Bike hire at Center parcs

sweetheartlmg · 8 April 2010 at 9:10AM

We are travelling to Whinfell April 19th Monday to Friday, there will be 8 of us going and we have managed to buy a bike carrier to take 3 kids bikes, I now have to decide if to hire in advance another 5 bikes, I remember reading somewhere that bikes get dumped everywhere on Fridays and Mondays, is this true? is it worth hiring bikes in advance or will there be dumped bikes around to use during our stay? Thanks

sams247 · 8 April 2010 at 9:51AM

several people on here have said they find stray bikes around the site but to be honest we have never found a single one! So maybe it's pot luck.

Unless we needed a special bike (i.e. adisabled bike or a three wheeler) we have just turned up and hired bikes - they have not run out, but again other people may have a different story to tell.

theonlywayisup · 8 April 2010 at 10:09AM

We came back last weekend from Longleat. Never saw a single abandoned bike. The guys at the hire were using a barcode scanner to hire them out to us and again zapped them as we handed them back.

sweetheartlmg · 8 April 2010 at 10:18AM

Many thanks guys, wasn't sure if to hire in advance, I phoned Center Parcs up last week to see if we could get a closer lodge due to my disabled nephew, but they said that central and middle areas were fully booked, so I'm expecting it to be really busy there that week.

I am going to book Flying Start Package – From £59.00

Early check-in and access to your accommodation
2x adult bike rental
A great range of food and beverages to make your stay more comfortable:

And hopefully be able to hire the other bikes on the day. :beer:

theonlywayisup · 8 April 2010 at 3:51PM

sweetheartlmg wrote: »

Many thanks guys, wasn't sure if to hire in advance, I phoned Center Parcs up last week to see if we could get a closer lodge due to my disabled nephew, but they said that central and middle areas were fully booked, so I'm expecting it to be really busy there that week.

I am going to book Flying Start Package – From £59.00
Early check-in and access to your accommodation

2x adult bike rental

A great range of food and beverages to make your stay more comfortable:

And hopefully be able to hire the other bikes on the day. :beer:

We did this. Ours was £79 I guess they are different prices at differing times.

We got the voucher at check-in for the bike hire, which was easy. We managed to get into our villa at 1pm and the OH went and got the car. They direct you (at Longleat) through the no entry rather than via the barriers.

Nice bag of food goodies too!

Ms_Chocaholic · 8 April 2010 at 3:56PM

When we last visited Centerparcs a few years ago though, I thought that if a member of your family were disabled then you were able to leave your car on site. If this is still the case, could you still use that for transport and/or hire less bikes and share them.

sweetheartlmg · 8 April 2010 at 4:11PM

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

When we last visited Centerparcs a few years ago though, I thought that if a member of your family were disabled then you were able to leave your car on site. If this is still the case, could you still use that for transport and/or hire less bikes and share them.

I had hoped we could leave our car on site because we have a member of our family disabled with blue badge (not in a wheelchair but can't walk far) and a Down syndrome nephew who can’t ride a bike, but we don’t want to leave my nephew out so will hire a three wheeler or a tagalong and hope he can join in with us, I know we can hire a trailer to go at the back of a bike but my 10 year old nephew weights a ton and none of us are prepared to pull him along!

I left it until 3 months beforehand to designate a lodge thinking this was plenty of time, big mistake! we are right on the border of middle to outer edge, and what is more annoying is that I didn’t know it was free to designate a lodge for a family with disabled guests (I assume this is why they didn’t charge us the £30?) otherwise I would have designated a lodge back in April 2009 when I booked our break!

apples1 · 8 April 2010 at 4:21PM

Centre Parcs have a people mover/ van with seats on site that you can call to drive you from A to B at anytime if you have a disabled person in your party. They do not advertise the fact but they are very happy for you to do so. We went away with a close friend who had a brain tumor. He was fine during most of the holiday but had a fall and we called the on site doctor on the first morning. The staff that came told us about the shuttle and we used it a few times when we needed to get a fair way. We even went out for dinner and they drove us all back to our lodge.

Enjoy your holiday.

theonlywayisup · 8 April 2010 at 5:47PM

AFAIK if you have a disabled person with you, CP only realise this when you book a disabled lodge. However, you could try ringing and explaining re your party and see if they can move you. Most people don't know their lodge numbers until they arrive, we were once moved to a disabled lodge (asked if we would mind as another party had added a child?) and it was huge, had a walk in wet-room type bathroom, with seat in the shower, wide walkways and doorways etc. All the mod cons you need with disabled persons. And we had a designated parking spot outside the lodge, but obviously didn't use it.

Bike hire at Center parcs

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