Butlins Advice

davehills

Butlins is very good although u end up spending quite a bit.

Try not to book the "standard" accomodation...go for the best you can afford...you have been warned..!

davehills

sunnysea83 wrote: »

Bognor has the hotels which look lovely

Have stayed in the first hotel and it was brilliant!!

hyltonlad

we are butlins veterans we never go anywhere else skegness has caravans too they are a lot cheaper.my best tip if you are self catering get your food in at the nearest big supermarket theres a good few at skegness.
hyltonlad

prem0132

Hi

Thank you for all you advice, your help has been invaluable. Ive booked the Ocean hotel at Bogner in June for us which comes with the premium dining option and its 50% off at the moment so I think it was quite a good deal.

Hope you all enjoy your holidays this year!

spaceman5

personal experiance, i used to work at minehead, and have visited bognor on holiday, and although i love minehead, to go on holiday i would say bognor, as it has all that minehead has plus more( the 2 hotels), but is about half the size, so does not take you as long to get around the complex, that is the only downside to minehead is its size, i will say whilst working there for nearly 10 years, i did wonder what the attraction of it was, but now having been left for nearly 10 years and having kids ourselvs, and going to haven/pontins/parkdean, and then finally getting to butlins through the sun, i certainly can see the attraction, it may cost more to go to butlins, but it is like the old saying you get what you pay for, we loved our stay at bognor

martin2410

Weve been to skegness and minehead with the kids and in my oppinion, skegness is by far the best. Theres so much to do and the town is only a short drive/bus ride away, but i think its possible to walk upto the town along the beach (but dont quote me on that). Also, if you go the other way along the road, there is a big market and fun fair, you can have a day out there on its own. Minehead doesnt really have much off site unless you want to travel for miles along country lanes. Its still a good site but I would always go back to Skeggy. We would go this year but it just seems too expensive. Shame really, the kids love it........So if anyone knows a cheap way of going to butlins skegness in school summer holidays, let me know please.

hyltonlad

it is much cheaper to book a private caravan at butlins skegness you can pick up 1 for about half the price butlins do their apatments for.
hyltonlad

she73

davehills wrote: »

Butlins is very good although u end up spending quite a bit.

Try not to book the "standard" accomodation...go for the best you can afford...you have been warned..!

Ha ha very true we stayed standard for the first time in 5 years from being in silver and gold once and yuk.We stuck to the carpet and the furniture looked fit for the bin.This doesnt put me off butlins skeggy,just standard accom.To be fair though in skegness standard accom is central to everywhere,whereas silver and gold are at either ends of park

blue_monkey_2

Just as a word of warning for anyone expecting to get Butlins on the Sun Holidays, I had a priority code and there were none available for dates that tied in with school holidays. What is more, I checked the prices on the Butlins site and the check in dates all started on different days to what they usually did, such as Saturday to Thursday and Monday to Wednesday or Mon- Saturday. I guess this was so that Sun Hols could not be given out at peak times. I am a Butlins veteran too so this was a surprise to be honest. Maybe they have a limited number, but there was none when I looked and tried to book.

Anyhow, yes the clubs are on but they are not clubs you can leave your children at, you have to go with them. And there is not a huge amount just sporty things, so if your kids are not into sport there is no a lot else. They do art and craft from 9am to 10am and a few other hour slots during the day.

My kids love Butlins but we do get out and about in the area. Minehead is nice but the roads slow going if you go out. Skeggy we like and Bognor is just a pain to get to down the M25 for us so we have only been there once.

You can use all the facilities if you stay in the hotel, yes.

I would not, under any circumstances, stay in Standard, silver is dire enough! If you go on a Sun holiday, upgrade and then when you get there go to the Gold check in and ask if you can upgrade, they will let you for £50.

Also, it might be first child free but self catering is based on 4 people so that is deceptive!! Bear this in mind,

We looked for this summer and I cannot justify paying £700 for 4 days to stay in silver accomodation so, we are off to Disneyland Paris again. It is cheaper for hotel, breakfast and tickets to get in and the cost of petrol means that there is no much difference than getting a cheap flight or the train over. We might go to Butlins for the day later in the year and stay in a B&B elsewhere, but to pay almost £200 a day to stay on site. No, I don't think so. Maybe the prices will come down in the summer when they cannot fill the spaces. We shall see. It is under £600 to stay in Haven for 7 nights.

md123

Hi

I have a 10 year old and a 7 year and we are booked to go to Butlins at Skegness this summer. This is our 3rd time there and last year we went to the newest hotel in Bognor Regis. I think the Skegness is the best but only because there is more to do in the surrounding area.

We go the first week of the school holidays but because I live in Scotland this is classed as out of season. There is always plenty to do, the kids clubs during the day run a few times a week. Shows like the Xfactor havent started but there is always plenty to go and see. The kids love it and there is so much to do.

It is busy at this time but according to others when it is the English holidays there are queues and queues of people so prefer to go the week we do.

We have been going since the kids were 4 and 7 and because they cater for different age groups it is not a problem if you have younger or older children as there is plenty different things for all ages to do.

We go gold in Skegness and went to the Ocean hotel in Bognor. We prefer the gold accommodation because even although we go half board in Skegness you still get a fully equipped kitchen, whereas in the hotel we only had a kettle and mugs. We had to go and buy glasses to have a drink at night before we went out. I cant comment on the cheaper accommodation.