day and use the Center Parcs facilities if you wish. We arrived around 11am, and went for some lunch and a swim before checking in later that afternoon. I would recommend packing a swimming bag separately in the car in case you want to do this, so that it is easy to hand should you decide to go and try it out!

Don’t rush to check in

• Avoid the check in rush – as my Mum always used to say, there is no point rushing to get to the back of a queue. All of the Center Parcs locations are traffic free sites, however at check in time you are able to retrieve your car from the car park and temporarily take it up to your lodge so you can unpack. It does get pretty busy at 3pm which is the official check in time, so everyone tends to go at the same time, however if you wait till around 3.30/4 to go and get your car, you will get straight out and avoid sitting in a car park for a while!

Tips for the Facilities at Center Parcs:

The Onsite Supermarket

• The on site shops at Center Parcs can be expensive, but not as bad as you may think – slightly dearer than your normal supermarket perhaps – but we still managed to pick up some ‘essential’ items for reasonable prices (e.g. four pack of Sol beer for £4). There are some items that are significantly more than a normal supermarket (e.g. £2.99 for a single pack of Pampers baby wipes) so I would recommend only using it for the things you really need and not doing a full weekly shop, particularly if you are shopping on a budget. We arranged a click and collect from the nearest local supermarket (in our case was around 5 miles away from Woburn Center Parcs), and used the onsite shop for small stock ups only. Whichever Center Parcs location you choose, check out the location of the nearest supermarket before you arrive
• The small trollies with a little flag pole in the onsite shop are really very cute, and walking babies and toddlers will really enjoy feeling just like Mum and Dad wheeling this around and popping items in as they walk around the store. Bear in mind though, you may end up getting more than you planned (Erin used to try and put EVERYTHING in!) and there may be some tears / tantrums when you have to leave it behind.

Wildlife at Center Parcs

Take animal food with you

As the shop (at Woburn anyway) didn’t sell any, and it can be bad for animals’ tummies to eat bread or other foods for humans! Depending on where you stay, you are likely to have a variety of wildlife come close to your cabin and babies and toddlers will love leaving them food to eat and squealing with glee as they watch through the patio doors! At Woburn, we saw plenty of squirrels, ducks, pheasants and a large hare. At more established parks like Center Parcs Elvedon, we have also been known to see wild deer – a really beautiful sight to see.

Shopping at Center Parcs

• The newer parks have wristbands which are your door locks, but can also be used for cashless purchases. This is really handy if you are spending the morning in the pool and fancy some lunch or a drink. You simply pre load your wristband at guest services with the amount of your choice, and then can simply swipe it to pay. A real positive not having to shiver all the way back to your locker to get your purse!

How child friendly is the accomodation at Center Parcs?

The lodge is very child friendly, with baby stair gates supplied (if you are on two floors), as well as a high chair with tray, cot bed and even a little step in the bathroom to make it easier for them to brush their teeth. There are chalkboards in every lodge at Center Parcs with a small bowl of chalk so that children can create their own designs. Whilst a really small feature, it’s something that has always gone down really well with my girls!

Cots at Center Parcs

The cots at center parcs may vary from one parc to the next, however at our accomodation there was a travel cot style cot with mattress. We found this to be clean and acceptable, however you do need to take your own cot bedding as this isn’t supplied. This didn’t bother us as its something we would have done anyway. If you ring up the individual Center Parcs you are staying at they can provide more detail on the cots supplied, or you can look at trip advisor reviews where some people have uploaded photos. According to Center Parcs twitter account, the cots at Center Parcs are 121cm x 60cm. Mattress sizes are 116cm x 52cm

High Chairs at Center Parcs

The high chair supplied at Woburn during our stay was a plastic white Ikea style high chair with basic strap and tray. We found this perfectly sufficient but if you have a very young baby you may prefer one a ilttle more padded.

The only thing I would say is that the curtains at Center Parcs are very thin, so if your baby or toddler needs a dark room to sleep, you may want to take a black out blind and a small night light otherwise in the summer it may take them a while to drift off!

Washing facilities at Center Parcs

The lodges at Center Parcs don’t include a washing machine, so you will need to pack accordingly. You can however take some hand washing liquid with you, but I wouldn’t recommend hanging it outside to dry when you’re not in the lodge as there is a lot of wildlife that may pay you a visit!

Entertainment and Activities for babies and toddlers at Center Parcs

• Take some DVDs – the majority of lodges at Center Parcs (check your booking) have DVD players inside, which is ideal if you want to create a home from home environment before bedtime. Take along a few of your baby or toddlers’ favourite films or TV shows, and this can keep them quiet if another child needs to nap or if you want to cook a meal in the kitchen or recover from your morning’s activities.

