Heading off with heavy scepticism and believing a pre-packaged Center Parcs holiday is for people who don’t want to experience the REAL outdoors, Michael Alexander soon finds Whinfell Forest offers a perfect family retreat within easy reach of home.
It must be the independent streak in me, but I tend to think of myself as more of a “free-range” holidayer. I’d rather head for the hills or disappear into a city to explore and do my own thing than be cooped up on a prescribed programme of activities plucked from some glossy marketing brochure.
I’m all for new places and new experiences, but in the days before departure I had a degree of scepticism about the prospect of being spoon-fed a list of activities.
Well, how wrong was I…If I owned a hat, consider it well and truly eaten.
If you’re looking for an action-packed family holiday, or even a bit of peace and quiet to chill out that fits with the mantra of our modern age ‘staycations’, then this could be the ideal place for you.
From high-adrenaline thrills such as the climbing wall and zip wire, to calm creative pastimes like pottery painting and photography, from kayaking and horseriding, to chilling out in the spa, there’s something for everyone and the beauty is that visitors can do as much or as little as they like, with the convenient option to book activities from home well in advance.
There are four Center Parcs in the UK, but our destination was the most northerly at Whinfell Forest located on the edge of the Lake District just a three-hour drive from Tayside/Fife and located just five miles down the A66 from Penrith.
The name of the parc/park is a bit of a giveaway, but what makes Center Parcs special is a closeness to nature. Whinfell Forest comprises 400 acres within the privately owned 1200-acre Lowther Estate.
And what was striking immediately upon our arrival was how the accommodation has been designed to blend in with nature. In fact, the holiday dwellings blend in so well that it took us two circuits of the park’s twisting forest ring road to find ours.
Our abode for four nights was a ‘new style three-bedroom executive lodge’ with its own quaint address 91 Bilberry Wood. And what a top-notch place it was, too. Centred on a spacious, open-plan fitted kitchen/living area with flat screen TV and three en-suite double bedrooms, the lodge also boasted a real fire with complimentary fire lighting kit and a patio with barbecue also giving access to our very own sauna.
The greatest feeling was the sense that we were part of the Cumbrian forest, with our apartment blending into the trees.The area is dominated by Scots Pine and Norway Spruce offering tranquil seclusion and shady walks in stunningly beautiful natural surroundings.
But as well as providing an unparalleled holiday setting, a main priority for the park is protecting and renewing natural habitats and wildlife. Center Parcs is part of a global biodiversity programme to ensure the continued evolution of species and to conserve and restore natural eco-systems. And the evidence of this was everywhere with the forest providing a haven for a growing population of endangered red squirrels one of only 16 red squirrel refuges in the country.
Going for a walk on our first evening among that wonderful pine aroma that was to be with us all week, we also learned that the park’s wetlands are home to great crested newts another European protected species, with many rare birds breeding in the area including crossbills, bullfinches, songthrushes and goldcrests. Rare plants and protected bat species also frequent the forest, and if you keep an eye out, it’s possible to see the occasional badger, roe deer and brown hares like the ones that stared in our patio doors every morning.
Holidaymakers’ cars must be returned to the car park after unloading, so the only vehicles you’ll see on the roads for the bulk of your stay are the electric-powered service vans boasting zero carbon emissions.
But while the owner’s green philosophies are genuinely inspiring and educational for people of all ages, the main attraction about Center Parcs is, of course, the activities on offer.
Management encourages prospective holidaymakers to do some planning around what they’d like to do on their break and encourage booking to avoid disappointment. A 55-page brochure can be flicked through at leisure on arrival.
In the heart of the forest, the park is centred on ‘The Village’ which houses everything from restaurants and shops to the Leisure Bowl and the wonderful sub-tropical swimming paradise where we spent several mornings enjoying the wave machines and waterslide thrills.
While most of our meals were to be self-catering on grounds of cost, we enjoyed an excellent meal on our first night at the Hucks American Diner restaurant, and several other popular high street eateries and a supermarket are also housed under The Village’s impressive glass roof.
What and how much you do at Center Parcs is entirely up to you. It would be perfectly possible to just sit on your patio and stare at the trees and breathe in that wonderful pine all day long. After all, taking advantage of many of the activities on offer may set you back a bit, so perhaps it’s best to combine a few with some free forest-inspired relaxation, too?
On the other hand, it would be a shame to not grasp at least some of the great opportunities on offer to try something new. For families in particular, there are so many things to do in a carefully managed, safe environment.
With no plane journey required, it’s all in our own backyard.
For information on Center Parcs go to www.centerparcs.co.uk. The reservations line is 08705 200 300.