...... well maybe not quite Hi de Hi - the coats are red and not yellow - but walking around the paths outside the old accommodation which we stayed, I was certainly expecting Sue Pollard to come running round the corner at any minute.

About a week before our chosen weekend, I logged onto www. butlins.co.uk to check the prices and what was going on there. Their website is easy to follow, and you can check availability, prices, events, accommodation and facilities at all three of their resorts very simply. It can provide you with a quote, and then you can go onto book on-line.

There was an option to click on room facilities, where you could see what the different types of accommodation offered, maps and entertainment guides for specific dates.

Customer Services

The Travel Store is an on site travel agents where you can book future holidays at Butlins whilst you are there, and this is who I spoke to about my late booking.

The gentleman I spoke to was helpful and courteous, and was able to quickly check on his computer and advise me of what accommodation was available and at what cost. Once I'd chosen what I wanted, I gave him my debit card details, he gave me a reference number and it was as simple as that!

The cost

As I booked last minute, I received a discount, and I paid £64 each. This to me was cheap enough, but I was then told that this price was on a half board basis, so we had our breakfast and evening meal included. What a bargain!

The lighting in the car park is not fantastic, and we couldn't see any security cameras. Having said that, the security around Butlins was very good as a whole, so if our car had of got broken into or vandalised, it could only have been someone else staying there.

We had a standard apartment with a double bed, which was situated in what could only be the original block of accommodation. Each row of accommodation is one floor high, and we were on the top floor.

We had tea and coffee making facilities, a small colour TV, an Iron, Iron board, a full-length mirror and duvets on our beds. The rooms were small, and so was the bathroom! But it was all very clean and was far nicer than was we expected for our money!

What more could you ask for in ways of facilities! They have everything we needed

During the summer there is also a massive outdoors pool, but this was closed.

The water flumes were great! Haven't been on one for years. Some of them really are quite scary though, one of them plunging you into a massive bowl that you side around and around until you literally fall out the bottom into a really deep pool. Certainly not one for the faint hearted - gave me whip last!

Yes, there is a Jumpin Jaks on site! The lay out in side is in line with all of their others, but maybe it was just the weekend we were there, but it seemed to attract the louder, more boisterous of the guests, and coupled with the hard hitting house music it was playing, the atmosphere was quite unpleasant, and after one drink we made a hasty retreat.

Well, as I said, we were staying half board, so we didn't really try many of the food outlets (apart from a sneaky late night drunken burger or 2 ;o). But there is a Burger King, Harry Ramsdens, a Kebab shops and a couple of American style grill houses, were you could have steak or chicken etc.. Most of the pubs also served food during the day, some of them evening advertised Curry Nights etc...

The breakfast and dinner are both eat as much as you like. For breakfast you can have fried food, cereals, fruit etc.. and as much of it as you like. I was really surprised at the selection of fresh fruit available, big baskets of apples, bananas and oranges, and grapefruit sliced and chilled. The mornings we was there, the fried food varied each day, with the eggs cooked differently, or mushrooms instead of hash browns etc.

There is also tea, coffee, soft drinks and juices, which you can help yourself too.

We spent our days playing on the arcade machines (especially the teddy bear machines, I NEEDED danger mouse!), playing Qazar, messing around in the pool and eating! At night the whole place just buzzes, there was loads of stag weakened and hen nights there, all dressed up of course, and lots of people dressed up as the bee gee's with massive wigs on, but everything was kept in the holiday sprit and I never once saw anyone fighting or arguing, as you might expect to see on a drink fuelled over 18's weekend like that.