Subtropical Paradise Swimming

• One of my best tips for Center Parcs with babies and toddlers is that swimming later in the afternoon (around tea time) tends to be the quietest time as many families go out for dinner or return to their lodges for a siesta! At the time of updating this post, the Covid time slot restrictions for swimming have been lifted and you no longer need to book.
• The Subtropical Swimming Paradise pools are open till 9pm so if your children can cope with staying up a bit later this might be an option too. Unfortunately for early risers, the pool doesn’t open till 10am, so a very early morning swim isn’t an option. This is one thing I really wish Center Parcs would change, as I love the idea of an early swim to kick start the day.
• Buoyancy aids (swim vests) are available to borrow at Center Parcs pools for younger babies and toddlers so you don’t need to take your own, however, you may want to take larger inflatables such as hoops and rings, as these are only available for a fee.
• Don’t forget your swim nappies for younger guests, as you’ll pay a premium for these onsite.
• If your children are under 3, we can recommend taking part in the Baby Dolphins sessions, where a parent and child can splash, sing, paddle and play in a calmer quieter session with the whole pool to themselves before it opens to the general public. The session is free to attend (but must be booked in advance) and is a great way to build your toddler’s confidence in the water.

Hiring bikes at Center Parcs

• We have hired bikes everytime we have been to Center Parcs (we don’t have our own bikes), and although this is an investment, we felt it was worth every penny. Not only are the bikes a great way to get around the park quickly, but some fun exercise – Center Parcs Woburn is quite hilly, so we definitely burned off some of our dinner on the way back to the lodge.
• We hired a Center Parcs Bike trailer for the girls to sit in (ideal for babies and toddlers that can’t walk very fast!), and they absolutely loved being transported around like Lady Muck, waving at other people as we passed. The Center Parcs Bike trailers are suitable for babies from 6 months of age.
• If you don’t decide to hire a bike. I’d recommend taking a pushchair – Woburn in particular is quite hilly and even confident walkers may struggle after a busy day of play. For younger babies, taking a sling or baby carrier is recommended.

• With babies, toddlers and younger children you really don’t have to spend a lot of money at Center Parcs to have fun, and whilst the activities are great, there are also many free activities at Center Parcs for babies and toddlers on site too, including the beach, indoor and outdoor play areas and of course the swimming pool. We actually paid to do very little else, with the exception of hiring a boat on the lake.
• The tenpin bowling and crazy golf are also some fun options that the whole family can enjoy (they do bumpers and rolling ramps for toddlers in the bowling alley – and if you are rubbish like me you can even choose to leave the bumpers up for every player lol).
• Walks in the woodland (with wellies if its wet) is also a great free Center Parcs activity and we got some great fun family selfies on our adventures!

• Take a bucket and spade with you, or you can guarantee you will be cajoled into buying one when every other family is doing wackaday style castles with moats.

• If you do decide to hire a boat on the lake (we do this every time) I would recommend paying slightly extra for an electric one, otherwise 5 minutes in to your 30 minute slot your legs will be knackered and you will be looking at a another family zooming around with ease and wishing that you had!

Food and Drink at Center Parcs

• In terms of eating out tips for Center Parcs – Hucks (available at all Center Parcs locations) is a little bit like a TGI Fridays style American diner and we are BIG fans (particularly of their fajitas!) They recently launched a new Early Dining Experience which works out much cheaper and includes a sharing platter starter, a main from a set choice and a drink. For children there is a hot buffet that included hot dogs, chicken nuggets, chips, beans, peas and sweetcorn and crudities and dip. Erin LOVED being able to go up and help herself to what she wanted. Would definitely recommend this however it does need to be booked in advance before your stay, so you can’t just turn up and request it on the night. At Center Parcs Woburn Forest Café Rouge and Strada also do great 3 course children’s menus which went down well with Erin.
• The takeaways at Center Parcs are a great option if you have picky eaters, or if you prefer Chinese and the kids want Pizza – you can order whatever you like from either Indian, Oriental or Italian either to collect or have it delivered straight to your lodge. My advice is book early for the time you want to eat – don’t wait till you are hungry until your phone up to order or you may be in for a longer wait. No one wants a Hangry Mummy!!
• For babies, lots of the onsite restaurants offer free baby food as well as facilities to warm your food. They don’t generally bring hot water to your tables for health and safety reasons.
• Many of the restaurants at Center Parcs have a small soft play area inside. You may wish to a) sit close to these so you can eat in peace whilst your kids have fun and are still in eyeline or b) sit as far away as possible and not let them see it till after they’ve eaten. We went for the latter, as there is no way our kids would’ve eaten their tea otherwise!

After you leave Center Parcs:

• You can save money on a return visit by booking it within 28 days of your stay (the stay itself can be for later in the year). You also get £25 of Center Parcs vouchers to use on your stay, and free cancellation insurance, as well as a price match guarantee that says if for any reason the break you have booked reduces in price, they would refund the difference.

If you are visiting Center Parcs this Spring or Summer I hope you have an amazing time and find my tips for Center Parcs helpful! Having everything we needed in one place really was ideal when the girls are young. We have visited both Center Parcs Woburn Forest and Center Parcs Elvedon and loved them both. I am now dreaming about our next visit in a somewhat post holiday come down!! 🙂

*This is not a sponsored post – simply me sharing my experience and top tips for Center Parcs in the hope it will help others who are planning a visit!*