Some time ago I took my family to Butlins at Bognor Regis. We found an offer in The Sun newspaper and you collect tokens for a cheap holiday. We had to give four different dates and locations and then they let us know where and when we would be going. Sounds strange I know having to be told when and where you can go but the savings are big. You pay £9.50 per person for a long weekend or a four-day week stay. Obviously like always there are extras such as an entertainment pass of £5 each and linen at £4 per family. We decided to go half-board and the whole weekend cost £170 for the four of us to go and all we had to worry about was having a snack in the afternoon.
Right enough about my bargain let me tell you more about the holiday.
To find the site you have to follow the A259 coast road and then you cannot miss the place. If you travel by train the site is just a five-minute taxi ride away.
Once there
you will find so many activities on offer such as:-
Amusements Archery Bingo A Bowling Green Crazy Golf Children’s Playground Kids World which is a themed soft play area for the younger children A Funfair Go Karts Snooker Club Echo Beach Nightclub K’Nex Construction Zone Cinema Splash – A selection of swimming pools
We all had great fun in the swimming pool but be careful when they put the wave machine on. It is an extremely strong current and ended up knocking me off my feet much to the amusement of my young son.
Beware of the amusements you sometimes forget how much you actually put into the machines and find that you have spent £20 without even realising trying to win that soft toy with the grabber machine and to be honest none of you really want the toy anyway its just the challenge of the machine.
The area which the children loved the most was “Toyland” this is the Noddy area and the rides are suitable from 18 months up to around 8 years of age. Many an hour was spent here watching the children ride around on the Noddy cars or the aeroplane ride. They also provided Noddy shows a couple of times a day. The children could then meet Noddy and have their picture taken with him.
They cater for children of different ages, such as Fox Kids Club which had clubs designed for ages 5-8 years and another for 8-12 year olds.
For ages 12-16 years was a club dedicated to teenagers and apparently it is said to be packed with funky activities and really great sounds with DJ’s and a club venue.
** Entertainment **
Centre Stage – This featured West End style stage productions and many visiting stars. When we were there Cannon & Ball were on stage, although I did not rate their jokes much.
Jumpin Jaks – This is live entertainment bar for adults only.
Reds – Home of the Redcoats – This is where the red coats entertained, my son missed most of it as he would not leave the amusement arcade in there. We found this area quite good although more seating area’s were needed as a lot of people had to stand in corners which is not ideal with a young family in tow.
Skyline Pavilion – This is where most of the children entertainment took place they had a centre stage and the entertainment was mostly for the children although the adults enjoyed it as well. They usually did dance routines, children’s characters dancing or circus acts. The puppet theatre was also not to be missed for the youngsters. It kept them amused for at least fifteen minutes !!
** Shops **
Of course like everywhere there were many shops to spend your money in.
Photocall – This is where you could view the photo’s taken from around the site that the red coats have taken. They also develop your photos in a one-hour film processing section, which was quite good. We ended up buying a disposable camera and getting the film developed there so we could show our families as soon as we got home.
Toy Box - Loads of gifts on offer if you want to buy the ideal present for someone.
Treasures Gift Store – The same as above. The prices were not too inflated which makes a nice change.
As we were half-board we only tried out places like McDonalds to keep us going until dinner came. However there were plenty of places to choose from and they varied in what they had to offer.
Bar Rosso – Continental style café bar Burger King Coral Beach – Half board restaurant Harry Ramsdens Chick N Kebab Ocean Drive – Half board restaurant with assisted service Pinewood Studios restaurant and bar Swinging Shillelagh – Irish themed pub
We ate at the Coral Beach restaurant, which offered a great choice in food. It was a self-service restaurant with many sections to choose from such as a roast dinner area, kids meals, fish & chips, curries, salads etc. You could eat as much as you wish so we usually left feeling sick where we had been too greedy.
The weekend went by so quickly and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The apartment was basic but to be honest we never spent much time in there anyway. I recommend it to anyone with a family, as it was action packed and the children never once complained about being bored.
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Advantages: Great fun, lots to do, well themed, brilliant location, very atmospheric Disadvantages: Expensive on site, get fat from all the drinking and junk food.
Trixie_Firecracker 12.05.2005 (12.05.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Butlins
Advantages: Lots to do, great fun family entertainment, good standard of accommodation Disadvantages: Limited choice of food outlets for self-catering guests
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