5 days in post-lockdown Center Parcs Elveden Forest

We originally booked a trip to Elveden Forest back in September 2020, when you could still be optimistic about Covid rates remaining low. The date was for mid-November, a week after my birthday, so I felt like I was booking a little birthday trip.

Sadly in early November England went back into lockdown, so our holiday had to be postponed. After thinking about it and trying to work out when Covid rates were likely to be safer, we opted for the week of our wedding anniversary in April!

We were given two partial refunds in the intervening months, one in November when we chose to move dates instead of cancelling completely, and another in March when it became clear that the swimming pool (always the highlight of a Center Parcs trip) would have to be closed as indoor pools were not allowed to reopen yet. As a result we got back around 50% of what we'd originally paid, which made it a very affordable holiday!

Getting there

Unfortunately I was a bit poorly a few days before the trip (not Covid related) and wasn't up to driving the distance. It was only an hour and twenty minutes from our house, but my husband felt that that was unrealistic, and I realised he was right.

Thankfully both my in-laws and my parents kindly offered to drive us (my husband can't drive). So my in-laws came up to take us on the Monday afternoon. We had been told that we would need to be dropped off at the main arrivals lodge and walk, which was fine with us. But when we got there the woman who checked our booking kindly let us drive to the lodge and park outside. We were given fifteen minutes, which was plenty of time, and it meant we didn't need to carry things very far.

For the journey home my Dad drove up to take us back. I phoned guest services on Thursday afternoon to check this would be okay, they put me through to security who confirmed it was. Security then also phoned me from the arrivals lodge on Friday when my Dad arrived, just checking that we were expecting him! As soon as I said we were, and were waiting in the hedgehog part of the car park, they gave him directions and let him through.

The lodge

We were put in a lodge in the Maple area, which was perfect for us as we were within easy walking distance of the "village". If we had been on the other side of the site (perhaps in Ash) then I think I would have hired a bike pretty quickly.

We had a two bedroom woodland lodge. One room had a double bed and the other had two singles. There was also a TV and DVD player in the living room, and a microwave, mini dishwasher, and gas cooker in the kitchen.

I know a few bits were removed from the lodges to help reduce the Covid spread. But some guidance on how use some of the appliances would have been helpful. We had no idea that the dishwasher would beep at us when it finished, for example, and if we hadn't been too lazy to get up when it stopped making a noise we probably would have opened it far too early.

I do understand the concern about Covid spread on items, but I think that in that case some instructions and guides should be downloadable by PDF. With so much closed we probably spent more time in our lodge than we normally would, and so a bit of effort on CP's side to provide useful information would have been good.

Food deliveries

Because indoor dining was still banned and terrace spaces were rare we ordered food deliveries each evening. I booked these as soon as pre-bookings were available (4 days before the relevant day) as I wasn't sure if popular times would get booked up in advance.

We ordered meals because we were on holiday, but the kitchen in the lodge came with a gas oven and gas stove top, as well as a microwave and kettle. There was a dining table with four chairs in the living area, and outside the lodge patio had a little barbeque space and another table with four chairs.

Dining In - This is a Chinese takeaway. We ordered the quarter duck with pancakes, battered sweet and sour chicken, noodles, salt and pepper chips, and honey glazed ribs. The food was delicious, the ribs were large but there were only 3 in the portion and they didn't have much meat on, I'd have preferred having smaller ribs but more of them. The food was also still quite hot when it arrived.

Rajinda Pradesh - This Indian takeaway was for my husband (I had Bella Italia). He ordered chicken korma, pilau rice, saag aloo, and a naan, and said it was all delicious. The portion sizes were good, he ended up piling it into a very large bowl found in one of the kitchen cupboards!

Bella Italia - On the night my husband had Indian I had a meal from Bella Italia. I had the ox-cheek ragu, which was okay but perhaps could have used a little more sauce. However, it did arrive nice and hot. On our last night we ordered from here again and both had spaghetti carbonara, which was really nice and much better than the ragu! It also arrived nice and hot, and the portion was the same size as you would get in the restaurant.

Huck's Bar and Grill - This our Wednesday night takeaway. My husband ordered the barbeque ribs with chips, and I had the macaroni cheese with "Texas toast" (garlic ciabatta bread). While the food was warm, my macaroni cheese was rather congealed, and the Texas toast was soggy on the bottom, chewy on top, and tasted as if it had been vaguely waved near a garlic, so quite disappointing. I ended up wishing I'd ordered from Dining In again, but my husband was happy with his ribs and chips.

All delivery orders have a £4 delivery charge. Given that it was hard to get a table I found this to be excessive and perhaps should have been reduced, but after all the money we'd saved on the lodge it was less of an issue.

Walks

We spent a lot of time simply enjoying the sunny (if slightly chilly) weather by walking around different parts of the site. It was lovely and peaceful, even with the occasional electric van (staff) and bicycle (with bell) going past.

I would have really liked more information about the management and biodiversity of the area, and what Center Parcs do to maintain and enhance it. Maybe I'm rare in finding it interesting, but given how many activities were closed a downloadable PDF guide with more information about the types of trees and vegetation would have been nice. 

The roads were beautifully maintained, there wasn't a pothole in sight, and the footpaths were well looked after too. If we'd hired bikes we would have been out for multiple rounds of the site, as it was we went out for looping walks three times a day.

Treats and shopping

With the swimming pool closed and going out for dinner not really an option, we looked for some different treats to indulge in while we were on holiday.

The supermarket, "Parc Market", has a small bakery section. Every day featured a lovely selection of cakes, so we decided to try a different one every day. The first day I went for the salted caramel cheesecake as it was reduced (we went towards the end of the day), which was nice but the caramel was a bit too thick. Over the following days I had a chocolate eclair (huge!), lemon meringue cheesecake (delicious, and which I enjoyed so much I bought a second to take home on Friday) and the chocolate cookie cream slice (fabulous). My husband had carrot cake, apple slice, and the chocolate cookie cream slice (which was his choice for Friday).

I had originally planned to have a breakfast at the Pancake House, and possibly one at Cafe Rouge, but the Pancake House was closed as it had no outdoor seating, and Cafe Rouge only opened for lunch and dinner. So on Tuesday and Thursday we ordered warm breakfast baguettes from the Sports Cafe and walked over to pick them up and take back to our lodge.

The baguette filling was very generous, I had bacon and my husband had sausage, but they were quite chewy and not particularly warm. I was glad we had picked them up rather than getting them delivered as the £4 delivery charge would have been excessive for them.

I read online that there was a sweet shop called "Treats" on site but couldn't find it so I don't know if it's still available at Elveden Forest (and to be honest, with the bakery in the supermarket the last thing I needed was more sugar!) There was also a toy shop for kids which was open.

All the shops and indoor areas asked you to wear a mask, which we were happy to do, and there were hand sanitiser dispensers clearly marked at every door. We never saw an empty one, suggesting that either Center Parcs staff were great at refilling them quickly, or lots of people were ignoring them. I'm hoping it's the former!

Verdict

If you're planning on going while there are still restrictions (or while there's the risk of further restrictions) then make sure you go with the attitude of keeping yourselves entertained. We took several books with us, and if I had remembered there was a DVD player I would have taken some movies with us too.

We're not a hugely active couple, so splitting our time between wandering around the site and lounging around in the lodge drinking tea and reading was a perfect holiday for us. It would have been nice if the pool had been open, but beyond this there weren't that many activities that were closed that we would have participated in if open. Ultimately we needed a mental health break more than anything else, and this was brilliant for that.

But next time we go I would like to be able to use the swimming pool!