I've been to Oasis twice now, most recently earlier this year. Oais is near Penrith in Cumbria. It's advertised as being by the Lake District, which is correct, since its not actually in it, but you could always do a half day trip into the "Lakes District", as Tony likes to call it, if you wanted to. Penrith is at the northern edge of the Lakes, so if you are travelling from the south, its a day's drive. Penrith also has a train station and the taxi journey from the station to Oasis is about £7, but they do take you right to your villa rather than dump you at the gate, apparently.
Overall the accomodaion is nice - very similar to Center Parcs, better looking from the outside but without their famous under floor heating. We were there during a very cold snap - the lake was completely frozen and at night the temporature plummeted to -15 c-brr! Very cold. Luckily our villa had a willing heating system which was put on maximum all weekend and was just about warm enough, but only just.
The swimming centre is not as good as Center Parcs. The rapids were busted and the wave machine slightly pathetic. However the pool was normally not too busy and the changing rooms adequate. The scenary was pleasant though.
There is a good variety of wildlife -red squirrels a plenty, pheasants, grouse, rabbits, apparently badgers, but we didn't see any-despite providing plenty of food to something that ate it all during the night. Also a strange shell-suited part animal/part mountain bike thing was very common everywhere.
We headed straight for the curry house the first evening - an excellent venue - £15 to eat as much as you could - and then some more. Like everywhere, kids meals were available and children made to feel welcome in an informal atmosphere, which I think is the way all places should operate. Less good though was the cafe by the entrance to the pool. They definitely had the policy to overcharge - this happened to a few in our group, on more than one occasion so be warned! They were told.
As always at the these places, 95% of the participants were hopeless at every sport they attempted, as I observed easily from my coffee table.
I did manage to watch Leeds score their equaliser against Man U in the league game, whilst sat in the country club pub type place. My daughter who had to sit and watch it too, wasn't very impressed by my goal celebration though, but then again I've done louder ones.
Overall Scores Shops 9/10, Pool 5/10, Food Places 7/10, Sport facilities 7/10, Landscape 9/10, Accomodation 7/10, People 8/10, Wildlife 7/10, Staff Service 8/10.
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Jun 10th, 2001
very helpful by (81%):
helpful by (19%):
