Center Parcs activities for big groups on a budget

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that last weekend I was at Center Parcs in Elveden with a big group of my best gals.

We love Center Parcs for a group holiday as we aren’t really party animals (understatement of the century!) and we much prefer just to hang out, relax in the countryside and have a good old fashioned catch up.

As much as we love Center Parcs, trying to find activities to do as a group that everyone can afford (and enjoy) can be tricky – and I’m sure that’s the same for most large groups of friends and family that visit – so I thought I’d put together a post with our cheaper “hacks” if you like:

Bowling

When there’s a big group of you bowling is a fun and relatively cheap option. If you go before 2pm it’s £31 for a lane for an hour – so it worked out at £3.80 each for 8 of us to play. Lovely job!
Hitting the disco

Yes there is a free disco at Center Parcs and yes it is hella cheesy but we love it! Although you wouldn’t catch any of us in Ibiza, you would see us dancing like Bey in the Center Parcs bar.
Wildlife watching

Another free activity that had us amused for hours. One of our group had bought bird seed so we scattered some outside our villa and all sorts of animals came to visit. Muntjac, squirrels, all kinds of colourful birds…we were living our best Snow White lives.
Badminton

You can hire an indoor court for around £8. This is something that we did a couple of years ago when we went and then we just swapped the players around when someone lost so that everyone had a turn.
The Tropical Cyclone

This ride at the swimming pool is so much fun! You basically sit on a big inflatable and rocket down a giant tube before plummeting down a plug hole. Sounds terrifying, looks terrifying but is brilliant. You’ll have some hilarious stories to take home with you about who screamed the loudest.
Cycling/walking ending in a BBQ/picnic

Bring along your bikes or just go for a walk on one of the many trails around the woods. Pack a picnic (cheap and cheerful) or head back to the villa for a BBQ and make some treasured memories together! That’s my favourite thing about the holiday – being able to have that quality time together which is so rare now that all of us are so busy.

What do you like to do when you’re at Center Parcs? We need some ideas for our next trip! 😉