Center Parcs Le Bois aux Daims

Stayed here for a week with our 1 and 5 year olds. Both had a wonderful time and enjoyed their stay, particularly the swimming pool. My wife and I also had a good time. Cost - Expensive, though compared to the UK the upfront cost was significantly better value for money than was being offered at home. We had the full board (where everyone has a certain number of meal vouchers for the duration of the stay) which was probably more than we needed but removed the stress element somewhat, and it cost the same as basic accommodation at a UK park. Yes there’s the travel cost on top of that but still better bang for your buck. Activities - The variety of activities is very good, particularly for children the age of our two. Aqua Mundo was a favourite for both with the five year old enjoying the water slides and our toddler enjoining a good splash. The five year old also had a go at pony riding (which she adored) and both enjoyed the petting zoo. Dining - What was less good is the variety of food. The buffet food was above average quality but surprisingly limited in variety and seemed to be materially the same every day. The kids buffet was chicken nuggets and chips (plus peas / green beans) for lunch and dinner every day bar one where the nuggets were replaced by frankfurters. Picture Flunch but with less choice, and I would like to have seen a bit more variety. Having stayed in an all inclusive before I quite enjoy when they have different themes each night. Away from there there’s Quick (a better quality McDonalds) and a decent pizzeria, plus a créperie and a fancier cafe (which we didn’t try as the kids wouldn’t eat anything on either menu.) And of course there’s the on site supermarket, and we cooked a couple of times. Accommodation - The accommodation is basic Center Parcs fare - though with a slightly more rustic feel to make it blend in with the surroundings. We had a premium cottage which showed its age in places but was perfectly acceptable for our needs. Bewarned though, if you don’t buy the towel package then “no towels” means NO towels. This includes tea towels and bath mats! I would say also not being able to move into the cottages before 4pm is a bit annoying. While you can drop the bags off and go and enjoy the park there’s no secure outside storage for bags etc, so if you may end up with a long walk to and from the car park if you do choose to use the facilities before your cottage is ready. Some kind of large lock box to store bags would not go amiss :-) Staff - Finally, all the staff were very helpful and between us we were able to communicate (my GCSE French got a long overdue workout but generally the quality of English was good for more complicated requests). We are very grateful to them. Score - I’ve scored it 4* good - the variety of activities trumps the adult grumbles. The kids had a fantastic time which in the end was the primary reason we chose CP. I felt “Average” was a little too harsh. Would we go back? Yes, thou

We had a lovely stay at Le Bois aux Daims. The cottage was clean and spacious and the fans came in handy in the above average temperatures. It was a downside as well though. Air conditioning would have been very much appreciated. The activities on offer are fantastic and the Aqua Munro was great. It was good to see when the pool areas were at their busiest and we were able to avoid these. This information seemed to be accurate. We only ate at two of the restaurants, but found both to have good service and good food. The shop on-site had all the essentials that you would need and isn’t anymore expensive than anywhere else really. It’s somewhere we would definitely think about going again. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay…even if it was incredibly hot…but the weather is out of everyone’s control!

Cottage 907 was clean, tidy, great location for all the amenities and well equipped for our 4 night stay. The only downside was a drains smell in the bathroom, otherwise really happy. Lovely to have the deer wander by in the afternoon and have the sun on the terrace. No air conditioning, so will be hot and stuffy in summer months. Bugs do like to come into the chalet, but that’s no surprise for a home in the woods. The site is on the flat, so a real pleasure to cycle around and not too busy in the first week of July. Lovely farmyard area for families, animals were well looked after. Lots of playgrounds for younger children and plenty of activities to sign up to. The canoe/paddleboat hire was lovely, and the high ropes was quite the challenge and good value. The swimming pool and slides were a real highlight, clean and safe and plenty to keep everyone occupied. My son especially enjoyed the pool with the windows into the fish tank, like being inside an aquarium. Good supermarket on site, well stocked and plenty of fresh food. Fun to eat at the Italian and see the robot waiters zooming around with people’s orders. And great to have various entertainment activities, we enjoyed watching the karaoke on our last night. I would highly recommend a visit